Wow! Thanks.

 

Big Brother Bill Gates

I change motherboards, processors and hard drives about every 6 months. I hate XP although my laptop came with XP Professional.
I run Windows 2000 Professional on all of my other computers.
I have an unregistered version of XP Professional.
Jim.

 

why I run windows 2kpro corprate. I install or reinstall and can do basicly what I want with no key needed at all

 

You got it...
I have my computers set up with a seperate boot drive and all off the data is stored from D: to Q: drive. when ever I start having any kind of problem I just Fdisk and reload the the OS.
I might be down for maybe 4 hours at the most and that is just for reloading the sofware.
I have been working on computers for a lot of years back in the time of the Zenith and the 8088, well actually I worked on computers out of high school and did some hand wiring on the motherboards on the Burroughs DDT (data display terminals) they were about 1/2 the size of a washing machine with a 14" monitor and keyboard on it. You had to check the thousands of soldered connections by pulsing a binary counter and watching a big array of neon tubees and nixie readouts count in binary. Man how technology has changed.
Some of the computers I have in control and access systems run on Unix.
OEM versions of operating systems are cheap and can be gotten from Fry's for around 1/2 to 1/3 the price of retail, you just need to buy something computer related at the time.
I have 4 networks currently running Windows XP on Dell computers. They are always trying to send a "service report " back to Dell. They are all dissabled.
Also when you buy a computer and you only get a restore disk and not the OS disk that rubs me wrong the wrong way.. I bought a $2,500.00 laptop last year and I only got the stupid restore disk and a image on a virtual drive. Worked great untill I put in a bigger hard drive.
Jim.

 

Yeah, those OEM versions of the software are nice but Microsoft does NOT support them. You can get updates but they will send you back to the company you bought it from for any warranty problems. The restore disk is a real pain since you can't use it to do an in place upgrade to restore XP. You have to wipe out everything and reinstall. That's a big bummer. I think that they are supposed to supply you with the standard CD though if you request it. Check your EULA but I seem to remember that being a Microsoft requirement. They might ***** and complain but if you're persistent they will eventually send you the CD. If not, call Microsoft and complain.

I don't buy Brand Name PC's because of that and the fact that they usually put their own crap in there which I don't want or need. I bui;ld my own and get the OS separate.

WalMart used to have PC's with LinSpire(Linux) on them for $199 without the monitor. AFAIK you can install XP or whatever on them if you don't like Linux.

Edwin

 

Thats exactly what I do. I remember when I discovered that you could partition a disk for a small os section.

It made life so much better when the os dies.

 

I just got the new Intel D925XCV Extreme Series motherboard and the 3.6 Ghz 775 processor after the last one overheated and went into meltdown. I got a 160 Gb Segate SATA 7200 rpm harddrive I am going to install and make it only the boot drive that way there should be enough room for the OS and all of the temp files for the software I have installed. All of the other data will be on the old Ultra 166 that will be controlled by the raid controller. If I ever get it set up I am going to put the image on the SATA drive
This way the entire system can die and I just pull out the raid drives, put them in my other system and I am back in business.
I am working on a design to use a pelter effect module inside the case in conjunction with my water cooling to create a small air conditioning system for the inside of the case to keep the ambient temps. down.
Jim.

 

Here's a tip! Download the free Beta1 spyware program from Microsoft.com (it kicks the $%^&$^&* outta Norton and PestPatrol combined) - THEN download Mozilla Firefox as your web browser - you'll stay virus free until the Beta1 runs out (160 days, I think) - it will be worth the purchase price (unless Bill makes it permanently free): It's a GOOD blocked / hunter-seeker, and Firefox isn't a hacker target as much as IE....

 

one of the problems m$ is facing is the rampant use ofDell " reinstalation cd's" little know fact tha if you waited six months from initial activation of the pc that reinstalaition cd coudl be used to install a full functioning xp pro. sure activation required but after six months it was good to go. A lot of peeps on ebay were selling low price versions of xp, all it was was a dell reinstalation disc. now If I could just get a corp edition my life would be easier as well.

 

Here's a link to the article about Microsoft stopping the online activation. I think it's only for OEM versions such as DELL. If you bought the full or upgrade version at retail there probably won't be any change.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21498

Edwin