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Comment by rdrimmie | Hacker News Reader

I have two unused copies of XP Home sitting around unused because I could not find installation media. I was able to torrent a copy in under 30 minutes, but unfortunately the way it was hacked breaks the key authentication so I can't use it to register my legitimate key.

Several hours ago I could have been up and running with a working but hacked version. Now I am just frustrated and irritating everyone I know with calls searching for XP Home media. Turns out everyone I know has Pro.

I was already planning on dual-booting Ubuntu (the XP install is only for games because I am too lazy to play with WINE), so I guess now it's .5 and 1.5?

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Ha. I know the feeling.

I have a HP box not 3 metres from me with an XP Professional install key on a fricking sticker on the case. I can't find the original media. The code doesn't work with any other disk I can find. I need Windows to play games (HL2, not available on my usual Macs).

What do I do? I "pirate" Windows XP, of course. Now I'm running a pirated Windows XP Pro on a machine with a Windows XP Pro key on a sticker on the case. It's surreal. The lack of respect it engenders for Microsoft and their WGA crap is palpable.

The reason why it does not work with a regular XP media is that they (HP, DELL, etc.) install OEM-versions of Windows which: 1) checks for branded BIOS (HP, DELL, etc.) 2) installs from a special OEM-media

If you have DELL you might have luck downloading the image of their OEM-media (Pro or Home) and installing from it.

Why bother? The pirated version works right out of the box, and since he legitimately owns a copy, his ass is covered morally.

He may not be getting the Windows "Genuine Advantage", but as far as I can tell this "advantage" is about as real as cold fusion.

no wait...the genuine advantage is actually sort of important for XP. if you dont have it, you dont get security updates. if you get security updates, you get annoying nagware. if you don't get security updates...

uhhh.

yeah. it isn't that great. I'd make this simpler: switch to linux or call windows and complain if you're up to it. both win without having to sacrifice any actual performance.

IANAL, but this sounds like a class action lawsuit or an argument that MS has stolen something from you. (You paid good money for that license as evidence by the sticker. You have something that purports to be the program that you paid money for, but the two don't work together because of affirmative measures by MS.)

In many/most US states, they can't get around the implied warrantee of fitness (the thing that you bought does what they said it would do when they sold it to you), which at the very least for an OS includes "installs".

unfortunately, it was also partially your fault for losing the actual media. then again, microsoft should at least have some way of verifying your key for another copy of windows that is the same version...

you know what, that problem is actually caused by a few possibilities

1) It's an OEM sticker. You'd have to find/download an OEM disk in that case that matches your manufacturer

2) You're downloading XP Pro with a SP when you have a key for plain old XP Pro

It could always be something else, but these are two (read: common) scenarios I know that have frustrated myself and friends in the past.

No more, no more. OpenSUSE ftw.

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