Windows 7 question

[thehydes]

Hi All

Having to buy a new laptop as french tower has just chosen a top story window to be thrown out of !!!!!!!

All new laptops etc have windows 7 as the installed program. Has anyone heard about having to pay extra to use this system after a 'probation period'.

Will be buying english, sorry

All postings, thanks for the help/ advice

Richard

[Pickles]

[quote user="thehydes"]All new laptops etc have windows 7 as the installed program. Has anyone heard about having to pay extra to use this system after a 'probation period'[/quote]

No. Not at all. Unless you mean the time limit that was on beta download releases (which a new PC would never have come with)?

Regards

Pickles

[Clarkkent]

Windows 7 has now been around for some time and is standard.

Sometimes some of the stuff bundled with it (so-called crapware) includes trial installations of Office 2010 and anti-virus software.

[Keni]

Ours came with a 60 day trial of Windows Works & Office 2007, after 60 days it dies or you cough up. I uploaded my 2002 version and use that!

[AnOther]

[quote user="thehydes"]All new laptops etc have windows 7 as the installed program.[/quote]Not quite true, they are getting harder to find but you can still buy machines with good old XP or Vista (please don't !), plus of course there is Apple and Linux.

[stella]

correct  as  mentioned  already...new PC's  should  be  fully  activated  with either  XP or  Win 7 normally,  unless  you  get  some  old stock!

You  may  find  some  that  have  say XP and a  trail  copy  of  Win 7  in  the box...so for this you will need  to  get a  wincracker  program  that  makes it  real...really easy  to do,  but  not  sure if  we  can  post  these  types of  things  here.

[Quillan]

Cracking W7 is not as easy as other versions. Quite often they appear cracked, run for about 6 months then fail. The idea from MS is that people get a good 'run' with their 'crack', think its OK then loose all their data when the system stops working. Mind you there are perfectly legal product around (Windows 7 Ultimate which is multi lingual) for just over £90 on Amazon which is cheap enough theses days.

Running cracked software is illegal, breaches copyright and may involve prison so don't do it.

[PaulT]

[quote user="Quillan"]

Cracking W7 is not as easy as other versions. Quite often they appear cracked, run for about 6 months then fail. The idea from MS is that people get a good 'run' with their 'crack', think its OK then loose all their data when the system stops working. Mind you there are perfectly legal product around (Windows 7 Ultimate which is multi lingual) for just over £90 on Amazon which is cheap enough theses days.

Running cracked software is illegal, breaches copyright and may involve prison so don't do it.

[/quote]

Microsoft are checking every 6 months that the copy of Windows on a PC is legal, so as Q says you might be Ok for 6 months and then......

[AnOther]

Checking only takes place via automatic updates and specifically KB971033 which checks for moody versions and flags the fact up to the user giving them a certain time period to regulate the situation.

If they fail to then do not lose their data (which should be safely backed up elsewhere anyway) but Windows goes into a minimal function mode making it, for all intents and purposes, useless. As always though it's a game of cat and mouse and where there is a will.......................!

[Quillan]

Yes your right, deleting data is probably a bit too strong but it does mean that it becomes as you said "useless". The only sure way to 'crack' it is to use a keygen to find an unused key but W7, like Vista also requires a product number which is also unique so by the time you have really cracked it you would have been better off buying a copy and lets face it they are pretty cheap compared to peace of mind these days. In the old days you could get hold of a Corporate key but even this has been tightened up now. If a corporate copy is found on a none corporate machine (there is a finders fee for engineers) then a new corporate key is given to the company which means every machine has to have the key changed. That's OK if you only have say 10 but some companies have thousands of machines so the key is guarded quite well because they don't want the grief or the embarrassment.

[halfblind]

Only just seen this subject.

It was mentioned briefly but one of the Linux OS'es about would be a good alternative. I have heard that some people have been successful in getting money back from Microsoft for the Windows licence on new PC's/laptops if they do not activate and install Linux instead.

I havent tried this but have been running Linux for about 4 years with no issues on all my PC's and laptops in my home. Only my son has windows for games.

Oh yes, and no virus problems - Radio 4 this morning - Make the switch and be more secure.