messiahandrw said:
My cousin burnt me a copy of Windows XP and it all installed fine.
It should be all legal because I paid $20 for it. It was all
working fine until my virus scanner told me to install Service Pack
2. I went onto the Microsoft's website and download Service Pack 2.
I only have dial-up and 150MB a month to download. My ISP charges
15c per MB when I download more. After it downloaded I went to
install it but it told me I had to activate. I chose to activate by
Internet but they said my copy was not legal, but I paid for it
like I said. I would activate by phone instead, but I can't because
I only have 1 phone line. Can I organize for someone to come to my
house to activate it for me? I will pay for someone to do it but I
only have $30 of pocket money left until next month.
It's now down to 21 days and still counting. System Restore did
not appear to do much except uninstall a few programs I had to
redownload.
Kerry said:
On the off chance that you are not a troll I'll reiterate what
others have told you. You have a pirated copy of XP. You will not
be able to activate it. Purchase a legitimate copy and install it.
Where do I buy a real copy of Windows XP? I only have $40 left, so I
hope that is enough. If I can't afford it, what am I suppose to do
after 17 days?
$40 is not enough for a retail or even an OEM copy. You might find it from
an individual for this much - but with your luck - I would not bother with
that. In 17 days - your Windows XP will cease to work/you will be unable to
utilize it.
Before this time I suggest you copy whatever you can (whatever you would
like to keep) off of the system.
Pictures, emails, contacts, favorites(bookmarks), documents, spreadsheets,
etc...
In 17 days - in as far as the current installation of Windows and your use
of it - things grind to a halt.
As the other poster suggested - sure - you could use Linux. It has many
free "flavors" out there. It is not as simple as Windows to utilize,
however; and seeing as you do not seem to be extremely computer literate -
the learning curve is high. You are welcome to try. Start here:
http://www.linux.org/
As people here have said - if you are not a troll (meaning you are making
this crap up, acting this way just to solicit responses to see how people
will respond, etc..) it is too bad your cousin took advantage of your lack
of knowledge and took your money and gave you nothing for it and that you
are unwilling to do anything about it (obviously.) There is nothing that
can be done legitimately to help you here in this newsgroup. As you
probably did not get a written receipt - there is probably nothing any law
enforcement could do for you either. What you have here is a life-lesson.
Learn it and use it. Next time - research what you are buying first. If it
sounds too good to be true - it usually is. Never hand over money without a
receipt/contract and some sort of money-back guarantee/warranty. Doesn't
matter what it is for - all of that should be true. And in your case -
never trust your cousin again.
Your current situation is this. You have $40. If you are not a
student/your school doesn't offer some academic version of Windows XP - that
is not enough money. You should save up and buy from someone reliable.
Your cheapest Windows XP route is an OEM copy of Windows XP Home edition.
It does mean - when you get it - performing a clean install on your system -
but in your current situation - that is recommended anyway. Example of a
reliable place:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116056&ATT=32-116-056&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch
So you need about $100.
Once you save up/purchase and receive your copy of Windows XP, you can more
than likely get away with using free software for all of your other needs.
AntiVirus (Choose one):
AntiVir (Free and up)
http://www.free-av.com/
avast! (Free and up)
http://www.avast.com/
AVG Anti-Virus System (Free and up)
http://free.grisoft.com/
Office Suite (Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations):
OpenOffice
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
AntiSpyware (Use them all - the free versions):
Lavasoft AdAware (Free and up)
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/
(How-to:
http://snipurl.com/atdn )
Spybot Search and Destroy (Free!)
http://www.safer-networking.net/en/download/index.html
(How-to:
http://snipurl.com/atdk )
IE-SPYAD2 (Free!)
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/resource.htm#IESPYAD
(How-to:
http://snipurl.com/ate7 )
Windows XP comes with Internet Explorer and Outlook Express - so you will
have an Internet Browser and an email/news reader. However - you have many
alternatives there as well.
Internet Browsers:
Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Opera
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Email:
Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/
Newsgroups:
XNews
http://xnews.newsguy.com/#download
Free Agent
http://cws.internet.com/file/11614.htm
Just about anything you want to do on a computer can be done for free except
getting decent hardware - and you might be able to get that as a gift. heh
The catch to that is... Your free versions may not either be as good
(although sometimes they are better) or they may not be 100% compatible (in
other words - things you create with them, others may not be able to view
and/or vice-versa) and if you are not computer literate - the learning curve
is sometimes steeper than you may be able to handle.
Good luck. My previous advice stands - at least you should tell your entire
family how your cousin took your money and gave you something illegitimate
in return. Otherwise - nice - your cousin now knows they can get away with
stiff like this.
