macmax Share Posted May 8, 2004 If you have a less-than-legit copy of Windows XP, you WILL be locked out of your computer if you install SP2 This only applies to Windows XP Pro with a Volume License Product Key (VLK). XP Home is not affected. At all. If you got XP Pro with your computer (OEM) or purchased it (Retail), you're legit and therefore OK. If you have a pirated copy of XP you will find after applying SP2 you will not be able to log on. Here's why: If you go into the system control panel, you'll see a number of the format 11111-222-3333333-44444. This is your Product ID, generated from your CD Key. The three-digit group identifies what product this ID is for. On XP Pro Corp the three digit group will be 64x, where x might be number. Legit copies will be 640. In the Gold release of XP anything from 640-649 is valid. When MS found out XP Pro Corp was being pirated, they blocked the two most commonly used product keys from being able to install Service Pack 1. With SP1, only the two known leaked keys were blocked. They both generated 640, and crackers assumed ALL 640 keys were blocked. Key generators making corporate keys will always generate codes of 641-649. These keys worked... until now. Microsoft has never used 641-649 in any keys so they disabled them. Service Pack 2 RC1 (current Technical Preview) is unaffected, but all builds after v.2111, including the soon-to-come RC2 and the final public release, will not let you log on if your product ID contains 641-649. To reiterate, and hopefully spare people some grief: If you are using a pirated or keygen-made CD-Key, you will be locked out of your computer after installing SP2! You will be presented with the windows activation dialog. XP Pro Corp does not have activation, but if you click "Activate" you will be told your key is invalid and be prompted for a new one. After entering a valid key you can log on. In case you're wondering, it doesn't try to phone home. You can change your key and proceed even with no connection to the Internet. If this fails, you can use the old "Telephone" > "Change Product Key" trick. Link to post Share on other sites
John Veteran Share Posted May 8, 2004 So... why are you telling anyone? Let all the pirates find out the hard way... :shifty: :devil: Link to post Share on other sites
OSUKid7 Share Posted May 8, 2004 all I have to say is HA ya pirate, ya pay. HA Link to post Share on other sites
secretforce Share Posted May 8, 2004 Does it mean 641 and 649 is not legit or 641,642,643...ect ? Link to post Share on other sites
Muffzilla Share Posted May 8, 2004 Does it mean 641 and 649 is not legit or 641,642,643...ect ? Why? Worried? :whistle: Link to post Share on other sites
secretforce Share Posted May 8, 2004 Why? Worried? :whistle: Nope I dont have anything to worry about, but I bet some of my friends do :pinch: . Link to post Share on other sites
+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹ Share Posted May 8, 2004 [Nelson voice] HaHa [/Nelson voice] Microsoft should hav done this a lot earlier :) Link to post Share on other sites
Ivand Share Posted May 8, 2004 [nelson voice]Ha! Ha! I bought it! [/nelson voice] Link to post Share on other sites
oldaccount1 Share Posted May 8, 2004 lol! so funny how easy microsoft makes things. Link to post Share on other sites
rvbfan Share Posted May 8, 2004 About time I tired of paying the freight for pirates Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderRiver Share Posted May 8, 2004 (edited) I see a lot of people running into problem, but since I am using the key from my university (they have contract with Microsoft, so student can rent out VLK version with legit VLK key without activation), I am not expericing any problems yet. Do you know that it is really hard to decativate Windows XP SP1? I meant it was easy to deactivate Windows XP RTM, but in SP1, the OOBETimer method doesn't work anymore. Someone actually suggested that I should forward the BIOS timer over 30 days, and so on. Well, if anyone truly figured out a very simply way to deactivate Windows, let me know :) Thanks for the information though. Edited May 8, 2004 by ThunderRiver Link to post Share on other sites
tlogank Share Posted May 8, 2004 hmm, I can't even remember if I did mine legit or not. Where is the system control panel...it different from the regular control panel? I have built like 10 machine's, so I usually just use the closest availabe cd that has xp on it, I have 2 legit, but don't think this is one of them. Link to post Share on other sites
eversor Share Posted May 8, 2004 source? I know my key is valid (got my copy through msdnaa) and there is a 646 in my product id.... Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderRiver Share Posted May 8, 2004 Why question your key is legit or not? If you see that your key is in xxxxxxx-640-xxxxxx you should be fine unless you are still using 1 of the 3 blocked 640 keys. Link to post Share on other sites
benge Share Posted May 8, 2004 I got mine through MSDN and I got 649 in my Serial Link to post Share on other sites
RadishTM Veteran Share Posted May 8, 2004 Control Panel > System. Radish? Link to post Share on other sites
benge Share Posted May 8, 2004 where do you go to view it? System Properties Link to post Share on other sites
TheNay Share Posted May 8, 2004 It will be cracked eventually, just like SP1 was. I don't see why anyone is worrying. :p Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderRiver Share Posted May 8, 2004 Thenay, How long have you been inside the scene? We never crack it. We just circumvent it by changing keys. It has been done this way ever since Sp1 came out. Never once was a crack released to address such specific problem. Link to post Share on other sites
ZiUL Share Posted May 8, 2004 That's why 12345-OEM-1234567-12345 rox! Link to post Share on other sites
TheNay Share Posted May 8, 2004 Thenay, How long have you been inside the scene? We never crack it. We just circumvent it by changing keys. It has been done this way ever since Sp1 came out.Never once was a crack released to address such specific problem. I know, but I'm sure there will be a way around it. There always will be. :p Link to post Share on other sites
DELTA75329 Share Posted May 8, 2004 Uhh...this seems a little rash. Are they going to block keys issued from MSDN now...? Even so, a source would be helpful. This doesn't really mean anything right now. Link to post Share on other sites
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