Rich said:
If there has been a full retail version purchased and a repair install done
with that, that machine is properly licensed. A full (not upgrade) version
is a stand alone installation.
As far as the other software on the computer, that would have to covered by
license for that software.
I see that I need to better explain the question and the reason for it.
Unfortunately, that makes this reply lengthy.
Is there a stand alone utility (that does not require internet connection)
that will identify invalid licenses? Such a utility would allow a shop to
refuse to service such a unit before substantial labor goes into getting the
system, via SFC and Recovery Console, to the point where the license issue
can be discovered by trying to use the update website, or (worse) by
attempting to use the customer provided XP CD to perform an in-place
repair/upgrade install only to end up completely locked out from using XP.
So, my question remains: If a lockout occurs or COULD occur, will the full
retail version of Pro still allow the "upgrade" and remove that lockout and
thereby save the previous but invalid licensed installation? I don't care if
the installed base of programs then complain about licensing issues or not,
I just want to know if they will still exist as an installed base or not.
FWIW, most of my customers with license issues will complain that a repair
shop should have been able to avoid a lockout, that they purchased the unit
with XP on it from some place that has since gone out of business, thought
that it was legally licensed, and that they had no way of knowing that a
license issue existed, bla bla bla. The shop is not a law firm, it only
requires authorization to do service. But it thereby contracts to do exactly
that. Neither is the shop liable for license issues (the customer is).
Nonetheless, the customer can claim victim because the "shop caused a
lockout" and/or therefore "did not perform contracted repair services", and
perhaps (who knows) prevail in lawsuit. If the full retail XP-Pro will not
salvage a license issue caused lockout (or the possibility of one) then the
shop must not represent that the full retail Pro normally will do that, and
then the customer usually will balk and refuse to pay because "the unit was
not repaired and the shop should have known it was not repairable." But the
shop could not know until investing in substantial labor to the point where
the license issue could be discovered and repairs are thereby forced to a
halt. Such labor investments consist of using chkdsk, sfc, malware removal,
and other MS provided methods that do not require doing things that might
invoke a lockout or otherwise allow a timely discovery of a license issue.
Understand that usually such repair methods MUST be used by a shop before
the MS update website can be used to identify a license issue or the
customer provided CD must be used to do an in-place repair/upgrade that
causes the shop to then discover a license issue. In absence of the above
mentioned utility wish, the initial shop investment in labor is completely
unavoidable and in good faith but might not protect against the above
mentioned customer objections to being billed for it.
A shop does not wish to loose the previously invested labor or end up in
litigation because of a messy Microsoft license issue, thus the shop needs
to know if a full retail Pro will or will not salvage a non-licensable
previous installation. If so, it will require it in its service contract as
a method of limiting liability should an unexpected lockout occur. Whether
or not the salvaged installation programs, individually, will then complain
of license issues is of no concern to a shop since the original installation
WAS salvaged. As I said in starting this topic, I'm revising a service
contract and so it needs to address this issue -- will or will not the full
retail Pro salvage a lockout or a potential lockout when a shop discovers
that an XP installation has an invalid license issue? The link at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/upgrading/matrix.mspx
does not address this issue sufficiently.
