Anyone had the pleasure of...
 

....registering a valid copy of Windows XP with Microsoft? 'Twas the most hilarious 20 minutes of my entire life. You have to sit there and read upward towards 50 numeric digits to a COMPUTERIZED digital voice, as it says "did. you. say. 9?" and so on and so on. then it reads out another 50 and you type it in and it registers it. took FOREVER. the system worked pretty good though. if it didn't understand my southern accent, it would say "did. you. say. 1. 3. 4. 6. 3.? yes or no or repeat."

very interesting indeed.

Did you reboot your machine? Just kidding...

I've installed a legitimate copy of XP befoe but I didn't have to register. Apparently, it's some sort of corporate version that doesn't call home to register. Some sort of site liscence, or something...

Corporate versions, or Volume license copies do not require activation. OEM and Retail versions do.

I've had to call in because I had activated so many times in a single day, (had to reinstall 4 times on the same machine). I got a human and it took about 5 minutes.

Corp version also has sp1 and is much smaller than retail

2.5gb vs almost 4

I've had to do that a few time....reinstall a customers machine usually equals me having to call microsoft. Otherwise every once in a great while I get an OEM copy that i have to call in cause it wont' activate over the internet.

The one time I had to call in I got a human, too. Less than 5 minutes and it was up.

Can't you do this automagically over the internet?

I "registered" my home version, but certainly didn't call any number.


Or am I confusing "registration" with "activation"?


Mr Mephisto

I "activated" mine online as well, wasn't complicated at all. They have the phone so that in case you don't have the internet (not many who would buy XP wouldn't have the internet), you can still register. You get 30 days to register/activate so you have plenty of time to set up your internet THEN activate.

As often as I change hardware, I've ran out of free "activations" and now I have to call them almost every time.

Better yet, every time I do it for the computer voice one, it doesnt work. So I have to say it AGAIN to a person and that finally works.

I've had to do it quite a few times.

I screw up the automated part on purpose to get a real live human being. Then I drag it out as long as I possibly can. I'll read in stupid accents, ask her to "hang on a minute" while I find screen again and then sit there for a while, all sorts of fun.

I figure if you're going to waste my time re-registering my legal copy of your software then I'm going to repay the favor by wasting as much of your time as possible. :)

It's just my passive-aggressive way at getting back at the "man."

haha that's great, fighting Big Brother eh

I have done this a few times now, nothing to big. One thing that does bug me is when you get through reading all that information to the computer voice, and the computer has no questions about the numbers you read it, but a problem lies with the code, it then transfers you to a live operator who immediately asks you for.....the same damn code you just read into the computer a minute ago!