Invalid registration code

[Guest]

About a year ago, I took my computer into a shop for repairs. At that time,
I was running an XP Home upgrade from ME. The shop lost my system disks but
upgraded me to XP Pro. Only after much pressure, did they give me a copy of
XP Pro with a registration number. So, now I'm having hard drive problems
and take the system to a more reputable shop along with the XP PRO disk and
registration number. They are replacing my hard drive and have just informed
me that when they reloaded XP PRO, they couldn't upgrade because the
Registration number was invalid. Prior to this time, I had no problems with
upgrades. I'm hoping the registration number provided was a miscopy but what
are my alternatives if it's not?

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I used the term "registration code" it should be "product key"

 

[James]

If the disk says "Memorex" and the product key begins
with FCKGW-.... You're a pirate, matey! Most likely
unknowingly, unfortunately.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Memorex has little to do with it (however that might have been tongue in
cheek on your part) and there are a number of other product codes that are
blacklisted in addition to the original leaked code that you mention. The
following is an excerpt for the Windows Product Activation FAQ
What should a customer do if they find they unwittingly acquired a pirated
copy of Windows XP? How can a customer acquire a legitimate license for
Windows XP if they find that theirs is pirated?
The customer should go back to the point of purchase and demand a refund or
a genuine copy of Windows XP. Customers can also contact Microsoft directly
at http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/reporting/default.asp and report the
piracy.

Customers can acquire a legitimate copy of Windows XP from a trusted
retailer or PC manufacturer.

What are the product keys that are affected by this?
We are not publishing the product keys themselves, however the product IDs
generated from these product keys are (where X may be any numeric value):

a.. XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX
b.. XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX
The product ID can be found by right clicking on My Computer and choosing
Properties and viewing the General tab.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

The following comes from the Windows XP Product Activation FAQ posted by
Microsoft. It appears that your options are to try to get a legitimate
version from the shop that supplied you with the illegal version, report
them to Microsoft's Anti piracy depart (address below) and or purchase a
legitimate version.
What should a customer do if they find they unwittingly acquired a pirated
copy of Windows XP? How can a customer acquire a legitimate license for
Windows XP if they find that theirs is pirated?
The customer should go back to the point of purchase and demand a refund or
a genuine copy of Windows XP. Customers can also contact Microsoft directly
at http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/reporting/default.asp and report the
piracy.

Customers can acquire a legitimate copy of Windows XP from a trusted
retailer or PC manufacturer.

What are the product keys that are affected by this?
We are not publishing the product keys themselves, however the product IDs
generated from these product keys are (where X may be any numeric value):

a.. XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX
b.. XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX
The product ID can be found by right clicking on My Computer and choosing
Properties and viewing the General tab.

 

[Guest]

OK, so my desktop now has an illegal copy of XP Pro on it. I've confronted
the vendor, reported it to MS, and if I don't hear tomorrow from the vendor,
I'll call the BBB. So, must I purchase a full copy of XP (Home or Pro) or
will an upgrade suffice?

The following comes from the Windows XP Product Activation FAQ posted by
Microsoft. It appears that your options are to try to get a legitimate
version from the shop that supplied you with the illegal version, report
them to Microsoft's Anti piracy depart (address below) and or purchase a
legitimate version.
What should a customer do if they find they unwittingly acquired a pirated
copy of Windows XP? How can a customer acquire a legitimate license for
Windows XP if they find that theirs is pirated?
The customer should go back to the point of purchase and demand a refund or
a genuine copy of Windows XP. Customers can also contact Microsoft directly
at http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/reporting/default.asp and report the
piracy.

Customers can acquire a legitimate copy of Windows XP from a trusted
retailer or PC manufacturer.

What are the product keys that are affected by this?
We are not publishing the product keys themselves, however the product IDs
generated from these product keys are (where X may be any numeric value):

a.. XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX
b.. XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX
The product ID can be found by right clicking on My Computer and choosing
Properties and viewing the General tab.


--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

About a year ago, I took my computer into a shop for repairs. At that
time,
I was running an XP Home upgrade from ME. The shop lost my system disks
but
upgraded me to XP Pro. Only after much pressure, did they give me a copy
of
XP Pro with a registration number. So, now I'm having hard drive problems
and take the system to a more reputable shop along with the XP PRO disk
and
registration number. They are replacing my hard drive and have just
informed
me that when they reloaded XP PRO, they couldn't upgrade because the
Registration number was invalid. Prior to this time, I had no problems
with
upgrades. I'm hoping the registration number provided was a miscopy but
what
are my alternatives if it's not?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

If you want to continue using WinXP Pro and preserve the installed
applications, you'll need to purchase and use a _legitimate_ full
retail copy of WinXP Pro to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade)
installation, using the new CD and Product Key. You _might_ be able
to do the repair using a WinXP Pro Upgrade CD, but you would need to
have the installation CD for an earlier, qualifying OS, available to
insert when prompt to verify that you qualify for the upgrade license.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

Purchasing WinXP Home, whether the full version or the upgrade,
would entail formatting the hard drive. There is no supported
downgrade path or technique.

Simply boot from the WinXP Home installation CD. You'll be
offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as
part of the installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the
order of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

 

[Harry Ohrn]

You can't legally use an Upgrade version unless you have a qualifying
product. The pirated version is not a qualifying product. You can upgrade XP
Pro to XP Home version as that is a downgrade. You will need a full retail
version of XP Pro to legally do a Repair Install or do a clean install with
an Upgrade version providing you have a qualifying product to satisfy the
request during setup. Qualifying products include Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000.
Which ever qualifying product you use with an XP Upgrade version must not be
installed on another system or you invalidate the upgrade path.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

OK, so my desktop now has an illegal copy of XP Pro on it. I've
confronted
the vendor, reported it to MS, and if I don't hear tomorrow from the
vendor,
I'll call the BBB. So, must I purchase a full copy of XP (Home or Pro) or
will an upgrade suffice?

The following comes from the Windows XP Product Activation FAQ posted by
Microsoft. It appears that your options are to try to get a legitimate
version from the shop that supplied you with the illegal version, report
them to Microsoft's Anti piracy depart (address below) and or purchase a
legitimate version.
What should a customer do if they find they unwittingly acquired a
pirated
copy of Windows XP? How can a customer acquire a legitimate license for
Windows XP if they find that theirs is pirated?
The customer should go back to the point of purchase and demand a refund
or
a genuine copy of Windows XP. Customers can also contact Microsoft
directly
at http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/reporting/default.asp and report the
piracy.

Customers can acquire a legitimate copy of Windows XP from a trusted
retailer or PC manufacturer.

What are the product keys that are affected by this?
We are not publishing the product keys themselves, however the product
IDs
generated from these product keys are (where X may be any numeric value):

a.. XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX
b.. XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX
The product ID can be found by right clicking on My Computer and choosing
Properties and viewing the General tab.


--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

About a year ago, I took my computer into a shop for repairs. At that
time,
I was running an XP Home upgrade from ME. The shop lost my system
disks
but
upgraded me to XP Pro. Only after much pressure, did they give me a
copy
of
XP Pro with a registration number. So, now I'm having hard drive
problems
and take the system to a more reputable shop along with the XP PRO disk
and
registration number. They are replacing my hard drive and have just
informed
me that when they reloaded XP PRO, they couldn't upgrade because the
Registration number was invalid. Prior to this time, I had no problems
with
upgrades. I'm hoping the registration number provided was a miscopy
but
what
are my alternatives if it's not?

 

[Harry Ohrn]

correction should read " you can not upgrade XP Pro to XP Home...."
sorry for the typo.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

You can't legally use an Upgrade version unless you have a qualifying
product. The pirated version is not a qualifying product. You can upgrade
XP Pro to XP Home version as that is a downgrade. You will need a full
retail version of XP Pro to legally do a Repair Install or do a clean
install with an Upgrade version providing you have a qualifying product to
satisfy the request during setup. Qualifying products include Windows
9x/Me/NT/2000. Which ever qualifying product you use with an XP Upgrade
version must not be installed on another system or you invalidate the
upgrade path.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

OK, so my desktop now has an illegal copy of XP Pro on it. I've
confronted
the vendor, reported it to MS, and if I don't hear tomorrow from the
vendor,
I'll call the BBB. So, must I purchase a full copy of XP (Home or Pro)
or
will an upgrade suffice?

The following comes from the Windows XP Product Activation FAQ posted by
Microsoft. It appears that your options are to try to get a legitimate
version from the shop that supplied you with the illegal version, report
them to Microsoft's Anti piracy depart (address below) and or purchase a
legitimate version.
What should a customer do if they find they unwittingly acquired a
pirated
copy of Windows XP? How can a customer acquire a legitimate license for
Windows XP if they find that theirs is pirated?
The customer should go back to the point of purchase and demand a refund
or
a genuine copy of Windows XP. Customers can also contact Microsoft
directly
at http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/reporting/default.asp and report the
piracy.

Customers can acquire a legitimate copy of Windows XP from a trusted
retailer or PC manufacturer.

What are the product keys that are affected by this?
We are not publishing the product keys themselves, however the product
IDs
generated from these product keys are (where X may be any numeric
value):

a.. XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX
b.. XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX
The product ID can be found by right clicking on My Computer and
choosing
Properties and viewing the General tab.


--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


About a year ago, I took my computer into a shop for repairs. At that
time,
I was running an XP Home upgrade from ME. The shop lost my system
disks
but
upgraded me to XP Pro. Only after much pressure, did they give me a
copy
of
XP Pro with a registration number. So, now I'm having hard drive
problems
and take the system to a more reputable shop along with the XP PRO
disk
and
registration number. They are replacing my hard drive and have just
informed
me that when they reloaded XP PRO, they couldn't upgrade because the
Registration number was invalid. Prior to this time, I had no
problems
with
upgrades. I'm hoping the registration number provided was a miscopy
but
what
are my alternatives if it's not?