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trader_4 trader_4 is offline
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Default Win XP & 7 -- technically "home repair"

On Friday, June 15, 2018 at 11:41:36 AM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article , mqduffy001
@bell.net says...

I just picked up "new" OEM versions of XP and 7.


What do you mean by 'new'? OEM versions of Windows XP & 7 still need to be
activated on-line with Microsoft. Usually, the MS server will refuse to
allow it if the hardware config does not match that of the previous
activation for that licence.

You might have success if the licence was never activated, is that what you
mean by 'new'? If so, there might be other problems; sometimes MS provided
OEMs with 'tinkered' versions of the OEM install that would only work on a
host with a specific configuration.



Yes, unless the OEM version is for a computer like it was made for,
there could be lots of problems. A number of years back I had a
computer to loose a hard drive. I put in an OEM disc by another company
and it did not load correctly. I finally found a disc with the general
XP operating system and used my COA (whatever) to activate it and all
was well.

With the used computers on ebay going for $ 100 or less and a licensed
versionof windows on it, I would just get another comuter.


I don't think he;s going to find a PC on Ebay with three different
OS's installed and ready to boot.





One thing I did find out is there seem to be many on ebay that are
selling the 'password, coa or whatever) for a few dollars for many of
the Windows systems. I have an old copy of Windows Office and tried to
use it on a new Win 10 computer. It loads, but not everything runs.
When I bought that laptop I was told it would not run an older version
of Office. I thought this was nuts as I had the old version running on
another win 10 computer that was upgraded from the win 7. I opted for a
newer version of Office and sent off less than $ 10 to ebay. A few
hours later I got an email with the password and a link to Microsoft
where I could download the office program. It has been working fine for
the last 6 months. I first thought it may be a scam, but thought I
would give it a try for the price.

The way I understand it , now Microsoft wants you to rent the new office
every year. No more than I do, the old office 95 does it all for me.
Much more and I will just go to the free versions similar to Office
like Open Office.


Another bigger problem is that the new versions of those programs have
so much added, such complexity, that they are unusable, while if you
still have the old versions, you know how they work and can use them.
For example I recently went to use Word starter, a version that's about
6 years old that came with the PC. It's so freaking loaded with "features"
that I literally could not figure out how to change from double spacing
to single spacing. And double for whatever reason was the default, which
is really dumb too. I wonder what percent of users actually use most of
that new stuff? I can see an admin that's doing complex documents daily,
it's great for them. But they really need a "simplify" button on the
new versions of office, so that you can do basic tasks easily, without
all the complexity, all the buttons, all the menus, all the features
that you don't need and can't take the time to figure out.