(WAY!) Off-topic

[Mark Jarvis]

Well, the CD is not illegal--it's a real MS CD--it's just crippled 
because it lost its little piece of paper with the Product Code on it. I 
simply wanted a way to make a legal copy run. In addition, until the HD 
died, the machine had a legal copy of Win98 on it. There are lots of 
Registry hacks for getting the Product Code out of a RUNNING machine, 
but I haven't found one that works well with a dead HD. The person 
involved is used to that era Windows & doesn't have $$ for a legal copy 
of XP--which I agree would be MUCH better.

The OO reference was a joking attempt to pretend to make a Win post to a 
Linux list "legal".

-mj-

Craig White wrote:

> On Tue, 2005-10-25 at 17:48 -0700, Mark Jarvis wrote:
> 
>>To make a long story short, I need to install Win98 on a newly formatted 
>>disk in a friend's machine. I have a Win98 CD, but the paper with the 
>>the Product Code is long gone.
>>
>>1) Does anyone know of a program to extract the Product code from the CD?
>>	-or-
>>2) Want to suggest a better forum for asking this question? (I don't 
>>know the Windoze forums & mailists.)
>>	-or-
>>3) From what I've found on the 'Net, there are generic codes out there 
>>that will work. Also, one person said that he got a list of codes from a 
>>friend and got a hit on the 9th one. (I've tried 3 so far--struck out.) 
>>If someone has one or some I can try, I'd appreciate getting them.
>>
>>Although I don't dare expose this person to Linux, I WILL be installing 
>>Open Office 2--not a complete loss.
>>
>>Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions,
> 
> ----
> There is no way to legally install using that CD since what is legally
> required is the genuine Microsoft Windows certificate which accompanied
> the CD - which would have the installation code.
> 
> Moreover, since Windows 98 is a 'dead os' - you aren't doing this person
> a favor by installing it. If they wish to run Windows, they should be
> purchasing WinXP - it runs much better and has life beyond yesterday.
> There's no reason to encourage someone to run an illegal copy of Windows
> when you can run Linux for free legally. Tossing in a free Oo doesn't
> make it less than a complete loss.
> 
> Craig
> 
>