Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: microsoft.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to microsoft.com.

Comments · 34,132

  1. It's been happening for years, to some extent. by grrowl · · Score: 4, Interesting · on The Ad-Supported Operating System

    Has everyone forgot installing Windows 95/98, and going through the process of deleting the bundled AOL trials, CompuServe this and MSN Online that? It's not "Punch the monkey and win a free iPod!"-style advertising, but it is paid product placement and it is advertising. Also in Windows 95 and 98 was a "Sampler" directory on the CD with games and reference utilities, although most were distributed by Microsoft Games, there was a game from Scholastic and another company. In Windows XP, view your My Pictures folder (or any folder you or windows has identified as a photo folder), and look at the task pane: "Order Prints Online" takes you to a list of paid links to photo printers, "Shop for Pictures Online" takes you to a page with two microsoft links and one to 'BizPresenter.com'. It's not a new concept! It's just been subtle, but I doubt it'll get too much more obvious (viewing a 10 second advertisement every time you boot up, or "Targeted Media" on your desktop, ala Win98's Active Desktop items but with Coke ads instead of CBS News -- wait, they're both advertising!

  2. Ad-OS is already here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful · on The Ad-Supported Operating System

    Micro$hit Winblows X-Pee is full of ads for M$'s services. There's ads for Passport, Windows Media download stores, MSN Search, MSN Explorer, Microsoft Plus, and other bloated bullshit. Don't forget the ultimate coercive ad, Windows Genuine Advantage. Loads of false claims of pirated software means more bucks for Satan.

  3. Re:The Sky is Falling by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1 · on Windows Games on Macs Without Windows
    For a developer, XCode is amazing and free, compared to Visual Studio for somewhere in the $300-$800 range
    Microsoft provides a free version known as Visual Studio express, plus there are a tonnes of others availible for free on sourceforge.

    The only negative thing though about developing software on MacOSX, if it isn't cross-platform, you're really shutting out a large number of people who can use it (compared to just developing it for a single platform like Windows).
    Also factor in the maintenance costs (money, time, frustration) of trying to keep a system secure or dealing with it when it's not; keep in mind the usual case of somebody who isn't enough of a power user to know all of the necessary tricks.
    I spend more time trying to keep applications up-to date on MacOSX than I do under Windows (software delivered through having the computer connected to a domain) and my Linux systems. I have also wasted too much time on things like copy-replace, which aren't a issue in other OS I've used.

    keep in mind the usual case of somebody who isn't enough of a power user to know all of the necessary tricks.
    Yeah, this is why I manage this stuff for my family.

    Personally, I've also found myself to be many times more efficient on OSX than Windows when doing just about anything. So for me, that's a major cost savings right there.
    Unfortunately that is not the case for me. I don't really like Apple that much anymore after having constant hardware issues with them, Apple-care being less than adequate.

  4. This was hard... by rickb928 · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'

    Took me a good 15 minutes to find http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0 DE2DB143FF932A3575AC0A961948260

    And some enigmatic stuff here: http://www.gaby.de/ftp/pub/win3x/archive/softlib/1 997w3x.pdf

    And a cryptic reference to the Mach 10 and 20 here: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeobsoleteproduc ts

    Other than that, there is not much info left out there.

    I think the Mach 10 was an 80186 with RAM and such on an 8-bit ISA card, probably an 8MHz or 12MHz part. The Mach 20 was a 80286, and cooler. Probably a 16MHz part. I think the Mach 10 would take 1.5MB RAM, as a heaping shovelful of 16- or 22-pin DRAM. The Mach 20 similar. Both had an InPort for Bus Mouse. I guess the Mach 20 could be had with or without the RAM expansion, and with or without an updated FDC to run 3.5" drives. I had an XT-Turbo at 8MHz that already handled 3.5" drives. Woot...

    Just a quick look, but it seems about the only thing there with less info on it out there is Modern Jazz.

    rick

  5. GNAA campaign against PHP and ZEND bears fruit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait · on Australia Conducting Electronic Census
    GNAA campaign against PHP and ZEND bears fruit
    GNAA campaign against PHP and ZEND bears fruit

    Impi - Diplomatic Corp, South Africa

    The ongoing war against PHP by the GNAA has finally produced results that are a step in the right direction. GNAA have been aggressively involved in a campaign to educate the public at large about the tremendous control that MOSSAD has over the development of PHP and the subsequent clandestine information gathering technology that has been implemented by Jewish developers.

    The co-founders of Zend, the PHP Company, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans are known Israeli MOSSAD agents; they were recruited by MOSSAD during their formative years at the Israel Institute of Technology.

    On Friday, 28 July 2006, Jani Taskinen, aka _sniper_ resigned from the PHP development team. FYI: I don't care at all what anybody thinks about me. I'm going to be openly anti-Israel from now on. This was the last straw for me. Fuck you Jews. I will also quit this project. As long as it's backed by some Israel company, I don't want to have anything to do with it. Good bye.

    This was a direct result of the ongoing war against Hezbollah which has been backed by the USA and primarily been driven by the information gathering technologies embedded in PHP by Zend.

    Several GNAA members who were also part of the PHP development team have also resigned in solidarity with Jani Taskinen.

    timecop, the glorious president of the GNAA has reacted in the wake of these events by extending an invitation of honorary lifetime GNAA membership to _sniper_, for having courage in his convictions.

    GNAA official website, located at http://www.gnaa.us/ is powered by Microsoft Internet Information Services and ASP.NET, running on INTEL hardware.

    About Zend

    Zend is an Israeli funded body that is controlled by MOSSAD.

    About PHP

    Crap.

    About GNAA:
    GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

    Are you GAY ?
    Are you a NIGGER ?
    Are you a GAY NIGGER ?

    If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly what you've been looking for!
    Join GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time GNAA member.
    GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the fastest-growing GAY NIGGER community with THOUSANDS of members all over United States of America and the World! You, too, can be a part of GNAA if you join today!

    Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

    Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today! Upon submitting your application, you will be required to submit links to your successful First Post, and you will be tested on your know

  6. Re:Then wait by bschmitt · · Score: 1 · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'

    You do know that they offer a free version of Visual Studio http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

  7. Re:Considering their recent acquisitions: by EndlessNameless · · Score: 2, Insightful · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'

    If Microsoft is going to start from scratch with a new kernel (by this, I mean new to them) then why wouldn't they do it using a kernel developed in-house?

    Microsoft switching to Linux would totally undermine their method of gaining and maintaining marketshare, which is to make everything interoperate with everything else (as long as it's all their stuff).

  8. Re:Then wait by TubeSteak · · Score: 1 · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'
    There's no value in rushing it out if you end up angering customers who may later switch to another vendor.
    What other vendor?

    IT head honchos at any large corp that uses Windows have probably been factoring the XP ---> Vista upgrade path into their plans for a year or three.

    Don't forget that a lot of the corporate customers have bought into the "Microsoft Software Assurance Upgrade Program"
  9. Considering their recent acquisitions: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'
    Based on their recent acquisitions I'd say the'll base in on Linux.

    It looks like every company they've been buying are Linux companies (except Groove, which was a recruting move to get their CTO - and evne groove used competing technologies (BDB, now from Oracle)).

    I think they've given up on Windows for the future, and are looking elsewhere for help.

  10. Considering their recent acquisitions: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'
    Based on their recent acquisitions I'd say the'll base in on Linux.

    It looks like every company they've been buying are Linux companies (except Groove, which was a recruting move to get their CTO - and evne groove used competing technologies (BDB, now from Oracle)).

    I think they've given up on Windows for the future, and are looking elsewhere for help.

  11. Considering their recent acquisitions: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'
    Based on their recent acquisitions I'd say the'll base in on Linux.

    It looks like every company they've been buying are Linux companies (except Groove, which was a recruting move to get their CTO - and evne groove used competing technologies (BDB, now from Oracle)).

    I think they've given up on Windows for the future, and are looking elsewhere for help.

  12. There is a vote on this in the beta program by gcnaddict · · Score: 4, Informative · on Is Windows Vista Ready? 'No. God, no.'

    Someone initiated a vote for the Tech Beta testers to see if there will be a Beta 3. It's accessible only for techbeta, but it's here

  13. Trolling or just hideously misinformed? by metamatic · · Score: 0, Troll · on The Future of Closed Source Software and Linux
    Samba includes a SMB client AND server for free; OSX (desktop edition, at least) has a bundled client, but no server.

    Wrong.

    Apache/php/perl/etc have been ported, but seem to run most smoothly on linux.

    I don't know why you'd say that, as Apache and Perl come installed by default on OS X. (I don't know about PHP, I wouldn't use that heap of crap if you paid me.) There are nice 1-click installers for Rails too.

    As far as user apps, well, the Gimp still seems to be designed for linux.

    Yup. That's why I paid $30 for a copy of Photoshop Elements, which blows away The GIMP for usability and has all the functionality I need. Frankly, I wish there was something to compare with Elements on Linux. I use the GIMP, but every time I do it does something weird and inexplicable.

    iMovie only lets you save to Quicktime (ugh), and Windows Movie Maker to Windows Media.

    False. What you apparently missed is that when you save to QuickTime from iMovie, it's not saving to QuickTime file format—it's saving to the QuickTime multimedia subsystem. From there you can set your output format to anything you like. Hence iMovie can save to MPEG-4 with H.264, DivX, 3ivX, MPEG-1, DV files, whatever the hell you like.

    I don't care if iMovie can turn junk footage into pure gold - what good is it if I can only save to a proprietary format?

    QuickTime file format is the basis of the MPEG-4 file format. Maybe MPEG-4 is "proprietary", but it's the closest thing to a usable open standard that exists in the world of video. The QuickTime and MPEG-4 formats are both open documented specifications.

    I can't open Quicktime movies in any of my windows software for further editing, and I can't open Windows Media in any of my OSX software for further editing.

    If your Windows software is so crap that it can't open QuickTime, it presumably isn't one of the well-known movie editing packages like Adobe Premier, which is built on QuickTime for Windows. In which case, export from iMovie to whatever format your software needs. To use Windows Media on OS X, you simply need to install the Flip4Mac WMV QuickTime codec plugins, which you can download from Microsoft's web site. Then you can drag-drop your WMV video straight into iMovie.

    As for apps that noone on Windows/OSX seem to use, netpbm is a good example. They are command-line utilities that let you convert image formats, rescale, rotate, crop, etc.

    Nobody uses them because you can do the exact same thing with Graphic Converter, PhotoShop or QuickTime, script using AppleScript, and not have to actually write the code. But netpbm and ImageMagick are available for OS X if you'd rather do batch image processing the hard way. (I speak as someone who's done batch processing with ImageMagick and with GraphicConverter.)

    I'm not sure how to track down all the dependencies on OSX, or whether Apple made any modifications before compiling.

    So download the latest netpbm from DarwinPorts.

  14. Re:Article Summary by arose · · Score: 1 · on The Future of Closed Source Software and Linux
    I like Outlook, but its not available for Linux. Evolution doesn't work enough like it [..]
    He's right, Evolution should aslo add helpful features and clear error messages. I'm sure there is a lot more we could learn from Outlook, but these are the nice things Microsoft has brightened the days of me and my users in the last two weeks.
  15. Re:Article Summary by arose · · Score: 1 · on The Future of Closed Source Software and Linux
    I like Outlook, but its not available for Linux. Evolution doesn't work enough like it [..]
    He's right, Evolution should aslo add helpful features and clear error messages. I'm sure there is a lot more we could learn from Outlook, but these are the nice things Microsoft has brightened the days of me and my users in the last two weeks.
  16. Backup Active Directory by bitflip · · Score: 1 · on The Future of Closed Source Software and Linux

    Your admin doesn't know what he's talking about. All you have to do is back up a domain controller, or two. It backs up Active Directory at the same time. I've done it several times in the lab, to get back to a known good state for the next test.

    It was the first hit on Google, even: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windo ws2000serv/technologies/activedirectory/maintain/o psguide/part1/adogd03.mspx

  17. Re:Nothing to see, pass on either side by nuckfuts · · Score: 1 · on The Future of Closed Source Software and Linux

    You might be interested in the Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard. It will export & import Outlook account settings and more.

  18. Fantastic Spam Filters Which Work Best Proving! by _vSyncBomb · · Score: 5, Funny · on Proving Which Spam Filters work Best

    Hey Slashdot, what's up, man! Dude, I read your thing and like totally agree about Best Work Proving Spam Site Work! Dude, that's awesome!

    Bro, in the same vein, I was totally checking out this dope ass site which you might wanna check out too man. Guys like us that dig Spam Which Proving and Best work Filters will be all over this before long...

    OK, man take care until I see you this Friday at the dinner thing, Slashdot!

    Cheers,
    John

  19. Re:Microsoft and regex by the-matt-mobile · · Score: 1 · on Java Regular Expressions

    VB has had regular expressions available to it for about 8 years now. In VBScript, they're built-in, and in VB you just make a COM reference to "Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5". See this article for details - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; en-us;818802

    And don't let the date of the article fool you - though it was written in 2006, you've been able to use regexes in VB since the late 90's. That being said, I've always found Perl's implementation to be faster and easier to use.

  20. Ummm.... you have it. by everphilski · · Score: 1 · on OpenGL Spec Now Controlled by Khronos Group

    Retail XP comes with OpenGL drivers. If for some reason your copy does not *cough* you have an illegitimate version *cough* get it here or through Windows Update.

  21. Where are these "designs" by zakezuke · · Score: 1 · on Will Pretty PCs Make Vista More Attractive?

    I reviewed the origional post with some minor interest simply because I do believe that a PC is an appliance no different than a washer, dryer, or TV, and breaking away from the beige box or the now ubiquitous black pc is a pretty spiffy idea. But I don't see links to what Microsoft invisions as being the desktop of the future.

    http://www.microsoft.com/japan/presspass/pressroom /d_img/d3_mouse_20040423.aspx
    http://www.microsoft.com/japan/presspass/detail.as px?newsid=2098

    These are microsoft more radical designs for mice. Are we doomed to have a Groovy desktop, and I don't mean the blue version "moodring"... groovy orange keyboard, groovy orange monitor, groovy orange cables to your groovy printer.

  22. Where are these "designs" by zakezuke · · Score: 1 · on Will Pretty PCs Make Vista More Attractive?

    I reviewed the origional post with some minor interest simply because I do believe that a PC is an appliance no different than a washer, dryer, or TV, and breaking away from the beige box or the now ubiquitous black pc is a pretty spiffy idea. But I don't see links to what Microsoft invisions as being the desktop of the future.

    http://www.microsoft.com/japan/presspass/pressroom /d_img/d3_mouse_20040423.aspx
    http://www.microsoft.com/japan/presspass/detail.as px?newsid=2098

    These are microsoft more radical designs for mice. Are we doomed to have a Groovy desktop, and I don't mean the blue version "moodring"... groovy orange keyboard, groovy orange monitor, groovy orange cables to your groovy printer.

  23. Re:Design from MS? by kosmosik · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Encouraging OEMs to Beautify Computers

    I don't know if they designed them but some of their keyboards and mices are quite nice. :)

    Take a look
    http://www.microsoft.com/products/info/default.asp x?view=22&pcid=c250fb0a-1613-4550-983d-ba203f35769 8
    (but their website with this crappy URL is for sure not well designed)

  24. Re:Patenting Insecurity by intrico · · Score: 1 · on Blackboard Patenting Educational Groupware

    Apparently it pays well.
    Microsoft is still raking in Billions

  25. Re:Who the hell is buying this crap? by owlstead · · Score: 1 · on HD DVD vs Blu-ray Direct Comparisons

    Once I saw the technology preview (well, it was one back then) called the of the Liquid Demo from the Microsoft site, showing off the 1280 x 720 (720p) resolution, I was sold. DVD gives "acceptable" quality and you won't notice the difference on the mayority of screens. With high resolution LCD screens, these old formats will become a thing of the past. High resolution MPEG4 is the way of the near future, and I expect that won't last *that* long either.

    Try some content, if you can handle WM9, don't mind DRM for a technology showcase, and have a serious computer (2.4GHz..3GHz). Broadband would be a good idea too.
    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musi candvideo/hdvideo/contentshowcase.aspx
    By the way, the downloads are self extracting zip's just holding the .wmv file. Talk about idiotic ways of distributing movies. It's not like .zip will offer much more compression anyhow.

  26. This is a decent idea by zakezuke · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Microsoft Encouraging OEMs to Beautify Computers

    I'm not sure i'd want MS picking my color scheme, see the microsoft grovy wireless mouse as an example.

    But i'm all for breaking away from the ubiquitous beige box. Granted these days it's the ubiquitous black box, but the point is valid. A computer is a household appliance not unlike your TV or your dish washer. People go out of their way to buy matching washers and dryers. Dishwashers are often sold with optional faceplaces to match the kitchen. And there is always a tendy color of the decade such as avacado or almond. If microsoft wants to go out of their way to create color pallets, more power to them. Odds are there would be one that is not too offencive. It would be nice to be able to at the very least get a matching monior, keyboard, and printer.

    But most important, really most imporant I see is standarzing the size and shape and color of the power and reset buttons. This isn't an issue for slashdot users, but joe user and easily be confused with the placement of the power button. I'm not being insulting, you can spy them with ease if you look dead on but when the desktop moves under the desk, the only thing you can see is this round bit and this other round bit, where round bit could be sleep, reset, or off. And between the location and placement of power buttons on desktops, monitors, printers, well you can see where this would be an issue. This is one of those cases where it doesn't actually matter too much what the end result looks like, so long as there is something consistent. For example, no bugger knows how to turn on my canon ip5200 printer, they alway hit the silver button next to the unlit LED which is resume stop, or the button dead center which is the front cover release.

  27. Photo stitching with Live Local by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on 3D Virtual Reconstructions From Microsoft

    MS Research does have this thing called MapCruncher that lets you stitch photos and overlay them on Virtual Earth (a/k/a Live Local).

    See their cool demonstration of a mosaic of photos the developers shot from their airplane: Forks, Washington.

  28. Photo stitching with Live Local by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on 3D Virtual Reconstructions From Microsoft

    MS Research does have this thing called MapCruncher that lets you stitch photos and overlay them on Virtual Earth (a/k/a Live Local).

    See their cool demonstration of a mosaic of photos the developers shot from their airplane: Forks, Washington.

  29. Re:In Other News: by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1, Funny · on One Laptop Per Child Gets 4 Million Laptop Order

    Would Bill the Intrepid Explorer really go on a Safari?

  30. Re:Okay ... but what's the difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative · on Vista Upgrade Matrix

    This isn't quite a chart of the different versions, but it's got the information:
    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/edi tions/default.mspx

  31. Re:Reliability by shakah · · Score: 1 · on "iSCSI killer" Native in Linux
    If you are going to use some sort of ATA based SAN be prepared for disk failures much sooner than if they were SCSI.

    ftp://ftp.research.microsoft.com/pub/tr/TR-2004-10 7.pdf

    Section 3 ("Operations Experience") starting on p 16 is interesting, along with Section 4 ("Conclusion") starting on p 19:

    "We already knew that SATA disks and white-box PCs could meet the performance requirements because of testing done in October 2003 [Barclay03]. We were frightened into thinking the failure rate of the SATA disk drives would be 100%. The actual annual failure rate has been 6.4% which is reasonably close to the 5.5% SCSI disk failure rate. The SATA drives combined with the reliability and performance of the 3Ware RAID controllers are formidable competitors to SAN technology at a fraction of the cost."
  32. Full defails by yoshac · · Score: 1 · on The Benefits of Hybrid Drives

    http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/sessionh .aspx?videoid=173

  33. Re:Maximum Writes for Flash Memory? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on The Benefits of Hybrid Drives

    From the paper at Microsoft.com (available at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/hybri d.mspx, have a read)

    NV Cache Flash Wear
    NAND flash memory is rated for a limited number of write-erase cycles before individual cell failure. The result is that heavy use of the NV cache could deplete the available capacity over time.

    To avoid the possibility of this happening, H-HDD vendors are likely to employ wear-leveling algorithms that spread the wear across all of the available flash blocks and extend the useful life of the entire cache. Also, ReadyDrive algorithms have been designed to limit the writing and erasing of contents in the NV cache, so even for the smallest NV cache sizes, the useful life of the cache is expected to extend beyond the useful life of the device it is packed in. If the NV cache does experience any wear, it will result in a smaller capacity NV cache and will eventually be treated as a standard HDD by Windows Vista. For larger NV cache capacities, proper wear leveling will ensure that this outcome is even less likely.

  34. Re:Not a transactional interface. by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Adds Risky System-Wide Undelete to Vista

    OMG, read the freaking man pages, n00b.

  35. Re:It can be disabled, right? by Otter · · Score: 4, Informative · on Microsoft Adds Risky System-Wide Undelete to Vista
    Incidentally, regarding "That is, unlike Microsoft Office's 'track changes,' files protected with 'Previous Versions' will not carry their documentary history with them":

    You use the Remove Hidden Data add-in to get rid of all that Office stuff. Strongly recommended before submitting a resume...

  36. Easy To FIx by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Buy A Legal Copy of The Same Release XP Pro or XP Home then follow the instructions in this tech bulletin http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; en-us;Q328874 You basicly go in and deactive windows through regedit then change the product key to a legit one using the activate windows routine. No need to reinstall. Only works on SP1 or higher

  37. Product Key Update Tool by dtfinch · · Score: 2, Informative · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    I think if you own a valid product key the exact same edition that you pirated, you can download a product key changer from MS that'll let you substitute your valid product key in place of the pirated one. They offer it in the WGA support forums to people who's systems came with XP, but later reinstalled the same exact edition with a pirated key. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=50346&clcid =0x409

  38. Re:XP Pro Corp to Home = No Repair by Kahless2k · · Score: 1 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    MS has a key changer on their site: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/purchase/UpdateIn structions.aspx
     
    Wont work with an OEM Key, but it does work for retail keys -> I've successfully changed several keys for customers of mine using this tool (you DO need a legit key though).

  39. Re:Simple... by lightning_queen · · Score: 1 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Actually, Microsoft ended support for Win98 and ME as of June 2006, and will be ending suport for XP SP1 in October. Win2k entered the extended support phase and will only receive security patches until 2010.

    I'm guessing XP Home won't be supported shortly after Vista comes out, mainly because new systems will most likely have Vista on them. XP Pro will probably still be supported, and may get lucky and keep the support for as long as Win2k has, depending on how much it's used on servers (one of the main reasons, I think, why Win2k is still supported).

    Because most users just want ease of use and familiarity. I love gentoo myself, but every Linux install that I've done so far has been tweaky, finicky, and just plain difficult at times. I like to play with it and learn, as it relates to my profession, but most users just don't want to put up with that. Windows, for the majority of users, just plain works.

    Aside from Gentoo, what versions of Linux have you installed and what kinds of computers were they on? Although I think every expert has some sort of tweaks they do to a given OS to make it run better, my experience has taught me that Windows can be as finicky, if not more so, than any of them. It's amazing the number of changes, processes that are turned off, and crap that's uninstalled before a computer leaves the store when a customer gets a customization on their new computer.

    Ok, so they may have to get used to a new way of installing programs (though, for a Mac, that's as easy as putting a file in a certain folder, which is nice), and may have to deal with a couple new names because of copyright restrictions, but it's not really anything that anyone can't handle if they take 10 minutes to learn their way around it. It's been proven that young children can learn their way around a totally new OS in about 5 minutes, even if their home computer is a different OS, but I guess that just goes to show you the deteriroration of a person's willingness to learn as they get older.

  40. Re:Let's get the answer out of the way by RemovableBait · · Score: 2, Informative · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    And if you know you don't qualify for their free offer, you don't even have to contact Microsoft to get your key changed.

    They actually make a little tool for updating your product key, so you can avoid googling for key changers (which may lead you to potentially dodgy websites).

    If you go and buy a boxed/retail copy of the Windows version you are currently running (eg, Home or Pro), you can update the product key by following these instructions. Or, instead of buying a retail version, you can buy the WGA kit or licence code direct from Microsoft by following the parent poster's advice.

  41. Microsoft Windows Product Key Update Tool by Mario+B · · Score: 1 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    This tool (Windows Product Key Update Tool) does exactly what you want

  42. Re:Let's get the answer out of the way by TheSpoom · · Score: 2, Informative · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Contact Microsoft.

    Seriously, it's pretty easy for them to change the product key / product ID of an installation, and you won't have to reinstall anything. Plus, I doubt they'll care that much that you pirated in the first place if you say you want to purchase a legal version now.

    It probably doesn't apply to you, but if your mom didn't know she received an illegal copy, she could actually get a complimentary Windows license. However, she'd have to rat out said teacher, would have to have bought the counterfeit Windows (and have a proof of purchase), and the counterfeit itself would have to be "high quality".

    Otherwise, the prices are still quite cheap by Windows standards. See Microsoft's Genuine Windows XP FAQ for more details.

    To get the kit, go through Windows Genuine Validation, either by attempting to download something that requires validation or by installing the Windows Genuine Notifications update and subsequently getting the nag screens (which link to a more info page which should allow you to get the kit).

  43. Re:Let's get the answer out of the way by TheSpoom · · Score: 2, Informative · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Contact Microsoft.

    Seriously, it's pretty easy for them to change the product key / product ID of an installation, and you won't have to reinstall anything. Plus, I doubt they'll care that much that you pirated in the first place if you say you want to purchase a legal version now.

    It probably doesn't apply to you, but if your mom didn't know she received an illegal copy, she could actually get a complimentary Windows license. However, she'd have to rat out said teacher, would have to have bought the counterfeit Windows (and have a proof of purchase), and the counterfeit itself would have to be "high quality".

    Otherwise, the prices are still quite cheap by Windows standards. See Microsoft's Genuine Windows XP FAQ for more details.

    To get the kit, go through Windows Genuine Validation, either by attempting to download something that requires validation or by installing the Windows Genuine Notifications update and subsequently getting the nag screens (which link to a more info page which should allow you to get the kit).

  44. Re:Buy a copy of windows by Duke+Blazingstix · · Score: 1 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    I'm surprised by the amount of complete misinformation being spread around here.

    The above tool: http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/c/e9c73 b60-bff1-4f03-b06f-d3cbe8f8d9f4/KeyUpdateTool.exe (also found, with instructions: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/purchase/UpdateIn structions.aspx ) is all you need to legitimize your copy of windows. I've used it a number of times on a number of machines, and it WILL convert a VLK (volume License Key, or Corporate) to OEM, and I assume it should do the same for a Retail key. No reinstalls, no loss of data, no fuss, no mess. You are Legit.

    The only thing I don't know is if it will go from a Professional VLK to a Home OEM. But in all practicallity, I'm sure you can find a Professional OEM key for under $100, at any number of hole-in-the-wall computer places.

    As for why they want to do it, who cares. Maybe they have no personal antithapy towards Microsoft. Maybe they want to be able to use Windows Update, or be able to download IE7, or Windows Defender? Maybe they want the warm fuzzies from not stealing? I don't care, I just know it's a dirt-simple thing to accomplish.

  45. Re:Buy a copy of windows by Duke+Blazingstix · · Score: 1 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    I'm surprised by the amount of complete misinformation being spread around here.

    The above tool: http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/c/e9c73 b60-bff1-4f03-b06f-d3cbe8f8d9f4/KeyUpdateTool.exe (also found, with instructions: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/purchase/UpdateIn structions.aspx ) is all you need to legitimize your copy of windows. I've used it a number of times on a number of machines, and it WILL convert a VLK (volume License Key, or Corporate) to OEM, and I assume it should do the same for a Retail key. No reinstalls, no loss of data, no fuss, no mess. You are Legit.

    The only thing I don't know is if it will go from a Professional VLK to a Home OEM. But in all practicallity, I'm sure you can find a Professional OEM key for under $100, at any number of hole-in-the-wall computer places.

    As for why they want to do it, who cares. Maybe they have no personal antithapy towards Microsoft. Maybe they want to be able to use Windows Update, or be able to download IE7, or Windows Defender? Maybe they want the warm fuzzies from not stealing? I don't care, I just know it's a dirt-simple thing to accomplish.

  46. Re:Careful before you buy by Mr.+Essen · · Score: 0 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows
    Choosing this option will not delete anything on the drive other that what is in the windows folder. All of their files will still be available by navigating to the "Documents and Settings" folder.

    I know it is a dirty mess but it is the only way to go from one version of Windows to another while still retaining the contents of the hard drive.
    This will also delete the registry, and you will have to reinstall all the programs. If they don't have too much data to save, it's better to backup it and format.

    They can use the Backup utility for this purpose. This will save all their documents and settings.
  47. Re:Simple... by AngryUndead · · Score: 3, Informative · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Microsoft will be dropping retail support for XP in December 2007 or January 2008, and corporate support in December 2008

    You are dead wrong. Stop spreading the FUD. What I think you meant to say is that you won't be able to buy a copy a year after the release date of Vista. According to Microsoft, mainstream support for Windows XP will end two years after Vista has been generally available. So, we're looking at the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009 at the very least (depending on how bad Vista slips), followed by extended support for quite a few years, 3-5 from looking at the information they have.

    Take Windows 98, for example. They've supported that for eight (8) years now. Windows XP will probably not enjoy that level of support, but it still bodes well for the future of that system. Windows XP is in no way "soon to be dead". Especially with the huge amount of government use it gets. The government certainly won't be switching to Vista as fast as it comes out, I'd expect that to take at least one year. Until then, Microsoft can't piss off one of the biggest buyers.

    Anyway, I tend to ramble, but I think I've made my point about that.

    So why not take a small portion of the money that you'd spend on a soon-to-be-dead WinXP disk, and buy a nice big shiney 250 gig hd ($100) and load ubuntu, suse, or another real OS on it?

    Because most users just want ease of use and familiarity. I love gentoo myself, but every Linux install that I've done so far has been tweaky, finicky, and just plain difficult at times. I like to play with it and learn, as it relates to my profession, but most users just don't want to put up with that. Windows, for the majority of users, just plain works.

  48. Re:Simple... by AngryUndead · · Score: 3, Informative · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Microsoft will be dropping retail support for XP in December 2007 or January 2008, and corporate support in December 2008

    You are dead wrong. Stop spreading the FUD. What I think you meant to say is that you won't be able to buy a copy a year after the release date of Vista. According to Microsoft, mainstream support for Windows XP will end two years after Vista has been generally available. So, we're looking at the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009 at the very least (depending on how bad Vista slips), followed by extended support for quite a few years, 3-5 from looking at the information they have.

    Take Windows 98, for example. They've supported that for eight (8) years now. Windows XP will probably not enjoy that level of support, but it still bodes well for the future of that system. Windows XP is in no way "soon to be dead". Especially with the huge amount of government use it gets. The government certainly won't be switching to Vista as fast as it comes out, I'd expect that to take at least one year. Until then, Microsoft can't piss off one of the biggest buyers.

    Anyway, I tend to ramble, but I think I've made my point about that.

    So why not take a small portion of the money that you'd spend on a soon-to-be-dead WinXP disk, and buy a nice big shiney 250 gig hd ($100) and load ubuntu, suse, or another real OS on it?

    Because most users just want ease of use and familiarity. I love gentoo myself, but every Linux install that I've done so far has been tweaky, finicky, and just plain difficult at times. I like to play with it and learn, as it relates to my profession, but most users just don't want to put up with that. Windows, for the majority of users, just plain works.

  49. Re:Let's get the answer out of the way by jdbartlett · · Score: 1 · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Since he may need to reinstall anyway, might as well put it off until Vista is released and use its beta in the meantime:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/downloads/p roducts/getthebeta/

  50. Windows Genuine Advantage Talkback by tsvk · · Score: 5, Informative · on Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

    Now that Windows Update and certain Windows downloads require you to validate your copy of Windows before accessing the services (the Windows Genuine program), people have of course started having troubles with invalid product keys, etc.

    To help people sort out their Windows license problems, Microsoft have put online the Windows Genuine Advantage Talkback bulletin board, where Microsoft offers advice for people with license troubles.

    An interesting utility that I found mentioned there on the bulletin board is Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool, that shows lots of information about the license / product key of the current Windows installation.