Windows XP Corporate?

[Buddha Bart]

A friend of mine said he's running this. Can anyone tell me what it is? Whats different about it from Home or Pro?

(i checked the FAQ's, no mention)

bart

 

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: Buddha Bart
A friend of mine said he's running this. Can anyone tell me what it is? Whats different about it from Home or Pro?

(i checked the FAQ's, no mention)

bart

there is no activation with the corporate edition of windows xp.

 

[bjc112]

and most are pirated...

 

[Nothinman]

Your friend either works for a large corporation and installed their copy, most likely illegally since I doubt it's installed soley on his work box, or he's using a wide spread pirated copy.

 

[bozo1]

The 'real' corporate copy of WinXP or OfficeXP is the version that Microsoft provided their large corporate customers with. A proper key defeats the activation process. However, these keys are licensed to specific companies and Microsoft gets very anal when they are leaked to the public. Basically, they are there so a company can create a corporate image and blast them down to new machines without having to go through the activation phase. The earlier 'warez' version of the 'corporate' version wasn't that at all, it was just a hacked copy that someone defeated the 'activation' routine. Later illegal 'warez' versions came out that provided you with a program that would generate a 'corporate' key that would also deactivate activation.

Your friend may have an illegal copy and is wigging out because of all the rumors that Microsoft is going to deactivate those when SP1 comes out.

Rumor or not, Microsoft may very well deactivate these versions when SP1 comes out. They have already changed the key generation for corporate versions, they have provided all their legal customers with their new keys and the ability to update all of their licensed copies with a new key that won't be deactivated.

 

[Desslok]

How long did it take the hackers' to defeat the first activation code? A couple hours? I don't have much faith that MSFT can keep them out for much longer the second time.

 

[bozo1]

I don't have much faith that MSFT can keep them out for much longer the second time.

Of course not, but the new key scheme is much more thorough than the old one. Like when you try to do an update, it brings you to a webpage customized to your company, your company's admins can authorize who has access to the updates if they want, etc., what they are allowed to update... It's a totally different beast than the old one.

 

[Special K]

MS also sells these no activation copies to universities also, who can then sell them to students/faculty/staff (often at a very low price compared to retail - I bought mine for $25), however I don't know if these are considered true corp. versions. There is a file called setupp.ini on the CD that contains a code that tells what kind of version of XP you have - retail, OEM, and corp. are the only 3 identified codes I was able to find, and mine has a number that isn't close to any of those 3, so I really don't know if it uses an entirely different set of activation keys or what.