[BC] Windows XP Question

[Sid Schweiger]

Jeff Glass inquires:  "If I buy a full install CD off ebay, I assume it will have an install code, but how do I get a COA? Is there anything else I need to install the O/S over and above the O/S install and the COA?"

Don't worry about a COA, unless you're building a system from scratch and are using a System Builder version of the OS.  A COA sticker will come with that.

"Well, none of my 'puters have COA stickers. How big a deal is that?"

No biggie at all.  If you build a system yourself and use a System Builder disc, it will come with a COA sticker.  If you upgrade an existing system, there is no COA unless there was one from the old OS you upgraded.  If you wipe an existing system and use an "upgrade" OS disc (and have an OS disc from a previous OS version that will authenticate your license to use the upgrade to the one you're installing), again there's no COA.  Product activation does not produce a COA, it only sends some code to the OS to tell it that it was properly activated (probably a registry key) so it stops nagging you and won't effectively die after 30 days.  AFAIK activation only checks to see that the OS' product key is not in their register of compromised/hacked/warez product keys (OKA "genuine" Microsoft software).

"Why is it that some computers want to phone the mother ship to activate the
O/S, and other computers don't?"

An OEM OS disc used to reinstall the OS on the computer it came with will not require activation.  I believe that is part of Microsoft's usual bulk-licensing agreement with OEM system builders.

"I assume if I built a computer from scratch that the O/S will then want to phone home to activate, right? What I don't understand is, where does the COA come from, and at what point in the install/activation process does the COA get generated?"

Yes, if you use a System Builder disc or a properly authenticated upgrade disc, it will phone home to activate.  The COA, however, just isn't that important.  A COA sticker comes with an OEM computer or a System Builder disc, but there are millions of computers out there that don't have them, and they're not in any sort of trouble with Microsoft for not having them.

None of the PCs I've built for my home have ever had a COA sticker, and I can trace their OS lineage back through the only OS I bought a full install for:  Windows 95.  All OS installs since have been upgrade versions, and since I have all the CDs going back to 95 I can easily authenticate all the upgrades to Microsoft if they ever bother to ask me.  But, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for them to call.

Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Brighton MA  02135-2040