[geeks] Windows XP, and activation

[velociraptor]

On 10/31/06, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com> wrote:
> Since so many games are "requiring" Windows XP, I'm thinking about
> downgrading from Windows 2000 to avoid the hassle of hacking installers
> to get around it.
>
> However, I want nothing to do with the activation crap, phoning home,
> etc, so I would appreciate some good references to fixing that problem.
>
> I've found good information on cruft removal to basically return it to
> what Win2k was, so I'm good there.
>
> I think Microsoft's mission in life is to put users through hell.

I concur with the general consensus that volume license key/corp
key/OEM key is the easiest way to get around the issues.

If you can't scrape one of those up, there are some folks who are
aggregating updates out there for getting around the WGA business.
Some folks are building "slipstreamed" SP2 iso's that have the WGA
work-arounds built in as well (with keys).  I don't have any URLs
handy at the moment, though.  Googling will probably bring up some
likely candidates.

Even if you end up installing WGA with an invalid certificate of
authenticity, you can still get updates, but you can only receive them
through the XP update facility (i.e. you can't use the IE-based web
interface).  To avoid having them installed automatically, just set it
to download and notify or notify only.  This is on the XP security
settings control panel thing.

=Nadine=