Is That Pirated Software?

underpar writes "According to this ZDNet.com article, Microsoft 'has launched a pilot program in which some visitors to the main Windows download page are being asked to let the software maker check to see whether their copy of the operating system is licensed.' The check is not required, but after the desired 20,000 users go through the program they might change their tune."

Comments

Re:Buyer's remorse

[LurkerXXX]

Sure, you might not get the same price Dell gets, but if you even bother to look, you can buy a copy of XP off of many dealers on pricewatch.com for a under third of what that sucker paid. It's called shopping around, try it sometime.

Re:An experience with activating WinXP

[d3ac0n]

I know I'm going to get modded down for this but...

Can I ask WHY you aren't using a Corporate Key for your copy of XP? It's not like they are hard to get either. Do a google search for magical jelly bean keyfinder. Nifty little utility that pulls the CD Key from any running logged in copy of windows. Slap it on a USB Thumb drive. Walk into any corporation (or your job, plug in the thumb drive. XP will install it, then just run the app, and save the results to a text file on the thumb drive. Presto! One Coporate key! Use to you heart's delight as often as you wish! Of course, it's completely ILLEGAL to do this, so you didn't hear it from me. *wink* *wink* *nod* *nod*.