OK a question

[HPCatFan]

Lets say some guy has a PC at home running Windows 98, (second edition). Lets say the same guy just bought 3 new PCs for his office, all loaded with Windows XP. Now, this is all hypothetical, get it? OK, so the 3 new PCs with pre-loaded XP also came with backup CDs of XP. Lets say the guy bumps up the RAM on his home PC, say to be able to play the new Wolfenstein game. Then, after that, lets say the same guy accidentally knocks one of the XP discs into his briefcase. ("GOSH!!, how did that get in there?"). Finally, lets say the guy tried to re-partition his hard drive and load up Windows XP on his machine, say as if he had to wipe the drive and re-install. Does anyone have any idea if this hypothetical situation would work OK, or have any hypothetical tips?

[Intimidator Coach]

i installed XP Pro right over my win 98 . It works fine except i went to microsoft update and installed something thats controlling my sound card and havent fixed it yet.........
oh yeah... run the compatibility test first........i cant use my web cam with xp... you will need to update alot of drivers most likely.....
That didnt really happen......... It was a hypothetical comment to your hypothetical question.:cool:

[Freakshow]

At my work they installed XP on all the machines. Quite a few people are having problems. It take TONS of RAM. Maybe it's the users. I don't know. But most are NOT happy with it.

I accidentally installed Office 2000 at home once. I THOUGHT I was installing Quicken! Ooops!:eek:

[BearBryant]

Here is the thing with xp...If you use the home edition you have to register your copy with the serial numbers you are given on the box or wherever. Then you have to get an activation code from microsoft. If you do not activate your xp copy within 30 days your xp os will not work. The way microsoft does this they check your pc componet mac addresses and then give you the code. If you take the same dick and put it and try to install it another pc you get the same thing. Microsoft will then see that the same program is running on 2 different systems and they will deactivate the first one which SUCKS! The only way around this is to get the xp professional copy which does not require activation. There is also a patch you can install which will bypass the activation code. the process seems a little tricky (or at least to me) and you can't use this if you have a dual boot machine. There are ways of making your very own copy of xp. Morpheus has all the files and serial numbers. You have to know how to make a "bootable" cd and burn the xp files on to a cd with your cdrw for xp to load on your machine. this DOES work!:D

[BearBryant]

oh yeah...xp takes a minimun of 120 meg of ram to even run. I had 440 meg and 500 mhz cpu and it ran slow as hell. I just built a pc with 384 megs and1.33 ghz cpu and it flys!

[HPCatFan]

Thanks for all the tips, seems like the hypothetical guys machine may not be able to handle xp till he does some major upgrades (Pentium III, 550mhz). Hypo guy remembers that when the machines in his office were booted up, they had to be registered either by internet or on the phone, but thought that was only OfficeXP, not the whole OS. Oh, well maybe he should go and get the upgrade for $99, which is just what he is going to do, honest person that he is (you hear me microsoft?)

[Intimidator Coach]

I like this system restore feature. If you screw up something , oh well just go back a day to repair it.

And i fixed my sound card problem by using the system restore .

[Superfluous_Nut]

I've been pretty happy with windows 2000. Much more stable than 95/98. XP doesn't interest me in the least.

[mathmajors]

Originally posted by Superfluous_Nut
I've been pretty happy with windows 2000. Much more stable than 95/98. XP doesn't interest me in the least.

Me either. We won't deploy it mostly because it hasn't been out long enough, and many of our clients' apps won't run on it.

[dig-it]

I`m still stuck in the 90s. I`ll give it some time before I switch over.

dig-it

[sdawg]

XP is 2000 with bells and whistles

[Superfluous_Nut]

But 2000 is NT with bells and whistles. That means XP is NT with lots of bells and lots of whistles. That seems like too much noise to me.

[mathmajors]

2000 is NT with a new interface and 128-bit encryption. XP is 2000 with the ability to run non-business apps. Still too new.

[The Brain]

the copy of XP that they have at your work might not even work anyways... for starters is it an ACTUAL XP disk or is it a system restore disk??? If its a system restore disk you might as well give up now... #2 how do you plan on activating it?? Due to the new XP activation method it checks your hardware and if there are any differences it won't allow you to activate XP and with out activating it in 30 days it will not allow you in any more

[BearBryant]

windows pro does not have an activation code.

[The Brain]

yes it does I'm using it right now

[BearBryant]

i am using xp professinal right now and never had to put in an activation code. I have never been asked for an activation code. Pro allows 5 license's and there is obviosly a flaw somewhere which allows more than 5 pc's to use the 1 registration code given in pro.

[The Brain]

do you have a legal copy?? because there IS a cracked version of pro out there that allows no activation... is it possible you have that one??

[BearBryant]

hmmm...maybe that is it!

[The Brain]

yeah I've got a copy of that cracked version too... but I got it to install on multiple computers... I was stupid and bought my first copy... I could kick myself for doing that now