Does Windows XP Help or Hinder?

Does XP piracy prevention features make it a difficult OS

[kapow]

I would like to use XP if it is a better system but not if it makes my life hell.

I have heard that there are problems if you need to re-install software many times (with different configurations) i.e. that XP has features to prevent sofware piracy and that these features make it difficult to make many changes to your configuration, installations etc.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[DaveN]

kapow i use 2000 at work and XP at home and i've chopped and change a few bits with no problems as yet.

upgrade 2nd harddrive
added webcam that sought of stuff

Personly i like XP but I'll stick with
2000 in the office for the time being.

DaveN

[DaveAtIFG]

I've read that there is a "corporate edition" that doesn't perform the "phone home validation check." It's probably a good deal more expensive and harder to find then the retail version.

[GWJ]

Hi,

Yeah we use the corprate version here, E.T. did not phone home (verified with packet sniffer on one install only).

I heard if you replace the NIC card that is a trigger for the phone home feature.

I heard that if replacing other items it was a total of five to retrigger the phone home feature.

Brian

[kapow]

Thanks everyone:

1. What does the "phone home validation check" do?

2. Are checks only made when hardware is added or for software too?

3. Are checks different if you install new Microsoft software to other software e.g. Photoshop, 3D Studio (fancy graphics stuff).

[kapow]

* bump *
any more help appreciated :)

[DaveAtIFG]

Maybe you want to read a review? ZDNet has one [zdnet.com] that answers all of the questions you've raised so far.

[Laisha]

Paul Lutus, the developer of Arachophilia, among many other things, has a Boycott XP page [arachnoid.com] which I found helpful when trying to understand the "product activation" feature.

This page, in fact, convinced me to do just that.

[Brett_Tabke]

Kapow, the phone home registration verifies your copy of XP. It also does other things.

From what I have read about XP, the biggest thing you should do is prepare first. This is above and beyond what you may have done to prepare at other times. This isn't upgrading from 95 to 98 or ME - this is a new OS and has all kinds of peculiarities you need to know about in advance.

- Check through your most often used programs. Are they pure windows programs? If so, no problem.

- Any dos programs still in your daily mix? If so - check throughly that they will work! Most DOS programs that use extended memory in weird ways will NOT go on XP. (I've got 6 I use daily that will not run under XP).

- Hardware drivers. Check, recheck, and double recheck that each piece of your hardware will work under XP. There needs to be a specific available driver for it. Don't count on anything from 9x working. If in doubt -- this is Microsoft -- it won't work. Don't risk it.

- I would strongly advise against trying to upgrade 9x. Start from scratch. This is Microsoft. They have the install system figured out, but 'upgrading' is dicey. Clean out that old software and junk running around your system first. Programs have thrown so much garbage into registeries and directories, that you need to clean that junk out and start fresh.

- If you _must_ upgrade, zip backup your current system and password protect the zip in a stand alone file before proceeding.

[kapow]

Thankyou everyone

This is interesting AND HELPFUL reading.