Microsoft Activation System!

[BrooksterMax]

i
anyone else remember when XP was a BSOD buggy piece of poo? it was like that until SP2

Oh wow, so true constant BSOD for video drivers for me was the big one with XP in the early days, plugging in USB devices.

I think I had a infra red device/phone which constantly messed up XP. I do like Windows 7 and Mac Snow Leopard and things seem better now.

 

[Station240]

The day Microsoft make something that doesn't suck is the day they start making vacuum cleaners !

Yeah the phone only software activation stuff from MicroShaft was painful to use a few years ago when I had to use it. Fills me with dread to know its gotten worse.

List of excuses to use that M$ @ India can't argue with:
My DVD drive died (activation code linked to this)
Motherboard got replaced by a friend (problem ?!?)
Hard drive crashed, had to replace it.
Some random virus

If you want to jerk them phone droids around, tell 'em the code they gave you didn't work, and ask them to read it again so you can check what you did wrong.

 

[LamboJay]

I have a technet subscription. So much easier to deal with when installing on multiple machines.

 

[commodorejohn]

i found xp to be quite slow and bloated towards the end (after all the patches and service packs) W7 actually runs quicker on my pc than XP did

Patches and service packs haven't noticeably impacted performance for me, and I seriously doubt 7 is going to be running faster than XP on a 1.6GHz Atom laptop with 2GB of RAM and Intel chipset video...

 

[morcar]

This is the reasons why windows needs to get hacked everytime.

High prices for an OS and the call centres are total trash that try to help you.

Once i remember trying to get a bt router and internet up and running and when the person asked me what OS i was running and i said Linux Mint he is what version of windows is that ???

I mean come on every OS should be free with good help as well.

 

[Gouldin]

i found xp to be quite slow and bloated towards the end (after all the patches and service packs) W7 actually runs quicker on my pc than XP did

Patches and service packs haven't noticeably impacted performance for me, and I seriously doubt 7 is going to be running faster than XP on a 1.6GHz Atom laptop with 2GB of RAM and Intel chipset video...

Dunno, I find Win7 runs better on my little acer aspire atom 1.6 1gb ram than xp does on it.

You'd be surprised at how much more efficient it is compared to the old windows versions.

 

[Paul_s]

i found xp to be quite slow and bloated towards the end (after all the patches and service packs) W7 actually runs quicker on my pc than XP did

Patches and service packs haven't noticeably impacted performance for me, and I seriously doubt 7 is going to be running faster than XP on a 1.6GHz Atom laptop with 2GB of RAM and Intel chipset video...

Dunno, I find Win7 runs better on my little acer aspire atom 1.6 1gb ram than xp does on it.

You'd be surprised at how much more efficient it is compared to the old windows versions.

I agree, Win 7 is lots lots lots better than XP ever was... and I consider myself as someone who always said I would not move from XP! It's reliable, stable and a damn sight faster ime. You still have until 900+ days for XP support so enjoy whilst it lasts!

 

[TheCorfiot]

^^^^^^^^+1

It brought my ole 2.8GHz P4 MediaCentre back to life when I switched from XP MCE2005, after of course I upped the Ram to 2GB

TC

 

[SpeedGeek]

Well I ran into the same problem when I installed a back up copy of XP on my older PC. The license key info is encrypted and stored in the registry. It's interesting that you can read this key with Regedit and copy it where ever you like as long it's for "back up" purposes only!

 

[Amigafanboi]

i found xp to be quite slow and bloated towards the end (after all the patches and service packs) W7 actually runs quicker on my pc than XP did

Patches and service packs haven't noticeably impacted performance for me, and I seriously doubt 7 is going to be running faster than XP on a 1.6GHz Atom laptop with 2GB of RAM and Intel chipset video...

It runs better than XP on my Netbook with them exact same specs

 

[scrappysphinx]

I have a technet subscription. So much easier to deal with when installing on multiple machines.

I wondered about those subscriptions.

As i believe it, if i were to subscribe (standard membership) i could legally download the ISO's of the Windows operating systems and a valid license key for one year?

Also could i use this license key on all the machines within my home (2 desktops, 1 laptop) or is it just for one machine?

Also, say i sign up for the 1 year membership but decide not to renew it after the year, are my licenses still valid or do they then expire?
I.e. say my subscription expires but then i have to replace my hdd and reinstall windows, will my license key still work?

 

[LamboJay]

As i believe it, if i were to subscribe (standard membership) i could legally download the ISO's of the Windows operating systems and a valid license key for one year?

You can download the iso of just about any version of windows (xp, vista, 7, including server editions) plus 5 product keys for each version. So if you dl Win 7 and Server 2008 you get 5 keys for win 7 and 5 for server '08. Server '08 is actually a single key that allows multiple installs. Same thing for office, visio, sql server, exchange server, etc. etc.

Also could i use this license key on all the machines within my home (2 desktops, 1 laptop) or is it just for one machine?

You get 5 keys for Win 7 and I know that each key is good for multiple activation's. Plus each version of Win 7, home pro, ultimate, etc gets it's it's own set of 5 keys. So you could easily install every machine in your house and then some.

Also, say i sign up for the 1 year membership but decide not to renew it after the year, are my licenses still valid or do they then expire?
I.e. say my subscription expires but then i have to replace my hdd and reinstall windows, will my license key still work?

As far as I remember if you do not renew your subscription, your supposed to stop using the software. It's been a while since I've signed up. The first year is something like $300 then it's $200 each year after that.
Go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx they have a license faq that should answer any questions.

 

[commodorejohn]

I agree, Win 7 is lots lots lots better than XP ever was... and I consider myself as someone who always said I would not move from XP! It's reliable, stable and a damn sight faster ime. You still have until 900+ days for XP support so enjoy whilst it lasts!

What? Only 900+ days before XP becomes...slightly more officially another of Microsoft's unwanted children which nonetheless continues to function? WHATEVER SHALL I DO.

In all seriousness, though, I don't have anything against 7 but from my experience with it, it's just not for me. Too much extraneous crap like replacing the perfectly-functional "run" command with a "search" command because I guess someone at Microsoft saw Spotlight in OSX and thought "well golly, why don't we have that?" instead of "great, another thing that I might ever use if I were the sort of person who couldn't for the life of them figure out how to come up with a coherent arrangement of items in a hierarchical filesystem."

About the only reason I'd consider moving to 7 is when driver support for XP inevitably reaches the point that XP won't work on whatever I get to replace my Eee - and by that point I'm hoping to have my switchover to Linux completed.

 

[ShambleS1980]

Look at it like this. this is a retro forum and in years to come maybe you will all be "want to buy windows xp"

I like xp Its my little os of working stuff that i know with my eyes closed. Sure it was the same for dos and i refuzed to change to windows. But by the time 98se came out i had little choice, and i liked 98se. "and that one really was a BSOD nightmare" xp was never as bad as 98se with its BSOD's But 98 was Built on msdos, so i loved it still. and although i did not want to change to xp it was blaitant that i had to if i wanted to use any of the programs/games that i wanted to use. so here i am with xp, And you can come pry it out of my cold dead hands i may install 7 on one of my systems to try it like i did with vista. but vista was a pain with its new fangled network system, and i did not like it although vista 64 ultimate was generaly prety good. (better than the 32bit one atleast)
honestly though the systems i have here that i could install it on probably arent the best to test it on, and i am not installing it on my main system lol.

 

[Justin]

Vista was bum water of the highest order (well i did quite like Vista until W7 came out)

 

[desiv]

Interesting comparison here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355703,00.asp

Which doesn't show XP or Windows 7 blowing either out of the water..
But it does show that Vista really was that bad..



desiv

 

[Paul_s]

I agree, Win 7 is lots lots lots better than XP ever was... and I consider myself as someone who always said I would not move from XP! It's reliable, stable and a damn sight faster ime. You still have until 900+ days for XP support so enjoy whilst it lasts!

What? Only 900+ days before XP becomes...slightly more officially another of Microsoft's unwanted children which nonetheless continues to function? WHATEVER SHALL I DO.

In all seriousness, though, I don't have anything against 7 but from my experience with it, it's just not for me. Too much extraneous crap like replacing the perfectly-functional "run" command with a "search" command because I guess someone at Microsoft saw Spotlight in OSX and thought "well golly, why don't we have that?" instead of "great, another thing that I might ever use if I were the sort of person who couldn't for the life of them figure out how to come up with a coherent arrangement of items in a hierarchical filesystem."

About the only reason I'd consider moving to 7 is when driver support for XP inevitably reaches the point that XP won't work on whatever I get to replace my Eee - and by that point I'm hoping to have my switchover to Linux completed.

You'll synergise sooner than later!

I must admit I do miss the old search companion on Win XP. I did notice Intel are dropping AHCI support for XP in the new Series 6 SATA controllers (meanng running in ATA mode)

But yeah, XP will probably last quite a while yet, I'm not sure if I'd feel comfortable running XP without any further security patches...

 

[rkauer]

I had to transplant some files from my XP machine over to 7 computer.

Instead of transferring through the network (which is a slow job and a nightmare to make 7 talk with XP) I simply put the 7 HD on the XP machine. For a mistake the 7 HD boots of. Guess what? It runs happily from my old rig, too. Only the video part is pretty pants compared and a reason XP is still better for old machines.

I have to keep a XP machine because I print comestible paper using a HP K8600 (A3 printer) and the printer simply goes completely mental if I try to print using the 7 machine.

 

[commodorejohn]

You'll synergise sooner than later!

I really don't think I will. Whatever performance gains it may or may not bring to the table, 7 follows Vista in showcasing Microsoft's commitment to screwing around with a perfectly usable interface every 5-10 years in the hopes that people who learn the new system will be totally unable to cope with the old one and force upgrades (i.e. OFFICE. FREAKING. 2007.) I'm ready to be done with people defecating in my soup and demanding that I pay them for the privilege. When XP is no longer feasible, I think I'm ready to leave Windows altogether.

 

[Paul_s]

You'll synergise sooner than later!

I really don't think I will. Whatever performance gains it may or may not bring to the table, 7 follows Vista in showcasing Microsoft's commitment to screwing around with a perfectly usable interface every 5-10 years in the hopes that people who learn the new system will be totally unable to cope with the old one and force upgrades (i.e. OFFICE. FREAKING. 2007.) I'm ready to be done with people defecating in my soup and demanding that I pay them for the privilege. When XP is no longer feasible, I think I'm ready to leave Windows altogether.

haha I feel your pain with the new generation of Office

I did see a demo of Windows 8 the other week - not sure if I'm very keen.. the landscape of computing is all becoming a bit too gimicky for my liking (I guess 7 is a bit guilty of that). Win 7 is the last post for me (probably)!