What Happens When I Press This Button?

November 2, 2006 7:44 AM

My personal laptop runs XP Pro which I installed using our company's install disc, which our nice IT guy lent me. To complete the install of IE7, you must hit a button which validates whether your copy of Windows is authentic. What will happen if I press it?

I know there are bypass installs out there, I'm just more curious as to what exactly will happen. Could it;
a) install because I'm assuming it's a multi-user licence
b) not install period
c) not install and send data to MS
d) not install and send incriminating data to MS
e) ???

posted by The_Partridge_Family to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Your company most likely has a site license and the check will validate your machine and do the install.

So I vote for answer a)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:54 AM on November 2, 2006

If you're in doubt, you should just ask the IT guy that loaned you the disc. It probably is a site license that the company is allowed installing on any number of machines ... but better safe than sorry.

You did say he was a nice IT guy so it's not worth getting him in trouble over. (So I vote against options c and d).
posted by DrSkrud at 8:07 AM on November 2, 2006

Unless your IT guy pirated the serial number a) will happen. You may have to download the genuine check executable.
posted by Mitheral at 8:09 AM on November 2, 2006

If your copy of Windows activated fine, then it'll work. If not, it won't.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:26 AM on November 2, 2006

Nothing bad happens if you run the check and it says your copy is not authentic. You'll get a little (text) speech and will be given the opportunity to buy a valid serial number. I installed a second copy of XP on a machine here at home because I was too lazy to find my other XP license #, and just skipped the activation, and this is what happened to me, I think, when I tried to install something from windows update.

One ironic thing is, as far as I can tell, the copy they were offering to sell me was cheaper than anything I've seen in stores.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:40 AM on November 2, 2006

If your copy of Windows activated fine, then it'll work. If not, it won't.

HA! NOT!

I have a laptop that got imaged off the corporate master image. When I tried to download something from MSFT and it ran WGA, it said I didn't have a valid copy. Even typing in the serial # off the bottom of my Dell didn't convince it. I had to call in to get a human to agree that I had a valid copy of windows.

I have no clue why it happened, but WGA sure as heck rejected an already-activated laptop for me.
posted by GuyZero at 8:50 AM on November 2, 2006

Create a restore point before doing the upgrade.

When I accidentally ran the validator on my illegal copy of Windows XP Pro, it still worked enough to back out the change.
posted by Slenny at 9:32 AM on November 2, 2006

I have a real, actual, valid, came-with-the-computer copy of XP Pro. It NEVER validates. I haven't had an update in over two years because it doesn't validate and I have better things to do than call MS.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:53 AM on November 2, 2006

Odinsdream, none of that applies if you have a Volume Licensing Key. "Using the VLK will bypass activation."

And my vote on the original question is (a).
posted by llamateur at 10:26 AM on November 2, 2006

The hatch will implode, and you'll wake up naked in the jungle.
posted by mkultra at 10:45 AM on November 2, 2006

So what are ways to bypass the validation check?
posted by sic at 2:22 PM on November 2, 2006

So what are ways to bypass the validation check?

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posted by Rhomboid at 2:59 PM on November 2, 2006