phone number to validate xp code before purchase

[nicholas]

I want to purchase a copy of XP PRO, advertised on Craigslist as virgin
(never installed, never activated retail version.) Does anyone know of a
phone number at Microsoft to validate the authenticity of the registration
code PRIOR to purchase?
Thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I want to purchase a copy of XP PRO, advertised on Craigslist as virgin
(never installed, never activated retail version.) Does anyone know of a
phone number at Microsoft to validate the authenticity of the registration
code PRIOR to purchase?
Thanks

I Microsoft some time ago. They said they can't (won't?) provide this
confirmation. You'll have to treat this purchase like any other purchase on
Craigslist where there is a risk that the seller might not deliver what he
promised.

 

[Alias]

I Microsoft some time ago. They said they can't (won't?) provide this
confirmation. You'll have to treat this purchase like any other purchase on
Craigslist where there is a risk that the seller might not deliver what he
promised.

Yeah, people who think that Microsoft cares about their paying customers
are in for a rude awakening. The fact that WGA even exists along with
the many versions and respective mile long "what you can't do with
Windows" EULAs is proof enough that they only care about money.

Alias

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Yeah, people who think that Microsoft cares about their paying customers
are in for a rude awakening. The fact that WGA even exists along with the
many versions and respective mile long "what you can't do with Windows"
EULAs is proof enough that they only care about money.

Alias

Seeing how many people try their darnest to crack MS product codes (and
quite a few succeeding), I'm not surprised about Microsoft's policy. How
would you handle the situation? How does one distinguish a genuine caller
(like the OP) from a software pirate?

 

[Ian D]

I want to purchase a copy of XP PRO, advertised on Craigslist as virgin
(never installed, never activated retail version.) Does anyone know of a
phone number at Microsoft to validate the authenticity of the registration
code PRIOR to purchase?
Thanks

Who would give you a legitimate product key before purchase?
The product key is the license, and is what you're paying for
when you buy XP. In practical terms, the product key belongs
to the first person that activates it, whether they obtained it
legitimately, or not.

 

[Alias]

Seeing how many people try their darnest to crack MS product codes (and
quite a few succeeding), I'm not surprised about Microsoft's policy. How
would you handle the situation? How does one distinguish a genuine caller
(like the OP) from a software pirate?

Let's see, MS made billions with pre XP Windows and their then CEO
became the richest man in the world. Now they've gotten greedy and all
they've done is tarnish their name, inconvenience paying customers while
the crackers laugh their heads off all the way to the bank.

I suggest that Gates go back to what he said when he was sane, "If they
steal an operating system, I want them to steal mine!"

Alias

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

If the price seems to good to be true (i.e., lower than $150 USD), it
probably isn't.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Let's see, MS made billions with pre XP Windows and their then CEO became
the richest man in the world. Now they've gotten greedy and all they've
done is tarnish their name, inconvenience paying customers while the
crackers laugh their heads off all the way to the bank.

I suggest that Gates go back to what he said when he was sane, "If they
steal an operating system, I want them to steal mine!"

Alias

That's fine. Now would you apply the same yardstick to other very wealthy
people? How about asking Warren Buffet to give something back to every
shareholder with whom he was involved in share transactions and thus became
the second richest man in the USA? If you're consistent then you can't have
one rule for Bill Gates and another for Warren Buffet. By the way, you
skirted very carefully around the central question of how to distinguish a
genuine caller from a potential software pirate.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I want to purchase a copy of XP PRO, advertised on Craigslist as virgin
(never installed, never activated retail version.) Does anyone know of a
phone number at Microsoft to validate the authenticity of the registration
code PRIOR to purchase?
Thanks

There is none.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Alias]

That's fine. Now would you apply the same yardstick to other very wealthy
people? How about asking Warren Buffet to give something back to every
shareholder with whom he was involved in share transactions and thus became
the second richest man in the USA? If you're consistent then you can't have
one rule for Bill Gates and another for Warren Buffet. By the way, you
skirted very carefully around the central question of how to distinguish a
genuine caller from a potential software pirate.

You misunderstood everything. The point was the even though pre XP
Windows was easily pirated or installed on more than one computer, MS
still made billions and became the defacto monopoly. Warren Buffet has
nothing to do with it. IOW, activation and becoming genuine isn't
necessary at all, especially when you consider that most Windows users
not only don't know how to install Windows, they buy their computers
with Windows preinstalled.

Alias

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I want to purchase a copy of XP PRO, advertised on Craigslist as virgin
(never installed, never activated retail version.)

How you be sure that all three of the things within the parentheses
are correct? They are probably unlikely.

Does anyone know of a
phone number at Microsoft to validate the authenticity of the registration
code PRIOR to purchase?

No, you can not do that.

It's also highly unlikely that the seller would give you the code
prior to purchase. And if he does give out the code prior to purchase,
he may have given it to others, and that probably means that it *is*
installed somewhere.

 

[Daave]

I want to purchase a copy of XP PRO, advertised on Craigslist as virgin
(never installed, never activated retail version.) Does anyone know
of a
phone number at Microsoft to validate the authenticity of the
registration
code PRIOR to purchase?
Thanks

1-800-Don't-be-a-sap

 

[nicholas]

Original poster again:

Wow. So much defensive vitriol.
I thought MS -might- have an 800 number, staffed by a reasonably enabled
grunt, whom I could call from the seller's living room. If the code has
never been registered, I buy it; if MS has it listed as previously registered
(obviously info MS must have at their fingertips) I walk away. If not for
MS, it could be a safe, legal, ethical efficient, mutually beneficial
transaction that wouldn't violate any MS policies.

Guess I'll stick with Ubuntu.
Thanks for some of the comments, and thanks for all the fish...

 

[Peter Foldes]

Very simple. A used Office suite obviously has been used and activated before.

If you want one that has not been activated before then go and purchase a new one
still with original packaging

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Buy it from MS, then.

 

[HeyBub]

I want to purchase a copy of XP PRO, advertised on Craigslist as
virgin (never installed, never activated retail version.) Does
anyone know of a phone number at Microsoft to validate the
authenticity of the registration code PRIOR to purchase?
Thanks

I don't think you'll encounter a problem, IF:

1. You go to the seller's house to pick up the product, and
2. He knows you have a gun.

 

[Monitor]

I don't think you'll encounter a problem, IF:

1. You go to the seller's house to pick up the product, and
2. He knows you have a gun.

Sigh. Yet another intelligent person having been brainwashed by Charlton
Heston and the American Rifle Association: That a gun will solve all
problems.

 

[Mark Adams]

Sigh. Yet another intelligent person having been brainwashed by Charlton
Heston and the American Rifle Association: That a gun will solve all
problems.

Sigh. Yet another moron having been brainwashed by Sarah Brady and the
Center for Prevention of Handgun Violence: That a gun will cause all problems.

 

[*Laughingstar*]

;-))

I don't think you'll encounter a problem, IF:

1. You go to the seller's house to pick up the product, and
2. He knows you have a gun.

 

[Alias]

Sigh. Yet another moron having been brainwashed by Sarah Brady and the
Center for Prevention of Handgun Violence: That a gun will cause all problems.

The gun is neutral. It's the idiots who use them that are the problem.
Of course, without the arms industry, the US would have very few viable
businesses. We can't stop making the guns that provide us with genocide
in Africa, now can we?

Alias