XP licensing BIOS/SN hooks

[Thundercleets]

Hi,

Micorsoft has had license key certification for awhile now for everyone
who wants updates to Windows XP. Owners of recent Dell, Compaq,
Lenovo(IBM), Toshiba, Sony and other "namebrands" have their key set
into BIOS or somewhere else on their system so that reinstall of
whichever version of XP came with the system occurs without having to
enter a key. I have not bought white box in awhile so I'm not sure if
this situation applies to them also

Wouldn't it be nice for billg&CO. to turn off all keys not related to a
piece of hardware from a vendor and not certified by them?

TMT

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi,

Micorsoft has had license key certification for awhile now for everyone
who wants updates to Windows XP. Owners of recent Dell, Compaq,
Lenovo(IBM), Toshiba, Sony and other "namebrands" have their key set
into BIOS or somewhere else on their system so that reinstall of
whichever version of XP came with the system occurs without having to
enter a key.

That is because those OEMs have specifically modified their Recovery
installation routines to examine the motherboard chipset to ensure that
it's being installed on the correct make/model PC. The Product Key
isn't used in any fashion, during this process, and is "ignored."

I have not bought white box in awhile so I'm not sure if

this situation applies to them also

It doesn't.

Wouldn't it be nice for billg&CO. to turn off all keys not related to a
piece of hardware from a vendor and not certified by them?

How could this possibly work? While Microsoft may well have a list or
database of Product Keys licensed for distribution via each specific
OEM, it has absolutely no way of determining which specific Product Key
(out of many millions) each individual OEM (out of dozens) assigned to
each individual PC (out of many millions).


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Thundercleets]

Then OEMs have an agreement with M$ that allows them to avoid using a
product key even though there is a product key attached to the outside
of the PC's case?

They way you present it perhaps but using Trusted Platform Module means
that the product key can be tied to a specific PC.