When our business was set up last year the independent
contractor installed a copy of 2000 pro and ms word 2000
on 5 machines. He did this thinking it was a favor. We
want to purchace software. Can we install the legal over
the illegal? Or do we have to uninstall the illegal 1st?
What about the legal programs that we want to keep but are
connected buy the network? Most of the copys are
registered with microsoft. Of course the independent
contractor is no longer available to correct the situation.

I wouldn't worry about it. As long as you have a license for each
installation you're legal. You can do an in-place upgrade, but that knocks
you back to no service packs or hotfixes installed.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

"Jim Howell" wrote:
> When our business was set up last year the independent
> contractor installed a copy of 2000 pro and ms word 2000
> on 5 machines. He did this thinking it was a favor. We
> want to purchace software. Can we install the legal over
> the illegal? Or do we have to uninstall the illegal 1st?
> What about the legal programs that we want to keep but are
> connected buy the network? Most of the copys are
> registered with microsoft. Of course the independent
> contractor is no longer available to correct the situation.

Since this isn't related to illegal installations
I am sure I will hear about posting to the correct
location and all, however since Dave mentioned
that an in-place upgrade will "knock you back to
no sevice packs or hot fixes installed" my question
for Dave is this:
Would doing an in-place upgrade of a legit over the
top of a legit installation keep all of the user
installed programs and vendor programs, allow one
to keep all of the permissions and shares intact,
and to start the service pack and hot fix treadmill
from scratch?
>-----Original Message-----
>I agree with this. If you're licensed, you're licensed.
>
>Oli
>
>
>"Dave Patrick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message
>news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I wouldn't worry about it. As long as you have a
license for each
>> installation you're legal. You can do an in-place
upgrade, but that knocks
>> you back to no service packs or hotfixes installed.
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>>
>> Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in
newsgroup.
>> Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
>>
>> "Jim Howell" wrote:
>> > When our business was set up last year the independent
>> > contractor installed a copy of 2000 pro and ms word
2000
>> > on 5 machines. He did this thinking it was a favor.
We
>> > want to purchace software. Can we install the legal
over
>> > the illegal? Or do we have to uninstall the illegal
1st?
>> > What about the legal programs that we want to keep
but are
>> > connected buy the network? Most of the copys are
>> > registered with microsoft. Of course the independent
>> > contractor is no longer available to correct the
situation.
>>
>>
>
>
>.
>

Inline reply:

"pat" wrote:
> Since this isn't related to illegal installations
> I am sure I will hear about posting to the correct
> location and all, however since Dave mentioned
> that an in-place upgrade will "knock you back to
> no sevice packs or hot fixes installed" my question
> for Dave is this:
> Would doing an in-place upgrade of a legit over the
> top of a legit installation keep all of the user
> installed programs
* Yes

and vendor programs
* Yes

, allow one
> to keep all of the permissions
* Drive and registry permissions will be restore to default.

and shares intact,
* Probably yes

> and to start the service pack and hot fix treadmill
> from scratch?
* Yes

This may also help.

What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q306952

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

[pageros]

>When our business was set up last year the independent
contractor installed a copy of 2000 pro and ms word 2000
on 5 machines.

Jim there's no need to buy 5 copies of software to have this application installed on 5 different machines. You can get one copy from store and than you're contacting particular software developer/vendor to buy additional 4 licenses and you're good to go.

>As long as you have a license for each installation you're legal.
Patric you're absolutely right

And here comes a tricky part called floating licenses. Sometimes you don't need to buy 5 licenses to lunch your application (legally) on 5 different machines. Google it! (keyword: floating license). This floating license solution was applied in my company few years ago and currently for 100 machines we have 72 MS Office licenses purchased. Of course you need a software to manage those floating licenses, we are using License Statistics. If you're interested in license management solution check www.x-formation.com