WinXP Product Activation ?!

[Gram123]

Hi.

I'm thinking about asking for WinXp from Santa, but I have a minor concern.
I am not currently in a position to connect my PC to the internet. I am using my brother's machine which is connected, but my own PC is sat in a box, waiting for me to move house.
As such, if I bought XP and installed it on my machine, the product activation would obviously not be possible.
So, what do I do?
Do I get it and wait til I've moved house (est. March 2002) and got myself connected before installing? Or do I install it, let the Prod Activation fail and then have to contact MS to get it running?

I am aware of the good and bad points of the OS, and MS assuming everyone is connected to the internet is certainly one of the bad points. Is there an alternative way to 'Activate'?

Thanks,
Gram

 

[angel]

From what I've heard, you also have the option to activate via phone.

 

[volrathxp]

you can 'activate' by phone as well

 

[Gram123]

Cheers guys.
My dad picked it up today, and showed me it to make sure he'd bought the right one!
Can't install it til Christmas day though...

I take it there'll be a UK number to phone - don't want to have to phone the States.

Gram

 

[perry123]

I am concerned in case for any reasn i change my pc or replace hard disk what would be the procedure to activate XP in new PC

 

[eggplant43]

The Win XP OS is set up for one set of software to one computer. Therefore, if you want to install it on a new computer, you must buy another copy as I understand it to prevent piracy. However, if you are wanting to move it from one system to another there are several ways that you can accomplish that by communicating with MS.

Here is what MS has to say about it (FAQ):

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/xp_activation.asp

Hope this helps.

 

[volrathxp]

hey kids, what's up... here's the skinny on WPA.

first off, when you activate Windows, the OS is tied to the hardware configuration of your computer, making it so you cannot install it on another pc. now you figure once you change out a piece of hardware you'd have to reactivate, but ms came up with a way of doing this. basically, once you change six devices you are required to reactivate. if you change 3 devices and a network card however then you are required to reactivate as well. for those oem boxes (dell, gateway, etc.) wpa is tied to the bios identifier so you can change out as much hardware as you please until you change your motherboard. microsoft has made reactivation really easy to do as well. as far as having to buy another physical copy of the program, ms has what is called a licensing program for home users (for us business users and pc techs, we already have this) so you cadn purchase licenses for the software and use the original cd you bought. hope i helped or discouraged any fears. thanks.

volrathxp

 

[derrekday]

XP pro doesn't require any activation, It costs double, but no activation, and has several additional features.
Derrek