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BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hi, When installing XP on any of the Dell systems I have, there is no XP activation necessary. I was wondering, does anyone know what it is about Dell's BIOS which causes this? My assumption would be manually plugging a DELL or some similar term somewhere in the BIOS would permit activationless XP... I'm unsure manually plugging in the term DELL to a patch myself in my home (or similar term) would be violative of any trademark or copyright anyway (it's legal to type Dell for example here, thus it exists in my memory). Anyway, it'd be interesting to read any thoughts people may have about why Dell systems avoid activation and if it's possible to mimic the feature, then question concerns about the legality if possible. Thanks 05-12-2002 19:16:35

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile Huh? Sure never heard of this before, either on this board or anywhere else. The Corporate XP edition requires no activation, the others require activation after forty days I think. Perhaps your version is somehow the corporate version....don't know how you could tell though. As far as putting the word "Dell" in the BIOS.....that would be a good trick if it worked, not legal though. 05-13-2002 04:15:26

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile I'll be damned....check this out. http://delltalk.us.dell.com/messages/message_view.asp?name=sw_winxp&id=zyqls 05-13-2002 06:35:52

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) mbaha Profile "If you install Windows XP by booting to the CD you will not have to activate your copy of Windows XP since it incorporates System Locked Pre-Installation (SLP). " http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=1053642 ZYXW- I think you are talking about the restore CD for a dell computers. You do not have to activate that because it is computer specific. hack your own you will love it more 05-13-2002 08:20:52

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) 02U2 Profile Compaq also uses a similar type SLP on OEM Win 98. That is on the "Compaq" supplied OEM Restore Win 98 CD. zyxw, Just curious, Is your Win XP CD Microsoft issued OR a Restore CD that is MADE by Dell? Microsoft issued CD is shiny silver holographic, May have a "NOT FOR RETAIL OR OEM DISTRIBUTION" banner on the left side of the spindle hole. 05-13-2002 17:13:27

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hi, It's a "restore CD" virtually identical to the one pictured in the link (blue and white Dell no hologram). It'll install on any Dell system though... and doesn't require product activation... over at http://www.ocaddiction.com/articles/os/xp/pg2.shtml it states the following ... "OEM copies shipped with new PCs will be far more lax. Microsoft says this accounts for around 90 per cent of Windows license sales, and that most of these will have WPA linked solely to the bios of the PC. So you can change anything you like without having to reactivate (or indeed activate, if the machine was one of the preactivated ones)." Thus activation is bypassed based on the BIOS, my question really is does the Dell WPA merely look for a Dell or similar string somewhere in the BIOS? 05-13-2002 19:02:38

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) zmoz Profile There is a pretty easy way around the XP activation, that involves some files you can find on various websites...I currently have 1 copy of XP running on my main computer, my old desktop, and my laptop... 05-14-2002 23:28:07

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) 02U2 Profile Carefull about those "exe files" some have trojans. 05-15-2002 04:00:16

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) zmoz Profile The one I found didn't have any exe's, just some long instructions and some registry things. Did Bill Gates actually think I was going to spend 200 bucks a pop to windows XP on my computers? HA! I hope he goes bankrupt.... 05-15-2002 11:03:48

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hi zmoz, Ok long instructions and "registry" editing... please post em here, it'd be an interesting read... thanks! 05-15-2002 16:55:26

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) zmoz Profile There was a file that added some things to the registry for me, and a dos batch file...and I had to restart into safe mode and make some of the windows system files not read only anymore. If you want the files search somewhere for "windows xp activation crack", you should find it. 05-15-2002 21:57:24

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) bystander Profile Zmoz How would you benefit from M$ going under? Windows seems to be your OS of choice. 05-16-2002 01:41:24

RE:BIOS and XP activation question (modified 0 times) zmoz Profile You don't think it would be funny if the richest man in the world was to go bankrupt? Especially when he makes 200 bucks each for a little round shiny peice of plastic...If M$ went under there would be replacements... 05-16-2002 07:58:16

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