Windows XP Home OEM version and legality issues.

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ashr

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i recently bought an HP DV5200 laptop which came preloaded with XP Home OEM . however, it also came with a ton of bloatware and poor drive partitioning of 83 + 10 (total advertised HDD space 100 gigs). they did not give me any windows xp cd either. the system recovery disk only restores your computer to factory state without giving you the options of removing the bloatware or specifying how you want your partitions.

the XP OEM key is on the bottom of the laptop though. i was wondering if i could download the OEM version of XP home off a torrent and use this key. would that be legal because i'm using a valid CD key or would it be illegal because i downloaded the CD off a torrent? i just wish HP had given me a proper windows xp cd in the first place :(

any thoughts would be appreciated. i'd like to maintain a legal copy of windows as much as possible even though it's only XP home.
 
as long as you have a valid cd key its ok no matter what your source is.afaik even those who install pirated xp's and call ms get only a new key and not the whole package
 
you can do one thing, clame that your CD is lost/broken and ask M$ for replacement CD by showing your KEY.
 
no MS will replace CDs only if i have a retail key. the key is have is legit but it is for the OEM version which is supplied only by the brands themselves. i asked HP but they said they don't provide the CD in India. abroad you can buy the backup CD for an extra 10$
 
hmm i downloaded an OEM CD and used my legit key but now it asks me for that 30 day activation thing :<
 
Preloaded XP doesnt ask for activation. Since u installed from the OEM CD now, it asks for activation. U cud activate the product online, or u cud call up MS toll free and get it done. Either way no harm as u have a legit key.

Last time i had checked on some forums (about 3 years back), there's a limit for the number of times u cud activate (say u do a format-reinstall, then u wud have to activate again) and the limit was 5 or something. still, not an issue i guess.
 
^^i have done a format+reinstall more than 10 times...no problems while activating.(well so far atleast...:D)

:)
 
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ashr...u get the winxp cd with the laptop. It says recovery-disk / software disk..but when u put it in the drive..the winxp menu comes up.
 
On my Compaq Lappy, the first thing I did was to goto Add/Remove Programs and uninstall everything except drivers. Its all bloatware as you said, but it does uninstall cleanly. After that you can install whatever you want.
 
@wolfff, most of the time uninstalling isn't enough if you want maximum performance.. there are so many registry entries lying in the registry for no reason. they also partitioned my 100 gig drive as 86 and 12. i didn't want that of course.

@smith, the HP laptops (well atleast my model) dont come with a recovery CD at all. the recovery stuff is in your hard disk on a separate partition which they ask you never to delete but its just a waste of 12 gigs. apart from that they only offer you a software that comes preinstalled which lets you create the recovery CD on your own by burning onto 3 blank DVDs or 14 CDs. even this only brings your laptop back to factory state with all the bloatware and the partitioning i mentioned above. there are no options for anything unlike a regular XP install.

my OS activated correctly but i think i can only do it a couple of times more :<
 
Rave said:
yours is a retail pack?
Click to expand...

sorry for the late reply :)
nah mine's an OEM one....As far as i remember i had reinstalled atleast 10 times and had no problems activating.
just make sure u r using the original CD tho.
i had made a backup cd of my original to keep it scratch-free but for some reason whenever i installed frm tht CD i cudnt activate...used the original one and it works perfectly.
:)
 
just activated my copy of windows xp home, the customer care was very helpfull, one call was all it needed.. :D
 
Ideallly in this case , you could call up HP support and ask the to send the cds to you . they should do it for free since DELL does it for free in the north americas .
 
To get around activation woes - image the goddamn disk right after an install, and then restore that image rather than activate every time. Of course if you change ur config, then you will have to activate again.
 
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