Download without Activation

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Guest

According to the Page announcing Microsoft AntiSpyware
(Beta), the software can be downloaded by those who choose
to bypass validation. I cannot locate any screen with a
link that will allow me to bypass the validation screen. I
*do* have genuine MS Windows 2000 on my Dell Notebook--it
came that way--I just do not want to go through the
validation process. I believe the CD with COA is somewhere
in the materials from Dell; but if you give me the option,
and Microsoft does say that I have the option, I would much
rather not have to search through everything for the COA.
And I also do not know the consequences of validation. What
if I validate, and then lose this computer, but still want
the Windows 2000 OS on any new computer, and the new
computers only install Win XP? And so I install Win 2000,
and the AntiSpyware, and am reported because it is a
different machine? Oh, if only Microsoft could see the
computer user's point of view!
 
-----Original Message-----
I cannot locate any screen with a
link that will allow me to bypass the validation screen.
Click to expand...

Hi
Click on "Download" and then choose to not validate this
time.
 
Plun's given the route to finding the download method you are looking for,
but maybe I can answer some of the other questions:

The COA is a sticker on the bottom of your machine--not hard to find, but
inconvenient--easiest is to flip it over, write it all down carefully,
double checking, and then do the activation. The process of entering the
key is a one-time procedure.

Your issue about a new machine is a bit more complex to answer. If the
Windows 2000 you have installed on your Dell laptop was purchased with the
machine from Dell, these OEM versions are licensed for the life of the
machine--i.e. if the machine dies, the license dies with it.

If you want to retain Windows 2000 on a new machine, retail Windows XP
licenses have a downgrade right--you could install a retail or Volume
license Windows 2000 instead. However, I don't believe that the OEM XP
licenses from Dell have that right included in the license.

This definitely isn't my area of expertise, so forgive me if I have a detail
wrong here, but this is my understanding of the situation.

Going through the Genuine validation should have no effect whatsoever on the
ability to activate the underlying OS. There have been recent changes to
the Activation system, however, so that the numbers on COA's such as the one
you have--which are bios-locked to Dell machines--will require telephone
activation if you want to use them with a clean install from other than
Dell's original media.
 
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