Piracy?

G

garhof

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
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A few quick questions so that i can try and avoid some piracy issues.
i got a few copies of xp pro before any service packs came out. i've updated them, but now im thinking about installing a 200gb drive and putting windows on that partition. I dont really want to get another program to extend the partition past 137 or whatever it is once i get windows installed. is it piracy if i get a corporate version wiht sp2 on it and install if i still have the origional xp pro disc and cd key?
I think my company does this to their dell pc's when they set them up for new users, but im not sure if they have some kinda agreement with microsoft.

Thanks for any help.
 
From what I've seen the cd key comes with the disk when you buy it.

The newer key might not work with the older/different version.

I have XP Pro on a 200mb fat32 and it sees the entire disk just fine.

Just buy an OEM copy, I've seen them as low as $140. And you'll save yourself the grief later on down the road.
 
is it piracy if i get a corporate version wiht sp2 on it and install if i still have the origional xp pro disc and cd key?
Click to expand...
Yes. Using a corp disk is not kosher unless you have a corp license. Of course you would have to have access to said disk...

Where did you get your copy? How much did you pay? What makes you think it's not koshers?

You can call MS, and exchange illegal licenses for legal ones if you provide into on where you got it from. You'd have to dig up the link, but I have seen it floating around.

edit: sorry got the wording wrong on the question, though you wanted to know if you could install the corp SP2 (downloadable version) on a non-sp2 install.
 
garhof said:
A few quick questions so that i can try and avoid some piracy issues.
i got a few copies of xp pro before any service packs came out. i've updated them, but now im thinking about installing a 200gb drive and putting windows on that partition. I dont really want to get another program to extend the partition past 137 or whatever it is once i get windows installed. is it piracy if i get a corporate version wiht sp2 on it and install if i still have the origional xp pro disc and cd key?
I think my company does this to their dell pc's when they set them up for new users, but im not sure if they have some kinda agreement with microsoft.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

What you can do -at what would be legal from what i understand- is to use your regular WinXP discs as source to slipstream SP2 into them. For example, if you use nLite to create a slipstreamed SP2 disc, you can then install WinXP from that disc with you current CD key -even if it was only for WinXP without any SPs. That way you will not need to use a corporate version with a corporate key, but rather your own, legal key and a slipstreamed CD.

The WinXP key is not 'directly' tied to a CD, in such a way that all legit pre-SP1 keys should work for installing WinXP from a WinXP SP2 media. I honestly cannot see how this would be any different from installing WinXP (vanilla ;) ) and then upgrading the SPs later.

Let me recap my post:

You own:
disc A - Windows XP pro released prior to any SPs.
key B - a legal WinXP Pro key that you got with your CD.

You can create:
disc X - WinXP SP2 by combining the \i386 folder from disc A with the networked install of SP2.

Using key B and disc X you can install SP2 directly on your new HDD, without violating the EULA, provided this will be the only install that is running....
 
drizzt81 said:
You own:
disc A - Windows XP pro released prior to any SPs.
key B - a legal WinXP Pro key that you got with your CD.

You can create:
disc X - WinXP SP2 by combining the \i386 folder from disc A with the networked install of SP2.

Using key B and disc X you can install SP2 directly on your new HDD, without violating the EULA, provided this will be the only install that is running....
Click to expand...

An interesting aside here, which is fairly close to the original question:
What if he obtains a disc C, containing a non-corporate XP Pro with SP2, from a shady source, but uses key A to install it?

MS usually argues that you buy a license, not a physical copy, and following that line of thought this should be perfectly fine. (Not that I would be suprised in the least to learn that is isn't.)
It would, no matter the legality, be utterly impossible to distinguish from a copy installed from a legally made slipstreamed CD. ;)
 
HHunt said:
An interesting aside here, which is fairly close to the original question:
What if he obtains a disc C, containing XP Pro with SP2, from a shady source, but uses key A to install it?

MS usually argues that you buy a license, not a physical copy, and following that line of thought this should be perfectly fine. (Not that I would be suprised in the least to learn that is isn't.)
It would, no matter the legality, be utterly impossible to distinguish from a copy installed from a legally made slipstreamed CD. ;)
Click to expand...
The paper license is the legal proof of ownership not the method of install or the CD. The license type is still important, but that shouldn't matter because you can't use OEM keys on Retail.

As long as the paper license matches license type you are good to go.

Now if you install a pirated key code, but have a proper license you may run into technical issues, such as SP2 not installing.
 
I havent bought any of the corp disks. but i can get one, kinda shady though, thats why i was asking. I'll probably try to slipstream sp2 into my origional disk, that sounds like it could work pretty slick.
Last time i installed xp wiht no service pack on a 200 gig drive it was a bear to get it all in one partition, thats why i was hoping that it would be legal for me to "obtain" a corp disk and cd key & install, provided i still had my origional disk and cd key and it wasnt being used on another pc.

Looks like its time to search on how to slip stream a disk. Thanks for the help.
 
I wonder ... Given the way windows licensing works, does anyone think a scheme like this could be feasible?
* You can register a serial number with MS, binding it to your name and username/password.
* When you log in, you can download up to date install media (iso images would be good) for the products you have registred.

I don't see any immediately obvious flaws with this (except for the bandwidth use, but they can afford that), but there might be something I've overlooked.
 
HHunt said:
I wonder ... Given the way windows licensing works, does anyone think a scheme like this could be feasible?
* You can register a serial number with MS, binding it to your name and username/password.
* When you log in, you can download up to date install media (iso images would be good) for the products you have registred.

I don't see any immediately obvious flaws with this (except for the bandwidth use, but they can afford that), but there might be something I've overlooked.
Click to expand...
That would be VERY nice. I always need fresh iso's that I can rip apart with nlite. :)

You can download the x64 trial iso, thats what I am using right now. :cool:
 
All you need to do is use something like Nlite to make a streamlined disc with service packs on it.
 
Autostreamer is probably better for just slipstreaming the patch onto a new CD.

nLite is ok, it's just does more than slipstreaming...
 
Autostreamer is definitely the easiest method. You mentioned you had several copies of XP laying around. My question would be, why even bother asking about the clearly illegal corporate version, when you can just slipstream your existing CDs? Slipstreaming should be done anyway, to make sure the install media you use is at the latest SP level.
 
HHunt said:
I wonder ... Given the way windows licensing works, does anyone think a scheme like this could be feasible?
* You can register a serial number with MS, binding it to your name and username/password.
* When you log in, you can download up to date install media (iso images would be good) for the products you have registred.

I don't see any immediately obvious flaws with this (except for the bandwidth use, but they can afford that), but there might be something I've overlooked.
Click to expand...

This would be a very nice solution. Even if Microsoft did something along the lines of creating an account and requiring a valid, unregistered product key to do it, it's still feasable. But, alas, they don't want to make our lives easy.</obligatory jab at MS> :p
 
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