It’s Official, I Hate Microsoft
June 3, 2007 (5 Responses)
MY NEW RIG finally arrived and I set aside this weekend in great anticipation of getting it up and running, and copying across all my stuff from the existing PC to the new shiny, fast and glorious thing that I’ve just taken posession of.
That was of course until I tried to activate my Windows XP Pro license on the new rig.
It was at this point I realised the licenses I had (they are legion) were all of the OEM variety, and hell even some of them were genuine. Actually honest to goodness bought and paid for licenses, but none of that mattered because the internet activation just wouldn’t let me pass. Bastards.
After much fucking around I finally gave in and went out to purchase a copy of Windows XP Pro (again!!!!) and that’s when I really started to get frustrated, because all the shops are stocking Windows Vista now instead of anything useful. (Seriously – if you buy Vista at this stage you need your head examined). I rang around a bunch of places, dropped into others but all to no avail.
So now I have to wait until Tuesday (after the bank holiday) before getting my grubby little hands on yet another copy of XP Pro before I can then get my system to update properly, and continue the build.
Unfortunately this little episode with Microsoft licensing has just taken the shine of the new PC for now. I’ll have to get back to it later.
I had the same problem of reactivating Windows when my laptop died and we had to reinstall XP. If you call the 1-800 number they give you they will give you a key that will work, legal copy of XP or not. Good Luck!
I tried that Jenny, but it didn’t work out that way for me at all. Instead they just said that an OEM copy cannot be transferred. End of story. Go buy another copy and have a nice day.
As if the greedy bastards didn’t already have enough money.
Hrm… well, that sucks. I hope you figure out something! Did you try telling them no, you hadn’t put it on a machine before?
Jen – I ended up having to purchase the damn license from Microsoft over the Internet in the end. Painful, but necessary. OEM licenses don’t transfer and everything I tried wouldn’t validate.
Hell, even when I did get the right license it wouldn’t validate over the Web until I ran some key update program they reference in the email.
In that case, I warmly welcome you to the legions of Microsoft haters, everywhere. Might I suggest Ubuntu? I use it more than Windows, it’s an open source operating system. Good Luck!