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markyw
Unregistered
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Help I think my copy of win xp is a pirated version as it wont do upgrades etc. Was assured it was genuine but now not so sure. Is there anyway I can make it legal without losing everything I have on my PC?
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Poppy
regular
Reg'd: Sat
Posts: 383
Loc: North East England
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Where did you buy it from? What makes you think it was pirated? I have a feeling that you may have the blaster worm - which means you won't be able to do critical updates until you get rid of it. Have a look in the security issues forum further down the main page, it has instructions on what to do if you have the worm. Are you getting any other errors such as unexpectedly shutting down?
Poppy aka Susanna 
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17744
Loc: Colchester
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If you buy a clean version and then do an install it should retain all your settings, software etc. It would be worthwhile taking backups of all your documents before you start.
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markyw
Unregistered
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No this started way before the worm descended on us.... Im pretty convinced that its a dud. Wanted to make sure if i did clean install with genuine product that I wouldnt lose anything...
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byron
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 185
Loc: berkshire
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Download a free copy of Belarc Advisor from here:-
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Run it and it should display your licence numbers amongst a whole load of other things its nce to know  .
Personally I do not think you have a pirate copy because I am given to understand that there is something in XP which stops people placing it on more than one machine. I await to be corrected on this 
http://www.oceaneagle.fsnet.co.uk/
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17744
Loc: Colchester
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When XP was first released the intention was that users would need to log onto the Microsoft site to validate their software. The idea was that Microsoft stored the number and if anyone else tried to validate the same number it wouldn't work. As ever in this wicked world of ours, people found a way round. There are numerous websites that purport to give you a serial number that will work when you connect to Microsoft. For a short while these did indeed work but if YOU can get a number from a website then can so can Microsoft. They now have all these 'cracked' numbers and if you try and use them they will get rejected. I imagine they have done the same with the Update site.
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Poppy
regular
Reg'd: Sat
Posts: 383
Loc: North East England
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Ah ok, I thought you'd already installed it hence my first answer. Either way, hope you got it sorted out. I actually transferred a copy of XP from one machine to someone else's - it was a fully paid copy - only thing was, I had to phone Micro$oft and tell them of my intentions, and get the other person to phone them too to verify it. It was a bit of a pain, but we did it - he now has a fully working XP, and I'm on WinME. The reason for the whole thing was that the machine I was using at the time couldn't cope with XP (Packard Hell) even though it just about met the system requirements.
Poppy aka Susanna
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I had the same - someone gave me a copy of XP and that, if effect, turned out to be a backup copy, so the actual serial number had been regisitered, and the various updates sites will only accept one registration of a number. I later found out that that serial number had been blocked as it had been "given" to quite a few people.
And I do know that the security over these things as been beefed up.
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byron
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 185
Loc: berkshire
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I recall talking to Simon Witts a main board Director of Microsoft (his dad is a pal of mine), this was waaay back in Windows 3.1 days. He told me that MS reckoned that something like 60% of Windows 3.1 were pirate copies. I am surprised therefore that MS with all their expertise and resources haven't taken action before.
http://www.oceaneagle.fsnet.co.uk/
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Citizen_Erased
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 17
Loc: Hull, England
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Heres something i guess most of you never knew about. My hard-drive burned out around 8 months ago and i had to go purchase a new one. I did so and asked how much Windows XP was to buy, they told me but said if i pay an extra £25 on top of the cost of my new hard drive they'd install it fo rme. I agreed and waited in the shop whilst they installed XP. Nearing the end of the installation process an error came up saying 'Cannot Locate ....... File'. This error appeared several times. When i got home i put my new hard drive in and everyone was great. I set up the net and decided to search for Windows XP installation problems. I found a site that gave me information on how hackers got past this whole registration process by deleting 4 files from the CD when they created a copy. These files are the registration files used by Microsoft.
And hence, i'd been conned out of £25!!
Reprise Studios
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byron
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 185
Loc: berkshire
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now if the BGSP {Bill Gates Secret Police} read your posting they are gonna demand names and addresses.
http://www.oceaneagle.fsnet.co.uk/
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Barney_Rubble
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 2699
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Actually you've been conned out of more than £25 if you haven't got a legal version of Windows. You could try threatening them with the above mentioned BGSP unless they give you a new, legal CD and refund your £25.
There is intelligent life on Earth, but I'm only visiting.
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