Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

On 2 July, 22:11, August West wrote:
The entity calling itself [email protected] wrote:



"Cynic" wrote in message
.. .

I always get my replacement PCs with no OS on them at all, and then
use the same copy of XP that I have used on all my previous PCs.
AFAIAA that is perfectly legal.

If its a retail pack its legal as they are transferable.
If its a cheap OEM pack it is not legal to transfer it.

So MS claim; the actual legal status and/or enforcability of that claim
is not at all certain.

Personally I wonder why anyone cares. I installed a genuine copy of
Windows 7, and then ran a crack which took 30 seconds (WGARemove I
think it was called), and it now runs fine without any activation. I
also have Office 2010, again cracked in minutes. Same with Adobe CS5,
which I don't even think required me to patch it. And my firewall
(Eset) I have working on a "deny all except what I expressly allow"
basis, which keeps all this software from calling home and
deactivating itself.

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

On 02/07/2010 20:47, J G Miller wrote:
On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:30:48 +0100, Adrian C wrote:

The debit card 'security' the previous owners had in place caused my
bank account to be completely cleaned out by a crooked member of their
staff.

How long ago was that?


April 2002.

Was quickly sorted out by my bank once the details of the fraud came to
light, and I had reported it to the Police. It seems after that, the
banks sorted Dabs out by disallowing them to carry on handling debit
card transactions.

Of course back then, Dabs's publicity span it around the other way, and
blamed fraud being done to them from some customers ...

It's a very different company today since the BT takeover. Been a while
since I've ordered IT stuff from them but no problems when doing so.

Lesson learned though NEVER to use a debit card online with anyone!

--
Adrian C

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

In message , Cynic
writes
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:56:07 +0100, "John Turner"
wrote:

I then went to a small local independent computer shop, who sold me the same
PC for a fair bit less money and installed a genuine copy of Windows XP
without extra charge.

Sounds very much as if it might be a pirate copy of XP.

I thought that there was always the option to "downgrade"

I think that a vista key is good for XP too


--
geoff

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

In message , james
writes
In message
,
Ste writes

If I contrast that to something like Amazon, which I don't normally
use anymore (I use Pirate Bay instead for that kind of purchase)


Normally I'm happy to buy from the Amazon. In about four years of
purchases only one order has gone awry. Oddly my monthly orders for
DVDs always arrive from a Jersey trader, probably a VAT evasion or
avoidance finagle, who always send DVDs in individual packet rather
than post them in a single package. I confess I don't always worry
about the cost.

http://www.out-law.com/page-5855


--
geoff

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

The message
from geoff contains these words:

In message , Cynic
writes
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:56:07 +0100, "John Turner"
wrote:

I then went to a small local independent computer shop, who sold me
the same
PC for a fair bit less money and installed a genuine copy of Windows XP
without extra charge.

Sounds very much as if it might be a pirate copy of XP.

I thought that there was always the option to "downgrade"

That's true, you could always wipe Vista and then install winXP against
a winXP key (or win2k with a win2k key for that matter).

I think that a vista key is good for XP too

Only in the case of the OEM versions of Vista Business and Vista
Ultimate and only to winXP Pro. To do this, you must have a winXP Pro
install CD (either supplied by the OEM or otherwise acquired by the end
user - it's not clear, in this latter case, whether it can be any
version of winXP Pro) from which to do a fresh install after wiping
Vista.

When you get to the point in the install where you enter the CoA
product key, you can't use the Vista key directly, you will have to use
an XP Pro key (it doesn't matter if it's already in use on another
machine[1]) in order to complete the installation and move onto the
windows product activation screen where you'll have to select "activate
by phone" and explain that you're downgrading from Vista to an ms
support guy which is when that Vista key finally comes into the picture.

It's not the straightforward process some might have expected. It does
involve interaction with ms support over a toll free number to apply
your "Downgrade" rights using the Vista Business or Vista Ultimate CoA
key which is a bit of a pain. However, if you're "downgrading" to winXP
Pro from a qualifying version of Vista, it's worth this extra hassle to
avoid paying for an OS you didn't want.

[1] In this case, as long as the preinstalled version of Vista is a
qualifying one, it doesn't matter if the retailer used a "pirate copy"
of winXP Pro to "downgrade" since it would have been activated against
the Vista CoA sticker on the computer case.

HTH

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

On 03/07/2010 01:01, geoff wrote:
In message , Cynic
writes
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:56:07 +0100, "John Turner"
wrote:

I then went to a small local independent computer shop, who sold me
the same
PC for a fair bit less money and installed a genuine copy of Windows XP
without extra charge.

Sounds very much as if it might be a pirate copy of XP.

I thought that there was always the option to "downgrade"

I think that a vista key is good for XP too


Downgrading rarely works as half the hardware won't have a driver ;-(
I hate Vista - what a poxy search engine.

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

In message , Paul
writes
On 03/07/2010 01:01, geoff wrote:
In message , Cynic
writes
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:56:07 +0100, "John Turner"
wrote:

I then went to a small local independent computer shop, who sold me
the same
PC for a fair bit less money and installed a genuine copy of Windows XP
without extra charge.

Sounds very much as if it might be a pirate copy of XP.

I thought that there was always the option to "downgrade"

I think that a vista key is good for XP too


Downgrading rarely works as half the hardware won't have a driver ;-(

What are you talking about ?

I'm saying that you can install XP in preference to Vista

I hate Vista - what a poxy search engine.

--
geoff

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

On 03/07/2010 18:22, geoff wrote:
In message , Paul
writes
On 03/07/2010 01:01, geoff wrote:
In message , Cynic
writes
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:56:07 +0100, "John Turner"
wrote:

I then went to a small local independent computer shop, who sold me
the same
PC for a fair bit less money and installed a genuine copy of
Windows XP
without extra charge.

Sounds very much as if it might be a pirate copy of XP.

I thought that there was always the option to "downgrade"

I think that a vista key is good for XP too


Downgrading rarely works as half the hardware won't have a driver ;-(

What are you talking about ?

I'm saying that you can install XP in preference to Vista

Not if the new fandango laptop you just bought came with Vista on it,
and you hate Vista...

Try taking Vista off - ie reformat, and putting XP on it...no XP drivers
exist as the hardware was built AFTER XP ....why would they write a
driver for some old software.
Thats downgrading - trying to go back one OP system..








I hate Vista - what a poxy search engine.

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

On 3 July, 23:28, Paul wrote:
On 03/07/2010 18:22, geoff wrote:





In message , Paul
writes
On 03/07/2010 01:01, geoff wrote:
In message , Cynic
writes
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:56:07 +0100, "John Turner"
wrote:

I then went to a small local independent computer shop, who sold me
the same
PC for a fair bit less money and installed a genuine copy of
Windows XP
without extra charge.

Sounds very much as if it might be a pirate copy of XP.

I thought that there was always the option to "downgrade"

I think that a vista key is good for XP too

Downgrading rarely works as half the hardware won't have a driver ;-(

What are you talking about ?

I'm saying that you can install XP in preference to Vista

Not if the new fandango laptop you just bought came with Vista on it,
and you hate Vista...

Try taking Vista off - ie reformat, and putting XP on it...no XP drivers
exist as the hardware was built AFTER XP ....why would they write a
driver for some old software.
Thats downgrading - trying to go back one OP system..

Do not go back to XP. Go forward to Windows 7. Unlike Vista, Win 7 is
an unmitigated improvement over Windows XP.

Choosing retailer for mimimum complaints
 

In article ,
Paul wrote:
On 03/07/2010 18:22, geoff wrote:
In message , Paul
writes
On 03/07/2010 01:01, geoff wrote:
In message , Cynic
writes
On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:56:07 +0100, "John Turner"
wrote:

I then went to a small local independent computer shop, who sold me
the same
PC for a fair bit less money and installed a genuine copy of
Windows XP
without extra charge.

Sounds very much as if it might be a pirate copy of XP.

I thought that there was always the option to "downgrade"

I think that a vista key is good for XP too


Downgrading rarely works as half the hardware won't have a driver ;-(

What are you talking about ?

I'm saying that you can install XP in preference to Vista

Not if the new fandango laptop you just bought came with Vista on it,
and you hate Vista...

Try taking Vista off - ie reformat, and putting XP on it...no XP drivers
exist as the hardware was built AFTER XP ....why would they write a
driver for some old software.
Thats downgrading - trying to go back one OP system..

I bought a laptop in March last year. It came with Vista pre-installed and
also XP discs. I simply installed XP.






I hate Vista - what a poxy search engine.


--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16