jawtheshark's Journal: Why doesn't Microsoft provide ISOs of their products?

So, I decedided to try the torrented Windows XP MCE ISO on my laptop. I reserved 16Gig for the partition, the rest will go to Ubuntu Linux. Why 16Gig? Well, I took 100Gig for Ubuntu Linux and kept the "rest" for Windows. (As everyone knows, a 120Gig hard disk, isn't really 120Gig)

Installation was a breeze. Worked from the first time, I took the drivers from the Fujitsu-Siemens website and installed them (Some guessing involved: You get to choose between a Broadcom and an Atheros Wifi drivers and if you don't know what it is, good luck!). After the drivers were active, I had an Internet connection and could try my luck with the dreaded "Activation". It's a bit weird: while typing in the code, the thing keeps telling you have an invalid code. After typing in the full code, it doesn't change: Only the "Retry" button becomes ungrayed. I thought: we'll that's it, this ISO is locked to HP. Still, intrigued by the ungrayed button, I pushed it and Windows told me that it was activated. Surprising, not intuitive at all, but it worked.

It's now pulling down the updates and if that works, I'll know for good if it worked correctly.

Still, this rises the question (to me at least) why Microsoft simply doesn't provide ISOs of their products. I mean, the keys are locked to specific version. You won't be able to use an XP Home key on an XP Pro installation disk. Heck, you can't even use an XP Pro license on an XP Pro Volume License Key CD. (I know, I tried.)

Personally, I think that providing the ISOs, would be positive for Microsofts image. I mean, now I had to jump through hoops, bordering legality (I mean, I did torrent the ISO!) Why don't they do it? After all, it's not as if you get the correct license key with the download.

Doesn't make sense to me.... I'd really like to understand the reasoning.

[Sidenote 1: I heard MSDN subscribers can download all version of their operating systems. It's just that being an MSDN subscriber isn't the cheapest thing to be.]

[Sidenote 2: I wonder what will happen in the future when the activation servers for Windows XP will be shut down. Okay, that'll be in 2014 according to their own documentation. However, in four years, my machine might still be completely usable since we've pretty much reached a plateau in computer-power requirements.]

Meh

[Captain Splendid]

activation servers for Windows XP will be shut down

If that happens, you can just crack it.

Re:

[jawtheshark]

Well, that pretty much defeats the whole intent of my journal entry, does it not? The whole point for me is to get my licenses in order: I try to (within the extent of possibility) not to pirate and use my valid existing licenses. If I cannot activate my copy, I will need to crack it which is possibly illegal depending on you jurisdiction and pretty dangerous since you never really know what the heck is within the crack. At least with the torrented ISO, I could be pretty sure by using and checking them f

oh yea

[arunn]

and then u start begging MS to activate by fone.. or follow the MS roadmap to 7 and beyond..

Re:

[jawtheshark]

I do not expect phone activation to be running if they disable Internet activation, for the simple reason that phone activation is the more expensive option. Personally, I've not been impressed with Window 7. My dad has it on a Core i7 laptop and I really don't like it. It /is/ Vista, tweaked and performance tuned, but it shows.

I'm always amazed that 7 is heralded by SlashBots as the second coming, which compared to XP it really isn't. Perhaps it's just that Vista was so bad that 7 seems good. Everythi

Re:

[johndiii]

Perhaps Vista was just the "lowering expectations" release of Windows. :-) It lowered mine enough to get me into OSX.

You know what they say about beating your head against a wall - it feels so good when you stop.

Re:

[jawtheshark]

Well, after a short three year trip in OS X world (and my abysmal experience with Apple hardware.... ), I went back to dual booting Windows and Linux.... Since about January 2008, I'm pretty much full-time on Linux (at work, at home from about September 2008). The only reason I actually did install Win XP MCE 2005 is that I'm still going to try to play Portal and I also want to make an image. The day that I sell or give away this machine, I put back the image I made today (ntfsclone FTW!). From my exper

Re:

[Tet]

FWIW, Portal runs flawlessly under Wine on Linux. For me, as of yesterday, I find myself in possession of a valid Windows licence for the first time since Win95. We bought a laptop for my girlfriend's business yesterday, and naturally it came with Windows. Of course, I'll be installing Linux on it today, so it will never have actually booted Windows, but I still have the licence, right? Presumably this means I can legally run a copy of Windows in a KVM virtual machine. Can I use whatever media came with the

Re:

[jawtheshark]

Presumably this means I can legally run a copy of Windows in a KVM virtual machine.

Forget that... My work laptop came with Vista Business. I decided to move it to a VM instead of taking up space on a partition. I only need it for occasional testing and snapshotting it means I can get to the default install. Very useful in order to document procedures for users. (It gives me an idea of what pitfalls may exist... like file extension not visible). Anyway, I used the Dell provided install disks (Dell prov

Re:

[Tet]

Alas, the activation will not work. It refuses to take the key of my Certificate Of Authenticity

Oh, OK. I'm currently taking a backup of the machine in its "from the factory" state. So from what you're saying, I should probably also activate it, then repeat, so I have two images, one pre-activation and one post-activation.

Check if your particular flavour of 7 is allowed by the EULA to be virtualized

Sigh. I should have known they'd go out of their way to make it difficult to do these things legally.

Last ti

Re:

[jawtheshark]

so I have two images, one pre-activation and one post-activation.

Good idea, prudence is always advised here. Also, if you ever want to resell the machine, dump the pre-activation factory image on it. I know it's weird for you and me, but it adds "value". Normally, if this is a OEM machine, the activation on the pre-installed image will be automatic. The COA is embedded in (or validated against) the BIOS as far as I understood and is somehow read. That's why BIOS upgrades may be unadvised on OEM machine