Re: Vista Ultimate Activation / Ramble

Almost all Dell machines have "BIOS locked" copies of XP (Vista ... ???) and don't require user activation. But it only works as long as certain keys in the Dell customized copy of the OS match certain keys in the Dell ROM BIOS. It's a special situation that only applies to certain large OEMs (Dell, HP, Sony, Gateway, Lenovo, Toshiba .... the very large OEMs are allowed to do that).

The discussion that this thread came from did not pertain to such machines.


Tom Scales wrote:
Huh?

I have never activated an XP Dell. Never. I have installed WGA, but it
does not require activation on a Dell and passes flawlessly.

-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Watzman [mailto:WatzmanNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx]
Posted At: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:23 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Vista Ultimate Activation / Ramble
Subject: Re: OT: Vista Ultimate Activation / Ramble

I think that XP was the first OS that required activation. So let's
leave Windows 2k out of this discussion.

I have not seen a copy of Windows that did not require you to enter a
product key. And even without activation, "WGA approval" is required
these days to do pretty much anything. And "WGA approval" is almost
the
same thing as product activation (in fact, I think you automatically
fail WGA if you have not activated .... even if activation was not
otherwise required).

I do wonder if some of these might have been "time bombed" versions
...
I have seen those that don't require activation .... they just stop
working (entirely) after xxx days (30 to 180).


Journey wrote:
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:50:22 -0400, Barry Watzman
<WatzmanNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

There is nothing unusual about that (must activate within 30 days)
at
all. As to "In the past student copies were full versions that
didn't
require activation", I really doubt that. Except for BIOS locked
OEM
copies sold by the big OEMs (like Dell, Toshiba, HP, etc.) with
their
new computers, it's been almost half a decade since ANY Microsoft
operating systems have not required activation.

What I'm not sure of is how MS treats educational copies in terms
of
"transportability".
Well Barry, as far as you doubting that the past student full
version
didn't require activation, I don't know what to tell you, other than
that I have used it *many* times initially and for system reinstalls
and it does not require activation.

I mean,what can I say other than that I was there when it
happened!!!
Not to beat the point to death, but I helped other students install
their copies too and the versions that were released for students at
that time didn't require activation.

I also have a full version of XP Pro from the Microsoft employee
store
that doesn't require activation.

In addition, the Windows 2000 versions that they provided at that
time
also did not require activation.

AND I believe that the free XP Pro versions that were available for
students to check out to use to use at the local community college
for
the web programmer degree also did not require activation.

.

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