How many activations does a XP Pro copy get?

[duragezic]

I have a copy of XP Pro with SP2 downloaded from MSDN AA through my school. I was confused at first, as the FAQ states:

"Q: Is the software permanently unlocked by the license (or "key")?
A: No - the key allows you to install the software once.Also, if you need to re-install the software, you will need to contact your program administrator."

So I had emailed my department about this, and asked if say my hard drive crashed, and I needed to reinstall, I can only do it once? They stated I would need to contact the system admin for a new key, but that is was no problem.


Since then, I've installed 3 times and activated 2 or 3 times!! I just got a new hard drive yesterday so wanted to reinstall everything to that drive and get rid of some old PATA drives with those annoying ribbon cables.

The reason I ask is I wish I didn't activate this most recent time, as it is kind of wasted as I might just reinstall AGAIN.

I've already read the security tips like "keep your internet unplugged if you can slipstream hotfixes and security", etc, and thought that was all paranoid crap. I thought, I never get those problems! I have nothing but a router firewall and get no spyware or virii for many months.

Yet, I install XP last night on to my new hard drive. I had already downloaded a lot of software, including Firefox, so I could setup my new install quickly as possible.


I am using Firefox and realizing how reliant I am on certain extensions, like all-in-one gestures. So I go to my Firefox and Mozilla Information bookmarks folder (I've kept my bookmarks.html file for years between formats), click Firefox Extensions, and get brought to some shady page that is no longer about FF extensions (and never was officially mozilla involved, I'm sure newer FF included bookmarks don't include those old links, and you can get to them directly from Tools->Add Ons).

All of a sudden, that page from Firefox somehow loads IE6 (totally unpatched as well, and I always turn Windows firewall OFF first thing I do ), I get some pops, and something asking me if I want to install some anti virus thing. I of course click No, close the pop-ups, and continue on, but soon notice I must have some adware or worst. I've ran a couple of online scans like Housecall as well as Super Antispyware. I think between all of them, they found 2-3 trojans, a lot of adware, and some spyware/malware crap, and some files in windows\system32\. I managed to delete them eventually and scanned a few times with each thing I had. But my brand-new install might still be compromised. What a retard I am!!

I probably wasted an activation, and might just reinstall again just in case more spyware remains, as really an entire XP install only takes maybe 45 minutes and another 20 minutes to get back to where I was before I got infected. It might be more of a PITA to download more scan software and run them all just to get rid of absolutely everything.

A side question: How did a IE window launch from Firefox when I clicked on a link? The first thing that FF asked me when I loaded it for the first time was if it was to be the default browser (I selected yes and to check each time it loads). Maybe that setting didn't go through yet or the IE setting conflicted with it.


Do I get like five activations or something? All that has changed since the original time I got this XP copy from school was various internal hard drives added or removed.

 

[bsobel]

There is no 'set' amount of activations. You are licensed (if it's oem) to use the OS on one machine (machine really being considered the motherboard) or one machine at a time if retail. You are allowed to reinstall, and there are proceedures in place to try to make the activation as automatic as possible (for example if you havent activated in 120 days you can usually activate online again). This makes since as they are trying to catch the pirates that buy xp and share it quickly with their friends. A gap between installs without manual activation takes care of that while still allowing you to generally reactivate if you have the need to.

If your actually on an MSDN license, not a school license, MSDN keys are generally good for 10 different systems (testing systems) at one time, but no production use.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: bsobel
There is no 'set' amount of activations. You are licensed (if it's oem) to use the OS on one machine (machine really being considered the motherboard) or one machine at a time if retail. You are allowed to reinstall, and there are proceedures in place to try to make the activation as automatic as possible (for example if you havent activated in 120 days you can usually activate online again). This makes since as they are trying to catch the pirates that buy xp and share it quickly with their friends. A gap between installs without manual activation takes care of that while still allowing you to generally reactivate if you have the need to.

If your actually on an MSDN license, not a school license, MSDN keys are generally good for 10 different systems (testing systems) at one time, but no production use.

It must be based off so many installations within a certain period of time. When I got my system and installed, I messed it up, had to reinstall and on the second installation, while installing drivers for the vid card, it stopped and told me I needed a new key and had to call MS's authorizor.

 

[mechBgon]

If you can track down the specific page that caused the attack, I'd be interested to hear what page.

Also, +1 for non-Administrator accounts :evil:

 

[duragezic]

Thanks guys.

And I will be listening to the advice of mechBgon and others MUCH more closely now. In fact, I think I'll switch my account to a power user or something less than Admin.


You know what? On my 2nd re-install, I got some of the same spyware back!! I'm not entirely sure what website it came from. But I was only using IE for WindowsUpdate pages, and Firefox for the rest, and I've never such a ridiculous spyware problem in the past. SuperAntiSpyware brought up much of the same Adware and Trojans that were found on the previous install due to that one site.

Now that I got the same crap again (I think I got rid of it, running some scans right now), it might not be that site. I swear I got it from utorrent.com this time! Regardless, the last time, I did get a mess of crap on my computer right after visiting that site, which was a FF site, but now turned shady and launched a shady IE page on me.

Again, I swear this was the page that caused me the grief, but now that I got almost the same spyware from without going to this site, it might not be it. Nonetheless, be very careful, and DO NOT clink this link unless you have are sure about your protection:

Used to be "Firefox Themes"

Likewise, there were Firefox Help and Firefox Themes from that same website, which is now no longer Firefox-anything, and seems shady.

Guys with adequate protection like active scanning enabled: let me know if this site does bring up a load of crap for you, or if it was completely coincidental that I got a ton of junk right after visiting this site.

 

[RebateMonger]

Here's the information from Microsoft on MSDN AA software:


MSDN AA Program information

Q. What is the MSDN Academic Alliance?

A. The MSDN Academic Alliance is an annual membership program for technical departments in the area of Computer Science, Engineering, and Information Systems. As a member, a department receives an MSDN AA subscription that Microsoft platform, servers, and developer tools software. This software may be installed on any number of departmental lab machines. The software must be used for instructional and research purposes, it may not be used to run the infrastructure of the department. In addition, the department's faculty and students may check-out or download the software to install on their personal computers.


Q.What are the benefits of joining the program?

A. As a member, a department may install the MSDN AA software on its labs, and its faculty and students may install the software on their personal computers. However, the MSDN Academic Alliance is much more than simply a software subscription. The membership includes a wide range of benefits:

MSDN Academic Alliance software subscription that includes Microsoft platform, server, and developer tools software as well as betas, new releases, and tech support
Special license rights allowing a department to install MSDN AA software on any number of departmental lab machines for instructional and research purposes only
The ability for students taking at least one credit course offered by the member department to install the software on their personal machines for use in coursework and personal development projects


Q. If students get software through MSDN AA, do they have unlimited usage of the software?

A. No, MSDN AA software is intended for use in academic pursuits of STEM disciplines: schoolwork, research, academic projects, and so on are all acceptable uses.


Q. Can students keep these tools after they graduate?

A. Yes, this license is perpetual and nontransferable. You don?t have to uninstall the tools, but the stipulation of ?academic use only? does not change.


Q. Can we install the OS on a naked machine?

A. Yes, provided that you intend to use that machine and the tools given in accordance with the EULA (academic STEM usage only).

 

[mechBgon]

I took a look at both the texturizer.net link and utorrent.com with both FF2 and IE6 & IE7 and I'm thinking it might've been coincidence. Microsoft Network Monitor 3.0 isn't seeing anything out of the ordinary going on, there's no pop-ups or malware, and I took an amateur look at the page's source and it looks normal. edit: there is a possibility of a compromised advertising partner putting infectuous ad banners on utorrent.com like they did to Tom's Hardware Guide, of course...

My guess is that you're either installing something that's infected, somewhere along the line, or you're getting infected over the wire by another computer sharing your router, or from the Internet itself if you don't have a router. To prevent that, try this advice (scroll down past the Vista-versus-XP stuff to the large picture and start there). Cliffs: keep the computer isolated from all network sources until SP2 is installed from an offline source like a CD.

I think I'll switch my account to a power user or something less than Admin.

Unfortunately Power User is so close to full Admin that there's not much point in that Use a Limited account for daily-driver stuff, learn to use RunAs where needed (mech's video tutorial, right-click & save), and now you're cookin' with gas :thumbsup:

If you could post the names of the spyware and viruses/trojans that are being discovered, that may help nail down the source of the evils.

Guys with adequate protection like active scanning enabled:

I don't consider active scanning an "adequate" protection anymore. Back it up with a Limited account and a monthly or weekly Secunia vulnerability scan. Remove all software that you don't actually need, to reduce potential attack surface. Enable DEP :camera:, and be wary of potentially-unsafe filez no matter if your antivirus says they're clean or not, and the bad guys will be going back to the drawing board :evil:


edit: more content, better grammar

 

[duragezic]

edit: This is very long and poorly written, but I'll try and clean it up. Thanks already for the help, mechBgon.

explanation of my previous two XP installation procedures
Hmm, that is odd. This spyware mania has happened with two installs. My order of installation is below, with the things listed below already pre-downloaded from their official sites as newest versions and sitting on another hard drive that has been scanned clean.

XP w/ SP2 slipstreamed
nForce4 chipset drivers
Nvidia Forceware graphics
Creative Audigy drivers
latest FF
Latest JRE
Miranda
Winamp
WinRAR
...
etc


Really, the spyware problem could be from a number of stupid things I do. It's just I've been so used to these BAD habits that have kept me spyware/malware/virus free for so long.

Both times, right after the XP installation, I did not get MS hotfixes right away. Again, didn't ever have to before (I would eventually), so didn't realize their importance. Also, both times, I turned off automatic updates. The first time I turned off Windows Firewall right away. The second time I left it on and also set DEP to full right away. In addition, I still was using admin account, I still didn't have active spyware/malware/etc programs running, etc. I've always been so safe using FF alone, but lesson learned there.

Somewhere after the 'etc' in the list above, where I am just on the web, maybe grabbing a few freeware programs (in the latest case, was just on uTorrent's site), when **** hits the fan. Since you checked out that Texturizer site, it is unlikely it was from that site the first time nor from uTorrent's site this time; just a coincidence while on these sites that are indeed safe. I still don't know exactly what caused it. I never hit OK to any popups.

This second time, with XP Firewall and full DEP on right away, they never popped up to prevent anything (only had a couple popups about things that I want to allow). I'd say to sum it up, its the lack of XP, IE, and OE hotfixes as well as using a admin account that is the reason for my problems.

I am also behind a standard linksys router, so have incoming protection from the internet. The only other person on the network is running Mac OS X, so I am covered there.

Update on my current XP install
I would've liked to slipstreamed MS hotfixes two days ago when I slipstreamed SATA drivers with nLite. But WindowsUpdate doesn't let me simply download the almost 70 critical updates; it just installs them. A nLite guide said to use Windows Catalog, which allows you to just download fixes. So I went to 'XP Pro SP2', but of the 23 critical updates, none were what I wanted. They were just .NET stuff (something nLite says NOT to slipstream) and nothing of the 70 fixes I actually wanted to download and slipstream. So that does me no good for a slipstreamed, future install.

I just ran that Secunia inspector. I obviously failed horribly due to no hotfixes installed for XP Pro SP2, IE 6, and Outlook Express. The reason I still don't have them is I haven't activated yet, as this install is again of questionable integrity, so I don't want to activate too many times in a short period if I end up trashing this install. Otherwise, I only got a Flash player vulnerability. I JUST installed the newest version, 9.0.45 using the installer from Adobe's site. The Secunia inspector indicates I also have Macromedia Flash version 6, something I never installed (I ignored all automatic FF plugin installs to get Flash from Adobe's site). It is not on the Add/Remove list either, only the newest version is. Maybe it comes built-in and that is where my problems are from?

I can't believe I'm getting owned so bad by spyware, using practices that have been safe for years. I know that's a bad habit to get into, but I never felt the need to spend the time doing all the things smart guys like mechBgon recommend, but I can see why you preach it now.

Log from the spyware/malware I picked up
Log from SUPERAntiSpyware:

Adware.Tracking Cookie
Adware.Vundo Variant
Trojan.Downloader-Gen/Blah
Trojan.Downloader-SpyTool

Obviously the first is no problem. I unfortunately don't remember the name of the single threat that Housecall picked up 30 minutes ago, which SUPERAntiSpyware missed. It described it as something that was attached with 3rd party programs and spawned ads IIRC.

This log from SUPERAntiSpyware shows that my past two XP installs got infected with pretty much the exact same stuff. I believe all 4 of those entires were present from my first XP install, except that first one also had a few additional pieces of spyware or trojans. The trojans were randomly named .DLL files in \system32\ which I had to kill explorer.exe to manually delete.

The thing is, I've only ran these two programs, so it is likely additional scanners will find more crap! So I might consider re-installing again.

 

[mechBgon]

Somewhere, the chain of trust has been broken. It could be as far back as your slipstreamed SP2 disc. It could be you're simply hitting a site that launches a Java-based heap-spraying thingamabob (yes, using FireFox 2.0.0.4) that results in code execution, infection, and then all sorts of badness from there on.

Moral of the story: Welcome to 2007. Don't come out to fight until you've got all your armor on. :evil:


If you can get Vista for free, definitely do it if your rig can handle it and your software works on it.

Oh, and

I don't know how to uninstall it, considering I have an old version of Macromedia Flash 6 installed as well as the newest Adobe Flash. But Add/Remove only shows the newest/Adobe version which I just installed... I don't know how the other old version got on there and how to get it off.

Delete the old Flash file manually.

 

[duragezic]

You are exactly right about it being 2007 and my armor (practices/habits) is pretty much a damaged leather coat when I should have a perfect gothic plate on.


Offhand, mechBgon, do you know if the Vista install from outside of XP (booting the DVD) still requires F6 floppy disk drivers in order to install to a SATA drive? I need to know if I need to get vLite to slipstream Nvidia SATA drivers, as I do not have a floppy drive. I searched Google and some threads seem to indicate YES, but that seems just absurd that Vista, released at the end of 2006, still does not have native support for SATA drives.

Thanks for all the help mechBgon, and others. In fact, I do abide by the MSDN AA EULA, as instead of spending hours and hours with all this PITA, I should be doing some technical reports with these newly installed academic copies!

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: duragezic
You are exactly right about it being 2007 and my armor (practices/habits) is pretty much a damaged leather coat when I should have a perfect gothic plate on.

Hehe

Offhand, mechBgon, do you know if the Vista install from outside of XP (booting the DVD) still requires F6 floppy disk drivers in order to install to a SATA drive? I need to know if I need to get vLite to slipstream Nvidia SATA drivers, as I do not have a floppy drive. I searched Google and some threads seem to indicate YES, but that seems just absurd that Vista, released at the end of 2006, still does not have native support for SATA drives.

If you did need to provide drivers, you could stick them on a USB stick for Vista. You may not need any at all. What motherboard would you be using?

WinXP Pro can still be pretty secure too, especially if you pull out more of the stops and stick a Software Restriction Policy on top of a Limited account. Vista makes it easier to live with that level of security by using UAC prompts when you want to do something that's Admin-level, even on your Limited account (called a "Standard user" account on Vista), and there's more improvements besides, so it might be worth trying out, especially if you can have it for free.

 

[duragezic]

Okay, that is fine then if they at least added USB stick support. I'm using a Epox 9NPA3 Ultra, which is a nForce4 Ultra board.

I'm about to restart and boot the Vista Business install. I got a few drivers and things ahead of time, and checked out compatibility lists. According to a very large Wiki page, talking about the RTM release even, the only things I use that look like they won't work at all is:

ForceRS wheel (long discontinued and Act-labs can't get Immersion to develop Vista drivers without major $$, which Act-labs won't do)
XBCD 360 drivers


Which REALLY sucks, as out of everything I use, those are the only two that probably won't work at all, and pretty much screws over playing any racing game in Vista!

But I'll give it a go. And if I am completely unable to play any racing games, I'll give XP another shot and be so very careful and follow your guides.

Thanks for the help.

 

[mechBgon]

For your EPoX, you shouldn't need drivers, since the nF4 Ultra chipset's native SATA ports work as-is. That's what I've got too.

Good luck

 

[Marinski]

You have to be real careful what you're downloading using utorrent. When you use utorrent do you open ports on your router??

 

[duragezic]

Yep, didn't need to load SATA drivers from my thumb drive, but would've been able to had the SATA drive been not recognized.

Install went smooth. Took a while longer than XP of course, since it has to install such a huge amount of stuff, some of which I wish I had an option to remove, (like 8GB total for the OS), and but I have a decent amount of disk space with this new drive. Like I don't need to go all insane and trim it down, but cmon, things like Sync Center, Speech Recognition, Tablet PC, pretty much anything Windows XXXXX, is just stuff I absolutely do not want. I don't like the amount of Control Panel entries there are, and that I can't remove some of them, whether or not that affect performance or disk space (they dont I'm sure). I like my Control Panel on the start menu as a Menu, yet with my x1050 display, I can not quite fit every CP entry on the screen without a little arrow for like 1/2 of one entry.

Getting used to it, but a lot of things are moved around, while a lot of things are the exact same except with the Aero window-style over them. So I'm undecided on Vista so far, but it does seem quite speedy, in spite of how much crap it has running. It's surprising how well Vista runs considering the number of things running, and I'm sure Superfetch hasn't gathered all its data to be effective yet. Stuff like indexing all of my files and system restore I just do not want running as I have zero use for them. I'm so used to my file organization for many years and I really doubt searching for something, even if indexed, would be faster than Windows+E and navigating to a couple of folders.


Marinski: I haven't downloaded much from uTorrent lately. The last few things were some Iraq documentary things (they were meant to be distributed freely), which I don't know if you can embed stuff in a xvid compressed .avi, but all the stuff I've gotten recently has been on a separate hard drive, which has been scanned several times by Kaspersky and others, and no virii or anything bad in those files. I do watch out for shady torrents though... I'm sure tons have bad stuff in them. I assigned port 64479 for uTorrent, which is forwarded to my static IP by my router. I understand I might not need port forwarding with uPnP (correct?), but my router sucks hard and doesn't work right with uPnP enabled in uTorrent, so I just forward that single port, which is the only open port I have. When I've run various scans like the Steve Gibson's site scan, it has always come up as stealth or closed, so I think I have decent security in that area... at least better than a lot of people meaning they are way easier targets.