Please HELP!!

[Oom Rob]

Help and advice appreciated.


A couple of years back when I purchased my present computer I had them install Windows XP and a good anti virus package which they did and even my receipt indicates that I paid for this. (I had my computer built at our local Computer shop who have been in business for years and have/had a very good reputation and previously I had no problems with them). Recently I noticed that flashing up on my screen was the fact that I had an illegal copy of Windows installed. I went to the shop only to find new owners - the two brothers who had the shop previously had inherited it from their dad - seven months ago the brothers locked up the shop one Saturday night and dissapeared out of the country leaving thousands of pounds debt, numerous people lost their computers that the brothers were supposed to be repairing but in actual fact had repaired them, taken them to a Car Boot on the Sunday and sold them all then they vanished!! The new owner informed me that lately he has had at least a dozen people come into the shop with the same problem I have - all paid to have Windows XP put into their computers only to now find that it was an illegal copy put on - I know I should have demanded the XP disk at the time as I paid for it, but I was too trusting.

I have now obtained a legal copy of XP and want to insert it into my computer but being a computer 'idiot' I am not sure how to go about doing so.

Can one of you kindly advise me.

Thanking you in advance.

[TheDuck]

Hi oom Rob .. windows XP can at times not be straight forward

I am sure Ade will be able to help you

unfortunately, I have had people install it for me on all occasions, due to its reputation for previous poor installments

sorry to hear about the cowboys in your neighbourhood

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[mcamp999]

Rob

Having installed it on a number of occasions, you put the CD in and follw the instructions, it shouldn't prove too difficult.

Good luck

[TheDuck]

I told you it was difficult

[Jangar]

Rob

Having installed it on a number of occasions, you put the CD in and follw the instructions, it shouldn't prove too difficult.

Good luck

Just make sure that you do an installation (they may call it a repair or something just as weird) so that you get to keep all your personal data, emails, documents and such...

Sadly I haven't tried to upgrade from an illegal copy to a legal one yet, installed my copy on Venus's PC and it informed me it was an illegal copy and that I had 30 days to legalize it. I clicked on the legalize option and it asked me to enter the registration key, so perhaps that is all that is needed ?

I suggest you try that option if it is available as that should save you a lot of hassle.

:luck:

[Oom Rob]

Thank you all - it was an illegal copy - all is now legal, but being a "stupid boy" I did not save anything to disk before it was done - have to start all over, which in a way is a good thing because there was a lot of stuff that needed deleting anyhow.

A friend of mine who bought his Computer from a very well known organisation last year is now having the same problem. Like me XP was already on his PC when he got it and he never received any disc etc. When he attampted to legalise it they asked him for the registration key (just as Jangar had to do), but he did not have one. Contacted the store where he purchased it from and they could not help him!!!!

Can someone help me in this regard please - if one buys a PC from any of these well known stores and Windows XP or whatever is already loaded into the PC, are they company obliged to give you the disc from which the download took place?? I am fortunate in-that I have resolved my problem, but John is doing his nut about the fact that he bought his PC in good faith and now has no registration key to legalise it.

[Joan]

Rob, I bought my pc from Curries and it has Windows Xp loaded, the registration number is on the right hand side of the CPU

[Ade]

There are many pc distributors who now sell pc's without the accompanying cd. I bought one myself, in fact, from Comet.

I feel like I've an important piece of clothing missing without it, but have been using the pc for 2 years now with no probs. There is a protected copy of the installation on my hard disk but if that goes I will have nothing to reinstall from. This pc was boxed and sealed by HP. I guess it does help to stop illegal copying of the operating system, but I still find it annoying.

Sounds like you managed to reinstall ok tho'?
Are you sure you lost everything?
If you didn't format your disk during the process the chances are that all your files and stuff will be still be lying around somewhere....
You applications will also still be on the hard disk, but you won't be able to run them because your shortcuts will be missing and more importantly your registry settings for them will not exist.

Have a look in c:\documents and settings and see what users are there. You may find your old data stuffed in a directory within here.

To complete the tidy up you may could browse c:\program files and remove directories for applications that you no longer use. (NB. only delete the ones that you recognise...)

Ade