A note to persons running illegal copies of Windows XP

[kernow]

My copy is .. .oh wait I dont use windows

thank the lord.

[Resonance]

lol

[JazzFunk]

Wow. I had this update begging to be installed last week from around Monday. I relented on Thursday night when I was drunk (and didn't really give a ****). I was just glad to get rid of the yellow shield (which always stresses me a little bit.)

I selected the 'update' option, left it and it seemed to take ages, and was seemingly refusing to download the final third of the update. As I was tired and couldn't wait any longer, I tried to cancel the update but my PC was having none of it, and the 'turn off computer' option wouldn't let me shutdown, so I just pulled the plug out.

When I rebooted, nothing seemed amiss apart from the fact that my 'Internet settings' screen came up (which it didn't before) and I had to re-check the 'Never dial a connection' button. Apart from that, everything seems OK and the yellow update shield isn't there.

Now, I don't know if I have fully downloaded the update. I have a 2 year old Time PC, which I assume to have a legit XP installed. I can only say that I've had no warnings or any 'blue stars of death' in my toolbar.

Anyone know how to find out if this beast of an update is installed in my system and does my PC sound unaffected by this????

*(I get stressed by these things.)*

[segages]

This thread is funny. MS finally got their finger out and did something about their beloved crashing OS being pirated. Strange timing though. You'd think they'd be cocentrating on getting that disaster Vista out of the door sometime this century

Fortunately I waved goodbye to Windows years ago and never looked back, giving my shop bought XP to my brother. He's still one of the drones who panics if, when he boots up his computer, isn't met with a good 10 updates from Windows, Norton, Adware, etc, and a trojan every so often.

Serious question though - are these updates they're pumping out daily/weekly actually doing anything?

[JohnMcL7]

XP is not a 'crashing' OS...can't think of the last time I had any of my XP machines crash or need a hard reboot.

I'm surprised it's taken MS this long to implement something this strict, they should really have done it a while ago when Vista wasn't upcoming or implemented this much closer to Vista or after Vista's release to try and push people to upgrade to Vista. Of course I'm sure there will be a bypass for this but the more annoyances people have to use pirated copies of XP, the less likely they are to continue doing so.

John

[Baseley09]

There's no problem with Windows XP, there is a problem with a lot of Windows XP users.

[MJ]

I recently installed a legitimate version of XP Home Edition after putting up with ME and a low spec PC, by today's standards, for too long. I upgraded the PC first and it's all running brilliantly. I don't use IE though, Firefox for me. We use XP at work too without problems.

[kernow]

xp is alright as long as you're not dumb,

and you have virus protection

and a hardware firewall

it runs great, I use it all day at work and it never lets me down, its just not for me at home.

[marcus]

Someone I know says that he installed this update, now gets a message saying his XP isnt legit and his PC is unsuable.

So I guess its a case of disabling those automatic updates until those heroic cracker guys find another workaround for this one yet again.

[kernow]

Did he buy it? , if so thats pretty lame he can't use the official update scheme

[marcus]

I doubt it.

[kernow]

lol then, if people are complaining about it, they should just buy the OS , simple as that.

if you use it every day, you pay for it.

(or find something else)

[Ish]

I must admit I also don't understand the whingeing. Its not as if there aren'tgood (some would say superior) free alternatives...

[marcus]

I would never buy an OS unless I had to, but if my XP breaks then I wont be crying about it. To date, mines held up fine, today I got a batch of critical updates without a problem, if I did want to manually use Windows Update then its (last time I tried) a simple case of renaming a certain file and stopping a few services. I spend money on a awful lot of things, but software isnt going to be one of them wherever I can help it.

[kernow]

Its funny how most of the windows xp boys sing its praises but arent prepared to pay for it

I mean I'd pay for slackware. If I couldnt legally download it for free..