WinXP tracking

[Arithorn]

Hi all
I borrowed a copy of XP Home from a friend, and I'm about to install it - my only question is if I will be allowed to use the same serial, and if that will shorten the lifespan of his copy (I've heard weird things about XPs serial tracking/upgrading etc).Could anyone cleart that up for me? And if I don't update XP, will they still know that I've installed it? Thanks!

 

[BCYL]

Dont you have to activate XP after you installed it? Which means MS will know you installed your friends copy...

 

[Yvo]

Nope, I am here to disappoint you.... Microsoft included something wonderful called Windows Product Activation or in short WPA. Which means the moment the serial is activated for the first time it is basically semi stuck to a computer (believe me there are ways around this little ordeal). Now if your system is almost the same as your friend's system then you might have a chance.

For example I used one copy between two computers. An AMD Athlon XP 1900+ and AMD Athlon 800MHz (Tbird). Two different motherboards, same chipset maker (VIA), same hard drives..... and it activated Windows XP Professional successfully as did Office XP Standard Edition.

So there are ways around it, but if your friend has a Pentium 4 and you have a Pentium 3 and he has a VIA based board and you an Intel based board (giving an example) then its definitely not going to take the activation.

 

[RalfHutter]

You've got 30 days to play with it before you've got to activate it. At the end of the 30 days you either activate it or it won't boot...so if you just want to experiment, go ahead but you won't be able to keep it unless you do something illegal.