A trip to XP Land

[Jimmy_r]

I had been playing around with some random distributions for the last days, and was missing my ubuntu so i downloaded a dapper flight 5.
But since i was in a distro-testing mood, i decided to test my win XP first... I do own a license, so why not, i thought.
So, in with the windows disc and boot the computer. After some 30 minutes i was staring at the xp desktop.
Installed the motherboard drivers in order to get the network card working(ugh), and some graphics drivers...There. Rebooted.
Btw, does anyone know whats the deal with the XP bootup progress bar? Usually those things does indicate progress but that sucker just seems to scroll a random amount of times in random speeds during bootup. Is it just so the users will have some moving thing to look at as opposed to indicate the progress?

Click, it said. Clicketh thee to me? I said. Apparently it did...
It wanted to be activated.
Well, that usually aint too troublesome, so i clicked the popup. Yes, i want to activate over the internet. No, i do not want to register...

Now the crazieness begun. It told me it had been activated the maximum amount of times and wanted me to enter a new license key.
Yeah right, i usually buy a dozen of those...
Try to activate over the phone, a button said. Ok, i thought. Whatever get your wheels spinning...

So i pressed the button and got a phone number and a series of numbers.
I called the number and got to hear 0.45 seconds of music(?) before an automatic voice answered(was it having a party? :) )
First it told me how important it was to protect against viruses and gave me a microsoft-ish virus webaddress to visit.
Press 1 to activate windows...
Then it told me i would need to be in front of my computer to activate it... Wow, thanks for the tip...
I would be given a number to enter at my computer when done...
If the process is not completed i may need to call back, they said... Are they kidding? :p
I will need to enter several groups of numbers on the phone...OK, i bet those are the ones that are showing on my screen... wow, I thought those were only for decoration...
I must be able to see my screen, they say... Ok, I am. Now bring it on!!
I will need to input several groups of numbers on the phone... Did we not go through that already?
I am now told to input those number one group at a time...Ok, no multithreading I suppose.
When those numbers had been entered(9 groups of 6 digits each), it told me the number could not be verified and that i will be connected to support... At that moment i had had enough.
I might try again tomorrow, but really... Windows XP:s product activation had already given me a worse headache than a LFS build, and they say linux is hard to install??
If this is how Microsoft treats their customers, i wish not to be their enemy.
But seriously, what good does this do? Do they think a limited number of reinstalls will stop piracy? I bet it will do the opposite, talk about shooting oneself in the foot.

So i got my new fresh dapper cd, put it in the cd drive and rebooted. Half an hour later i was greeted with the ubuntu login screen. Home, sweet ubuntu. I could already feel my headache disappear.
A popup appeared. AArgh, the product activation is haunting me...
Puh, only an update notifier. Click a button. Done. Ah, talk about user-frendlieness. No need for driver cds to get the network working, no sir!

We will see if my adventures in XP land will continue tomorrow. I doubt it, as I already have an urge to format that partition and clean it with soap.
It feels as an unclean parasite is living on my harddrive, eating my computer from the inside... will i be able to sleep tonight, i ask myself.

[Super King]

Nice story :) And I too still do not understand what the progress bar when booting XP indicates or what its purpose actually is.

[rfruth]

The progress bar when booting XP is to remind you why its called *******, they win while you doze ...

[Zelut]

Here I am stuck at work on a Sunday afternoon and you made my day :) Thanks for the great story.

I haven't dealt with an XP install recently (and hope I don't have to anytime soon!)

[Garyu]

I always figured the bar in XP startup was there to show if the system is frozen or not? at least, that is the use I have had of it. If the bar stops moving for a longer period of time - reboot. If it is moving but it takes a lot of time, just wait until it is done doing whatever it is doing. :cool:

[OffHand]

I installed XP twice the other day. No issues at all.
But I didn't try to register. I always press 'don't bother me again' ;)

[s|k]

I've had to call that number several times for both winxp and office 2003. I've gotten new keys from them for both because I've used the other keys too much. (All on the same machine - I had changed the hardware a couple of times.)

[taurus]

I thought the progress bar is there to test you to see if you are sober or not!!! You're supposed to follow it with your eyes, not your head... :twisted:

[Jimmy_r]

Very well, today i called MS support to activate.
After waiting approx. 5 minutes while being tortured with music so high i needed to keep the phone an armslenght from my ear, i got to talk with someone.
The person had such a foreign accent that i (while being half-deaf from the music) could only understand about half of what she said.
After asking if it was the first time i activated windows on that computer(no), and why(reformat), and finally how many computers i had this copy of windows installed on(one), we begun activation.
It went quite good, i only had to ask her to repeat some digit a few times.
Then, when we was almost finished (6-digit block A to E was filled and only block H and G was left(Yes, that is H and G, you see in the Microsoft world the blocks are called, in order, A B C D E H G)) the phone went beep, beep, and the battery was dead. UGH. Oh, that phone was near a fast end in its lifecycle.
While the phone dying was not microsofts fault(well maybe considering that the music terror while on wait must have contributed to emptying it) it just topped it all off perfectly.
I must say in microsofts defense that the installation CDs they ship sure can take a whole lot of beating before it gives up, the same thing can not be said about the product key sticker though.
In afterthought, i could probably have donated it to someone, but i did not have the heart to do such an evil thing thing to anyone.

And here is something for everyone wishing to learn the Microsoft alphabet:

[ice60]

the progess bar has a verbose mode so you can see what's going on - it looks abit like a livecd loading.

if you are interested you can enable it with this program, or at least you could when i last used it about 1/2 years ago.
http://windowsxp.homedns.org/xp/asp/twg/twg.asp

[Engnome]

When I install windows (yes I have to do that sometimes, mostly for friends) I usually crack it rather than register (even if it's a legit copy) Why? because it's simpler. Replace the wga .dll in c:\windows\system32 with a cracked version from the pirate land and youre done! Some games are also easier to crack, plus you don't have to carry the cd with your laptop. \\:D/

There is no such thing as uncrackable software, and often its easier to crack than register.:|

[Jimmy_r]

Still, the best way to crack a windows cd is to bend it really hard...

But what i have a problem with understanding is why does microsoft do this? I mean, if someone has a pirated version, do they think it will really make a difference if he is asked by support how many computers he has it installed on?
As opposed to clicking a button and have it activated automatically with hardware checksums and all that?
The only thing they will accomplish is driving their customers either into piracy or Linux...

[Cyraxzz]

I have to do that at work sometimes(when the product key doesn't work). And i agree theyr phone service lacks quality.

[Cyfr]

I have had this problem loads, to a point where I used to just install a cracked version even though I have several product keys.

Then they started using WGA so I thought 'ah well might as well ring and register' explained what I had done, and gave information. The only responce i could get from them on the phone was 'You do not have a legit version of windows installed'

No, I don't, I want to correct that by updating it with the product key I have in my hand so please help me do this.

'You don't have a legit version of windows'

*sigh* :p

Don't have these problems anymore of course, Ubuntu is great :)

I have no idea why Microsoft would make it hard work for genuine customers, its much easier to install from a cracked cd, with all the updates, than it is to install from a cd which cost over £100. Lol.

[John T. Monkey]

The "progress bar" in Windows XP is great. If it stops moving for more than a few seconds, you need to hit the reset button and try again. :)

From my point of view the licencing and the way MS treat their customers is the biggest problem with Windows. (Security problems can be dealt with by looking after your system properly - I look after mine better than average but not properly, and everything is still fine - I get the same effect with less work on my Kubuntu system though...).
On the other hand, I'm not having any problems with licensing on my current Windows system. I'm just get Zone alarm asking me to let WGA on the internet every so often.