[OT] Licensing question

[Douglas]

But, have you tried to connect to the internet yet?
I would suggest that you don't try!
If you do, almost the first thing that will happen is the Microsoft 
phone-home.
The original owner will have Activated the serial number on their 
machine and your machine profile and IP address, (in fact everything 
that can be checked) does not match.
Therefore your installation will instantly become invalid and require 
you to "Contact Microsoft"
It does not matter if it was an upgrade or a full install that the 
original owner did, you can't de-activate and re-activate elsewhere 
except through the MS database.
This is one of those things that makes me very wary of buying Windows OS's.
For example, can you still activate a copy of the now unsupported XP? 
and if so for how much longer?

Some people use old systems just to do a bit of word processing etc. and 
don't require full updating etc,
Security is another matter - just don't go on-line with an old system at 
all!

On 13/05/2010 06:33, Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>
> Well I got Vista Home Premium running on a P4, 1.7GHz, 512 MB RAM;
> and NOT glacially slowly; quite sufficient for my quick test.
>
> Aloha from Bulgaria.