Operating systems
 

My parents have windows millennium edition on their computer but i want to put windows xp on there,can i use the back-up disc i got with my new computer,instead of forking out for the new OS?

Any ideas would be great,they have just got broadband but the computer is having serious critical errors and they dont have the windows millennium disc.

Thanks
Jason

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No - you need to buy the software, as the licence has to be activated.

You may be able to get away with an upgrade, but you will need to buy something.

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I thought that about the registration.

Anybody got a cheating way to do it?

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Not here they haven't, and if they have, it would be deleted if it was posted.
Just go and buy it, it saves hassle and you wont be breaking the law.

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Jason,

As Roy says, it is not worth the hassle of dodgy Windows copies. Firstly you would be breaking the law. Second you wouldn't have access to any updates(and we all know how often this is required).

What do they use the PC for? If it is just for email/Internet, Office and photo editing there is a free OS that will do this without any of the security issues that come with Windows. i.e. NO viruses, Spyware, Malware. All software is effectively free. It will do a lot more as well, it all depends on how much you want to install. Because of its inbuilt security it would be difficult if not impossible for them to mess it up. It is also extremely stable( I had a old P2 300 running for ~3 years without even a reboot)

It is called Linux. There are many distributions, probably the most end-user friendly is Mandrake although both Suse and Fedora have their fans.

Ian

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They will only be using it for surfing and emailing.

I'll have a read up on linux!

Thanks

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Jason,
What sort of kit does yuour parents have? i.e. what spec PC, make/models of graphics/sound/modem/owt else.

For newbies I would recommend Mandrake, they have even gone out of their way to make it look like XP.

www.mandrakelinux.com

If you wnat to ask any questions feel free to PM me

Ian

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Is there any way it can be emulated?

My computer has dual OS (98se and XP), and I don't want to start repartitioning my drive

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The whole point of running linux is so that you ARE NOT running windows!! Emulating linux from windows is pointless. I am not sure about mandrake linux but suse linux will automatically partition your hardrive and give you a boot menu so you can pick between your windows installs and your linux installs.

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Decided to get xp on it,got a guy coming out tomorow to do it.

£30 for the upgrade!

Thanks for your help.
Jason

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Footnote:

It was missing dll's......cant understand what happened to them.........that was the problem with it.

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Maybe this should have been done a year ago when I first got the machine.

I only have a 80gb hdd, 10 of which is for 98. I don't really want to start again with a fresh install - it takes longer and longer to copy all the stuff I need to CD, and then back on to the pc again!

Anyone got any tips on how to do a backup quickly?

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£30 for an upgrade.
I bet you dont get an original CD and licence for £30. :)

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Yup - external hard drive. I have 2 solutions for this, 1 tiny ibm thing which is usb2 and has a 40gig laptop drive in it and 1 5 1/4 external drive bay that takes full size 'large' hard drives. These things are not that expensive really, especially when you consider the time it takes you to do backups to cd!


Hmmm... thinking again... I am laptop based so I have to go external hard drive, cheapest and fastest option for you is to shove another drive in your computer and copy everything across.

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If you are shoving another disk in the PC then why noy just stick Linux on that, No need to repartition the main drive at all. Disks are dirt cheap nowadays, £60 will buy you oodles of space. If you want to put it in an external USB case they are ~£30.

Mandrake will also repartition automatically and add the bootloader etc. It is probaby one of the easiest installs going. I reckon on about an hour start to finish including all the software, Office suites, Browsers, Email clients, Games, etc.


Jason, I too think you won't get the license or disk for your £30. In other words, it will be a dodgy copy. One where when you connect to update you will be blown out at best, reported to FAST at worst.

ian

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I will let you know how it goes tomorrow and what happened.


Jason

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Not many pro's would do the job for £30 even without supplying the software.

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I agree, a pro should be looking at £30/hour minimum for his time, Installing Windows is at least a 2 hour job.

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The old PC has Windows Millenium on it so i would agree with your 2 hours. XP might run slow on the PC as well. What sort of spec is the PC Jason?

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I've run XP on as low as a P2 266 with 128M ram. It was OK when it was running but some stuff took a while in starting up.

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It took him about an hour and a half or so to install windows xp professional edition,Norton antivirus/firewall and the broadband,and all my dads hp office etc.
My parents are now happy with everything!!
I also have a boot up disc now as well!!

So it has all worked out ok.
......But thanks for your input!!

Jason

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So it was a dodgy copy then

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I can go to windows update and update no problems,what does it matter as long as the bloody thing is working!!
It's just like having a dodgy copy of an album downloded off the net.

Anyway i'm done with this one!!

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At the moment you can get updates but it doesn't take long for Microsoft to notice multiple PCs with the same serial number connecting for the same updates from multiple IP address's. Then they block that serial number and you are stufffed.

Also I find it strange that people are prepared to pirate so much software . How would you like your employer dropping your wages to 1/10th of what they are? Software has been written by someone who does it (on the whole) as a method of employment. It has normally taken years of training and a lot of time to produce software of commercial quality. By pirating it you are taking money out of that persons/companies pocket.

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With profits like those below Microsoft could sell its software for a tenth of its current prices and still make good profits.

Microsoft Profit Up 11%; Forecast Is Mixed

By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 22, 2004; Page E05

Microsoft Corp.'s quarterly earnings rose 11 percent over the comparable quarter last year, but projections for the current quarter were mixed.

For its fiscal first quarter, which ended Sept. 30, the company announced a profit of $2.9 billion, up from $2.6 billion. Revenue was $9.2 billion, up from $8.2 billion.

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Irrelevant.

BT could give everyone free local calls and still make a profit, as same exchange calls do not cost them anything.

Pirate software/music is theft, and it doesn't matter how many statistics you can churn out

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I'm actually surprised they are so low. I used to work for a bank. This year they put in profits of nearly twice what Microsoft have done. For a company whose software is sold worldwide and is commonly accepted as the most popular OS in a market of how many billion people £2.9 billion is peanuts.

Vorlon is quite right though, it is theft. I always said, someone who is prepared to steal software has done the same as someone who breaks in and steals your TV. Yet one is deemed 'acceptable' teh other we scream at our politicians that they aren't being punished enough.

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It is theft I agree.

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To be fair, it's not the same.. You're breaking copyright laws etc, but you're not actualy STEALING the product.. They still have the original, and can still sell this to somebody else. If you steal a TV, then the person who owns the TV can't use it anymore, it's not there, they havnt produced a copy for them.

Now i'm not saying by any means that copying software is right, just in my opinion, it dosnt harm anyone if you never intended to buy the product in the first place. if I didn't have any legit Win Xp serials due to various pre-built products i've bought in the past I'd use a cracked copy because I certainly won't be paying £80 or whatever for the OS.
If cracked copies were unavailable, I'd use a free version of Linux (Infact i'd even pay for Linux disks because they actualy charge what I deem reasonable prices).

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You may not see yourself as stealing the product itself, but you are stealing money from the owner of said product.

As Entwisi says, people train for years and work hard to get these products to the general public.

I can't help but feeling that the reason why software is so expensive is due (in part) to piracy.

They have to recover their costs somehow.

And as a postscript, you are actually stealing the product. You didn't have it before, and you obtained it illegally.

What would you call that?

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You would think they could make it work properly then wouldn't you.

There is no come back to the software companies for selling half working software.

If you bought a new car and the brakes failed just because you were steering and indicating at the same time you would not be too happy. :D

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There is a slight difference between a piece of software and a serious safety issue.

That is why I can't see software running our lives in the near future, and here I am referring to things like Skynet in the Terminator films

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If you have modern ABS brakes you rely on software every time you press the brake pedal. :eek:

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I agree that Microsoft do get away with selling a product that is sub standard. However there is an option available to you. Don't use that software.

Cars are often released with problems and have to be recalled. In fact in one instance despite a serious safety issue Ford did not recall the cars because 'it is cheaper to deal with any ensuing law suits than to fix the problem'

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Again, i'm not saying it's right to break copyright laws, because it's not.

Now, how am are people stealing money from the owners if they never intended to buy it in the first place?

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Because you are using a product that costs money, but you have not paid for it.

The money that you would have spent, if you were using the product legally, would have found its way up the supply chain back to the owner of the product.

If you never intended to buy it in the first place, you shouldn't really be using it, especially as there are other similar products that don't cost anything (see Entwisi's post)

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If people never intend to buy the product then the owner wouldn't get any money regardless of if it could be downloaded or not.
It's the same with Music, when the music industry claims that all the songs downloaded would have been bought if people didn't download them..

and like I said, I own several Win xp cdkeys, and use Linux, just saying I don't agree with a lot of stuff.