How old were you when this happened?

By Steven P.
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Marujan

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hey.this is still my passw for Gmail

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Jazmac

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The RIAA cut their teeth on FCKGW RHQQ2 YXRTK BTGGW 2B7Q8.  lol. We, er, I mean, those people used to worry about getting an email from them.

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dragontology

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21. My father was 52. I actually remember parts of that serial, at least the first part. I know they're randomly generated, but I liked to think it meant "F— GroupWise," referring to a competing email system to Outlook. I mean, I know it's random, that's just the mnemonic my mind came up with.

 

So yeah, short story. I had Windows 98 SE, bought the upgrade for my Windows 95 computer, or maybe I was on my second computer, I forget which. Anyway, my father told me Windows 2000 was more stable, and I asked him if he'd buy or burn me a copy of it. We were in a friendly arms race (I'd bought a $130 GPU, and he, not a gamer, bought a $600 one just to show me up, and ended up only using it for Flight Sim 98 — oh, he was literally a rocket scientist, although not exactly technically one) and he basically said no, get it yourself. So I put the word out with my friends, I wanted a cracked Win2k. Couple weeks, nothing. I didn't know how to download it (and/or didn't have DSL yet). I was at a yard sale, and this old widow was selling her husband's things. His computer was gone, but the desk was still there, and some CDs. I flipped through the CDs, and saw "Windows 2000" on the spine of one. So I grabbed it, and, covering the cover (being a little disingenuous here), I asked, "How much for the CDs?" She said $10 each. I slapped a couple fives on the desk, and shoved the disc in my pocket. She didn't see what CD it was, and didn't seem to care. When I got home, I realized I didn't have "Windows 2000 Professional"; what I had was "Windows 2000 Server." So I called my father up and told him what happened. He said it was basically just Windows 2000, with some extra server stuff. Which I would have no use for, but, otherwise, it should run just fine on a regular PC. Sure enough, I installed it and it said something about setting up a server. I checked the box for "Don't ask again" and hit Cancel. It ran great. Never saw a BSOD once. A week later, a friend came through with a cracked Win2k Pro. I asked if it was better than Server, and they said yeah, it has so much fewer services and whatnot that I wouldn't need, it would be even better. Well, I installed it, and it seemed sluggish, and I got a BSOD in the first week. Threw it in the trash and went back to my legit WIndows 2000 Server. Rocked that for a while.

 

I bought Windows XP on day one, and yes, it was my second PC. I got a free Compaq Presario for signing up for 2 years of DSL. Through EarthLink, I believe it was. Northern California, around 1999 or 2000. 566MHz Celeron, 64MB RAM, 10GB hard drive, CD reader (not burner). Decent for the time. My DSL modem was an unconventional PCI card, and it Would Not Work with XP. Best Buy had a great XP promotion. I know some of you got to remember this. You buy XP, you got a free CD, some RAM (and free installation of said memory), and at least a couple other things. I took advantage of this. And even though XP did not work due to no XP drivers for that modem, I kept XP because it would be more hassle to return it and then buy it later. And sure enough, that internal DSL modem died, and then they sent me one that did not work in Windows 2000. End of the road for my run with Server. I had to upgrade to Windows XP. And that was okay, I didn't really care for the colorful new interface, but once somebody ported the XP Media Edition exclusive theme (and they changed the name for some reason), I was okay with it, using that one. And then someone made a black one. The Media theme was two-tone blue on the taskbar, with a light blue Start button. The black one was two-tone black (flat black and glossy black) with an orange Start button. Both were pretty slick. I did not miss the Luna interface when Vista and 7 came out.

 

Thanks for this thread, OP. I like dusting off the Windows 2000 Server story a couple times a year. And the story of my friendly rivalry with my father. He taught me everything I knew about computers, up until he passed in 2002 and I began learning on my own. It's sad but also kinda funny, he never got to see the iPhone or Android. He woulda loved all that. He would have had the first iPhone (and he wasn't an Apple guy, but still) and he'd be developing his own Android ROM. Just the kind of guy he was. I don't feel too sad when I think about him. Instead, I think about how he would have loved all the new stuff coming out. He was a trip. Hated video games, but looked for exceptions. Like Tetris. And the MS Flight Sim games. And he would have loved the Rockband games, I'm sure. Games that weren't casual games per se, but games that people could get into without being "a gamer." Even odds whether he would have liked Minecraft or not. He'd be one of those guys building computers in the world, not actually playing the game. Or making Star Trek models.

 

But, enough of a tangent...

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DKAngel

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was 21 =]  but tbh all my pc's have allways played nicely with every version of windows i had. i had no problems with ME or even 2k and it was quick enough back in those days to do a quick reinstall =]

 

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heslo

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16 and still in high school... Ran all the betas (leaked and otherwise) and was excited when RTM leaked. I still remember the product key off by heart haha

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Brys

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I was 12. I remember back then I was scared to upgrade from 98 because all those old games were supposedly not working on winNT, 2000 and XP, it kept me off XP for a very long time.

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Dick Montage

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21 I think.  I was an absolute ###### to my mate too - I snuck in, copied his disk, wrote down the code and ripped him off totally.  Feel like a jerk for doing that!

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vf-

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21 hours ago, Steven P. said:

volumenlizenzkey.jpg

 

Windows XP was released to general availability on October 25, 2001 but the RTM happened at the end of August, after which it was leaked, and the infamous shot above happened.

 

But, how old were you when it leaked at the end of August (RTM was August 24, 2001)

 

I was 28!

Hmm, October 25th you say? I could have sworn I bought an OEM copy from a local shop with all the fancy hologram stickers on the 21st? As I remember turning 21 a few days later.

 

The year of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. :D

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Steven P. Administrators

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25 minutes ago, vf- said:

Hmm, October 25th you say? I could have sworn I bought an OEM copy from a local shop with all the fancy hologram stickers on the 21st? As I remember turning 21 a few days later.

 

The year of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. :D

Microsoft gave me and @Redmak a boxed copy and a HP printer https://www.neowin.net/news/neobond-and-redmaks-big-day-out:p 

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vf-

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Great day when XP was first installed. Not having to put up with the awful looking icons of Windows 2000/98. How smooth everything looked on the desktop. Then all the Luna/theme craze for many years to come.

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Tidosho

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I was 16, oh the memories! Bought a Packard Bell iMedia PC with Windows Massive Embarrassment on it, the number of times I had to use the recovery discs on that thing, even ReactOS is more stable! Put 2000 on it, it ran like a dream. When XP came out I bought a nice shiny new Western Digital WD400 IDE 40GB HDD, ran like gold for years, till the HDD developed a fault. I bought a donor drive off ebay and swapped the HDD PCB. It still works today :)

 

Try doing a PCB swap on a HDD today, not gonna work unless you also swap the ROM. Damn you, adaptive data and cramped density!

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