call microsoft everytime you change video drivers?

[realredpanda]

i just installed the omgea video drivers for my 9800pro,after i rebooted after uninstalling the old ati drivers it told me i needed to reactivate windows.so after way too long on the phone i got it reactivate and i asked the guy do i have to do this everytime i install new video drivers and he said yes.i don't understand this at all,does everyone get this?is there a way around this?i thought you only had to reactivate after changing a number of hardware parts,all i did was uninstall drivers,the video card was still the same.

 

[Navid]

Download this free utility (XPINFO) and run it on your XP machine. It will tell you how many of your hardware components have been changed since you originaly activated.
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/

You can have 3 changes and XP will not ask you to re-activate. If you have the forth one, it will ask you to activate. The network card change counts for 3 components (3 votes).

My hunch is that you have already changed 3 components (memory upgrade, CD drive, hard drive, etc.) and installing this new driver has confused XP making it think that you have changed the graphics card also.

Please post back.

 

[Concillian]

This is why I haven't bought XP. The whole, "We decide if your computer is worthy" thing is BS.

I'll be on Win2k until it's as bad as Win98/ME is now. At the rate I change hardware, I'd be on the phone with MS twice a month... no thanks.

 

[Navid]

How XP decides if you have to activate agin or not is explained here, in the middle of the page, under
"Can hardware components be changed and upgraded"?

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx


Copied from that page:

Specifically, product activation determines tolerance through a voting mechanism. There are 10 hardware characteristics used in creating the hardware hash. Each characteristic is worth one vote, except the network card which is worth three votes. When thinking of tolerance, it's easiest to think about what has not changed instead of what has changed. When the current hardware hash is compared to the original hardware hash, there must be 7 or more matching points for the two hardware hashes to be considered in tolerance. If the network card is the same, then only 4 additional characteristics must match (because the network card is worth 3, for a total of 7). If the network card is not the same, then a total of 7 characteristics other than the network card must be the same. If the device is a laptop (specifically a dockable device), additional tolerance is allotted and there need be only 4 or more matching points. Therefore, if the device is dockable and the network card is the same, only one other characteristic must be the same for a total vote of 4. If the device is dockable and the network card is not the same, then a total of 4 characteristics other than the network card must be the same.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Concillian
This is why I haven't bought XP. The whole, "We decide if your computer is worthy" thing is BS.

I'll be on Win2k until it's as bad as Win98/ME is now. At the rate I change hardware, I'd be on the phone with MS twice a month... no thanks.

Thats pretty silly reasoning. XP has been out long enough for everyone to know that re-activation is a non-event. I build a few rigs every year and upgrade several more than that. I've had to re-activate a few times, and even a couple on the phone for one reason or another. I have never spoken to anyone on the phone ever, and I've run XP on several networked PC's since XP was a beta.

Whoever told you that changing video card drivers will require reactivation was giving you false information.

 

[Schadenfroh]

windows 2k pro is your friend

 

[realredpanda]

since i reactivated,does that mean my count went back to 0,so i can redo the drivers again and not have to reactivate once more,i think i liked the drivers i had before better then these omega ones,they feel laggy in day of defeat and unreal2004,the two games i play the most.

 

[Matthias99]

Windows 2k Pro = Windows XP Pro with a different GUI (and if you turn off all the flashy XP stuff, they're basically identical*). I changed out my whole *motherboard* in WinXP Pro, and if it required reactivation, it did it silently over the net. You certainly don't need to call MS every time you change video drivers.

Edit:

*: There are probably some low-level technical differences between Windows 2000 and Windows XP. However, nobody's ever been able to give me any details on why one is superior to the other in any kind of meaningful way.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: realredpanda
since i reactivated,does that mean my count went back to 0,so i can redo the drivers again and not have to reactivate once more,i think i liked the drivers i had before better then these omega ones,they feel laggy in day of defeat and unreal2004,the two games i play the most.

No, the answer to this question is also on the link I posted. The count goes to zero every 4 months. Meaning, if you activate 4 months after your last activation, there will be no record of your computer on their database and you will be issued a new hash.

Did you run XPINFO?
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/xpinfo-exe.zip



Actually, I was wrong. According to the information on that page, you are set to 0 now.


Copied from Microsoft:

Are the changes cumulative? In other words, if I change one component today and one tomorrow, is that two component changes?
The changes are cumulative; however, if a user is asked to reactivate, the hardware profile is reset to that new configuration.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Windows 2k Pro = Windows XP Pro with a different GUI (and if you turn off all the flashy XP stuff, they're basically identical*). I changed out my whole *motherboard* in WinXP Pro, and if it required reactivation, it did it silently over the net. You certainly don't need to call MS every time you change video drivers.

Edit:

*: There are probably some low-level technical differences between Windows 2000 and Windows XP. However, nobody's ever been able to give me any details on why one is superior to the other in any kind of meaningful way.

Uhh...WinXP Pro doesn't require activation at all (AFAIK) whereas XP Home does.

Win2000 and XP are very similar, but XP is more compatible (IIRC). I always change the theme to the 2k theme though. I hate that bubbly colorful sh!t.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Excelsior

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Windows 2k Pro = Windows XP Pro with a different GUI (and if you turn off all the flashy XP stuff, they're basically identical*). I changed out my whole *motherboard* in WinXP Pro, and if it required reactivation, it did it silently over the net. You certainly don't need to call MS every time you change video drivers.

Edit:

*: There are probably some low-level technical differences between Windows 2000 and Windows XP. However, nobody's ever been able to give me any details on why one is superior to the other in any kind of meaningful way.

Uhh...WinXP Pro doesn't require activation at all (AFAIK) whereas XP Home does.

Win2000 and XP are very similar, but XP is more compatible (IIRC). I always change the theme to the 2k theme though. I hate that bubbly colorful sh!t.

your thinking of corporate

 

[rbV5]

Uhh...WinXP Pro doesn't require activation at all (AFAIK) whereas XP Home does.

They both require activation within 30 days, unless you have a corporate edition. In any event, simply changing video drivers does not trigger re-activation under normal circumstances. I sometimes change drivers several times a week on multiple PC's...never triggered a re-activation.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Excelsior

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Windows 2k Pro = Windows XP Pro with a different GUI (and if you turn off all the flashy XP stuff, they're basically identical*). I changed out my whole *motherboard* in WinXP Pro, and if it required reactivation, it did it silently over the net. You certainly don't need to call MS every time you change video drivers.

Edit:

*: There are probably some low-level technical differences between Windows 2000 and Windows XP. However, nobody's ever been able to give me any details on why one is superior to the other in any kind of meaningful way.

Uhh...WinXP Pro doesn't require activation at all (AFAIK) whereas XP Home does.

Microsoft's page on activation indicates it applies to both versions of Windows XP. Another page on WindowsXP mentioning activation. I'm 99.9% sure that I activated WinXP Pro when I first installed it, but as that was ~2 years ago...

Plus, why would they not protect WinXP Pro? That makes no sense; people would just pirate it all over the place like they did with Windows 98.

Win2000 and XP are very similar, but XP is more compatible (IIRC). I always change the theme to the 2k theme though. I hate that bubbly colorful sh!t.

Like I said, all but identical except the GUI. There may be a handful of things that work on XP but not 2K, but they're few and far between.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Excelsior

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Windows 2k Pro = Windows XP Pro with a different GUI (and if you turn off all the flashy XP stuff, they're basically identical*). I changed out my whole *motherboard* in WinXP Pro, and if it required reactivation, it did it silently over the net. You certainly don't need to call MS every time you change video drivers.

Edit:

*: There are probably some low-level technical differences between Windows 2000 and Windows XP. However, nobody's ever been able to give me any details on why one is superior to the other in any kind of meaningful way.

Uhh...WinXP Pro doesn't require activation at all (AFAIK) whereas XP Home does.

Microsoft's page on activation indicates it applies to both versions of Windows XP. Another page on WindowsXP mentioning activation. I'm 99.9% sure that I activated WinXP Pro when I first installed it, but as that was ~2 years ago...

Plus, why would they not protect WinXP Pro? That makes no sense; people would just pirate it all over the place like they did with Windows 98.

Win2000 and XP are very similar, but XP is more compatible (IIRC). I always change the theme to the 2k theme though. I hate that bubbly colorful sh!t.

Like I said, all but identical except the GUI. There may be a handful of things that work on XP but not 2K, but they're few and far between.

Oh, so i guess Corporate is the only one it doesn't apply to. That they DO pirate all over the net.

Don't they they are THAT indenticaly, they are close, but still different.