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Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows

Posted by ryuzaki0 on

PunkOfLinux writes "My parents are running a pirated copy of windows that my mom received from a teacher at school. My parents want to go legit, and buy a copy of Windows, but they are afraid of deleting everything and having to reinstall all their programs. Seeing as I know you guys will have an answer, I'm going to ask you: What would you do in this situation?"

3 of 601 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Let's get the answer out of the way by LoonyMike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, it's easy to google for it, provided you already know that the solution relies in a key changer.

  2. Do NOT fear the Windows Reinstall. by mikelieman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IF your folks are worried about a reinstall, they're NOT ready to survive a catastropic harddrive crash.

    Much less full reload to clear an infection.

    --
    Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
  3. I fear the re-install by RebornData · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry to go on an off-topic rant here, but...

    I'm a consultant who helps small business and home users. I can't tell you how many times I have talked to customers who (in the past) have had another tech come along and do a re-install without understanding all of the implications.

    There is value in a machine's configuration! The customizations, tweaks, and even icon arrangements people create to make their systems work and lives easier are time-consuming to recreate, and there can be a major loss of productivity if they have to re-do it all from scratch. I'm a professional, and it's not uncommon for it to take me 3-5 hours to do a good job of getting all of the software, utilities, and configuration changes done for a typical business machine. Just because you can rebuild your own gaming rig from scratch in two hours (because you do it once a month) doesn't meant that this is a course of action that makes sense for everyone.

    This is why I always recommend *full* backups of the entire system... not just "important" documents. And it's why I do a full re-install as an absolute last resort. I can count the number of re-installs I've been forced into in the last *year* on one hand.

    The good news is that if you know what you're doing (unfortunately many techs don't) VERY few problems require a rebuild. It's very possible to clean off even the "worst" infections fairly quickly, with high confidence that everything is gone. I charge a two-hour flat rate for *any* infection cleanup (including kernel rootkits), and that usually works out to my advantage. Hard drives often have only failed in a few sectors... I commonly am able to image the failed drive to a new one, and repair the windows install using a combination of sfc, system restore, misc subsystem fixes, and (in the worst cases) a repair re-install.

    The benefit to the user is that they get their machine back *exactly the way it was*, the same day, without a large repair bill. The benefit to me is that the customer is happy and calls me back the next time they have a problem... instead of cursing me the whole time they are trying to rebuild their system the way they had it.

    If you are a tech and haven't learned this stuff, you are doing your customers and yourself a disservice.

    -R