Non Genuine Windows XP

[Pondlife]

Hi All,

Mate has a hookie copy of XP on his machine that was installed by some boyo who's no longer returning calls.

When the machine boots he's getting a pop up telling him that windows knows it's a dodgy copy. I don't know exactly what it says as it's in German.

Two questions;

1) is is now going to require a re-install therefore losing all his ISP and outlook settings etc (no way he's going to know any of them)

2) would windows stop USB ports from functioning as his mouse and keyboard no longer work, or is this completely unrelated? Mouse works fine on another PC

Cheers

PL

[DaveB]

Hi All,

Mate has a hookie copy of XP on his machine that was installed by some boyo who's no longer returning calls.

When the machine boots he's getting a pop up telling him that windows knows it's a dodgy copy. I don't know exactly what it says as it's in German.

Two questions;

1) is is now going to require a re-install therefore losing all his ISP and outlook settings etc (no way he's going to know any of them)

2) would windows stop USB ports from functioning as his mouse and keyboard no longer work, or is this completely unrelated? Mouse works fine on another PC

Cheers

PL

Sounds like he's stuffed. If he calls Microsoft he may be able to use their Genuine Windows offer to get a free legit copy or a licence key to make what he has legit. Ther are some hoops to jump through for this and it's not guarenteed.

The USB thing could be failed USB hardware in the PC or a corrupted USB device driver. Does it work with a different mouse? Can you boot from another disk and see if the mouse starts working?

[expat]

Kind of a non-answer, but: I found myself there too. I just bought an OEM copy, about £70. I did a clean install and then re-installed all my apps. It was a real pain because there were indeed lots of settings to find and set again; and lots of little functions, like hibernating, or turning on the WiFi light, that needed separate drivers reinstalled.

I believe that I could have installed my new Windows over the old one, and in retrospect that's what I would have done.

[Pondlife]

Cheers both.

I'll advise him to get his wallet out.

[pmeswani]

Cheers both.

I'll advise him to get his wallet out.

Buy an external USB HD, get a copy of Helix (or another Linux Live CD) and DD the files cross to the hard drive. Make sure that the files have copied successfully and then reinstall Windows with a legit copy. Hopefully all the files are recovered, and happy days are back again.

[d000hg]

Why can't he install a legit copy on top, without losing all his apps/data?

[Pondlife]

Why can't he install a legit copy on top, without losing all his apps/data?

That's part of my question. Would a new install not mean a clean registry (or whatever) and therefore a new office install?

[dinker]

The first rule of XP is never let WGA onto your machine.

[Grinder]

Can't you just 'Activate Windows' with a legit licence key

I am on Vista here, so cannot check this but I moved my XP install several times between machines and eventually the on-line Activation didn't work - I had to phone Microsoft and get a new activation key.

Anyway, I can't see why you can't give the new product key (on the phone if necessary) and use if to activate the copy that's already on the machine. Its what I would try first - without even using the new XP DVD.

[expat]

The first rule of XP is never let WGA onto your machine.

There are ways to get it off, but you lose security updates, no?