Activation Question (Please Don't Lock :(

[chopin1810]

I was just wondering why in activation they limit the times you can reactivate even if the hardware is unchanged. This doesn't really make any sense, I can see limiting the computers but reactivation times? Why? That's the worst part, I have to worry every time I reinstall Windows that my credits have run out.
Oooh, and I wanna know if this works:
http://netsecurity.about.com/od/wind...twinxp0829.htm

[AlexK]

yes, saving those two files worked for me with XP using SP1, but I haven't tried it with SP2 (theres no need to reinstall it at present).

Oh and whats the max number of times you can activate? So far in the last 4 years, I've activated XP twice and reinstalled it 4 times (just to speed it up a bit).

[chopin1810]

I wasn't keeping count but I installed Windows XP 8-10 times and when I was trying to do it again it would not activate. Eventually I figured out that my credits had run out. So I had to call Microsoft to reset my credit. I was answered by a machine who asked me my key, I read it, but it couldn't understand it, I went through this 3 times before it sent me to a lady in India who read me a 20 charachter code. She didn't ask me anything but the question "where did you purchase this product, online or in a retail store?" I said retail store (best buy). So they didn't ask me anything ridiculous like i guess they do to other people. I don't wanna have to go through this again so i hope that hack I found works.
Anyway Alex if you've only installed it 4 times you've got a while to go yet, I'd say six more times...

[pavlo_7]

I do not know for sure, but I would guess that it is for those people who do not know what to do in such case. How often people reinstall their windows? I know that some do it number of times a year. So, when they cannot reinstall it anymore, and assuming that they are not geeks, they would think that their windows has expired and it's time to buy a new one. So, it seems to me that it is a simple way to maximize marginal revenue at least a little bit (better something than nothing).

[DougMills]

What I do is use an activation crack I got off the internet and put on a cd. It's so much easier than counting your activations left. I hate that. What I do is pop the cd in after install, click on the icon, and it tells me I'm activated. What I don't like is the fact that people get so uptight about piracy that they inconvenience their costumers. Who are pretty much everyone else in the world that isn't in some apple fanatic or linux convert.

[peaceofpi]

WinXP Pro Corporate FTW.

[chopin1810]

What I do is use an activation crack I got off the internet and put on a cd. It's so much easier than counting your activations left. I hate that. What I do is pop the cd in after install, click on the icon, and it tells me I'm activated. What I don't like is the fact that people get so uptight about piracy that they inconvenience their costumers. Who are pretty much everyone else in the world that isn't in some apple fanatic or linux convert.

See, this is a good example of why anti-piracy schemes never work, I mean philisophically, when there's a law there's always somebody to break it or find a hole. This is very true in the world of network security.