On Tue, 2006-11-28 at 19:56 -0500, Jim Cornette wrote: > Timothy Murphy wrote: > > Jim Cornette wrote: > > > >> I only had cell phones and no land line when my wife bought her a > >> laptop. We could not register at home even though we had high speed. We > >> had to wait and register when we brought the laptop over to a person who > >> had a land line to register. Some people say that they never had to > >> register, but authentication of the license had to be performed in some > >> manner. > > > > You (or maybe someone else) keeps saying this, > > but does one _have to_ "authenticate" Windows? > > I've installed several versions of Windows on virgin machines, > > and I don't recall having to be on the internet before Windows worked. > > I had to put in the secret 20-cipher code, and then Windows ran. > > > > As it happened, last time I installed I could not get onto the internet > > until I downloaded a driver for my WiFi device (on a different machine). > > > > I've heard references that non-networked versions of XP are alright and > will function until it connects to the Internet. This might have saved > you from the hassle until you got the wifi connected. I do not delve too > deeply into the innards of M$ policies. I did however have to curse M$ > on the phone when getting re-activation numbers over the telephone for > re-installed systems. > > Jim > New box had to be registered. Was over 30 days after it was put together by the assembler (custom design). I had to do it by phone as the box wasn't connected to the net (no network card) and it was a pain. What I have been reading is Vista is going to take everything that MS learned with WGA and expand on it. Commercial operations are going to have to run a registration server for their machines. These machines will have to phone home on a regular basis to make sure they are authorized to work. I also understand that this will be modified for Vista for the home user. WGA checks and authrorizations when updates are made/checked. Of course the proof will be when Vista is actually used.
