Microsoft SUCK

exonerate · 8 Oct 2008

electrogear wrote: I just bought XP Home edition (OEM) and installed it yesterday. Today I installed my Sound Card Drivers and an Antivirus program, and rebooted, only to find a pop up box saying something along the lines of 'You have significantly changed your hardware, you are now required to reactivate this copy of Windows'.

WHAT???? Since when has installing sound card drivers/software been a hardware change? And even if it is classed as a 'hardware change' then it's hardly a significant change. What was I supposed to do? Install the drivers in before I even had an operating system??

I've done some browsing and found the same story all over the net. I've heard that only one reactivation is allowed, so now I'm in a dilemna. Should I risk installing my graphics card drivers? My computer feels pretty nasty without it I'm sure, but I don't want to have to buy another license. I've heard you can do it over the phone, but they can be pretty unreliable and the call is going to be expensive - you can't ring the activation line, because that will tell you the same thing ("you have reactivated too many times") so you have to ring the 'helpline'.

I think it's pretty disgusting that they penalise paying customers, when people using cracks get no hassle. This is actually making me think about switching to a cracked version, and I don't mind admitting that. Well done Microsoft.

I'm not sure what the reactivation limit is (or even if there is one) but I've reactivated my copy of windows 3 times now with no problem. I activate over the internet just a simple click and done.

tektoog · 8 Oct 2008

exonerate wrote: I've reactivated my copy of windows 3 times now with no problem

Same here.

infuzion · 8 Oct 2008

I have a *real* OEM copy of XP Pro, that doesn't require any activations (as far as I can tell). 😇

electrogear · 8 Oct 2008

tektoog wrote: exonerate wrote: I've reactivated my copy of windows 3 times now with no problem

Same here.

Hmm do you guys have OEM copies?

philter5 · 9 Oct 2008

i´had the same problems. it looks like this is the best way(and the only way;) ) for microsoft to force,or better to try to force the user to buy vista. thats the reason why i have only linux running at my laptop. and if i would not need xp compatibility for apps like synthmaker i would use linux on my second machine,too well done microsoft ( or microsucks or softsuckers or whatever) 😈

exonerate · 9 Oct 2008

electrogear wrote: tektoog wrote: exonerate wrote: I've reactivated my copy of windows 3 times now with no problem

Same here.

Hmm do you guys have OEM copies?

No I have a full copy bought about 5 years ago. It will be the fact it's an OEM actually why you can only reactivate once, having to reactivate after installing drivers is very weird, I'd report it to microsoft. surely it's not ment to do that so it must be a fault in windows.

Cheers 😉

Exo