Desktop

I bought a PC from a police auction. I searched the contents and found the name of the orginal owner. I called him. Boy, was he upset. He had been calling the police every week asking about his computer. His insurance finally paid off and he got another. He had already spent hours and hours rebuilding his data so he didn't want it back, but was upset that the police did not call him. The serial number was still on the computer and easily read.

SNicholson,

I live in the Chicagoland area...where are the police auctions?

Please email me details/links. Thanks

JamesRL scribbled: "Corporate volume license versions of the OS are designed to be upgraded not from MS's website but by putting the updates in a corporate server. MS closed that loop in SP2 if I recall correctly, and now that is the only way to go. Thats why you got the error message - MS recognizes this as a corporate desktop under volume licensing and won't allow you to do the updates."

Odd, I've never seen that here. We use VLM licensed versions of Microsoft products and haven't run into any issues with Windows/Microsoft updates requiring us to use a local SUS/WSUS server.

I have seen corporate discard computers that had the hard drive overwritten with a image that had a recyled Windows XP license code. This required a new license to be purchased since Microsoft showed the license as already in use. I've also had flinking IBM laptops that when the laptop was restored from the restore partition required re-activation. Again more calls and discussion with MS's support about the legitimacy of doing so.

An XP Home upgrade would not be legal because you have to own the original software you are upgrading from and in this case the person doesn't own the original software.

You would have to purchase an FPP ( Full Packaged Product ) from a retailer, format and install to be legal with the software.

As for the hardware, ask the friend you bought from for the corporations name then check and see if they have upgraded their hardware for your peace of mind.

This is the quote from Microsoft today. First relevant part of XP/Pro SR2 EULA
14. SOFTWARE TRANSFER.
Internal.
You may move the Software to a different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely remove the Software from the former Workstation Computer.
Transfer to Third Party.
The initial user of the Software may make a one-time permanent transfer of this EULA and Software to another end user, provided the initial user retains no copies of the Software. This transfer must include the Software and
the Proof of License label. The transfer may not be an indirect transfer, such as a consignment.
Prior to the transfer, the end user receiving the Software must agree to all the EULA terms.

Then the XP home EULA although in my world no sane person would run the 'home' edition as it is lacking an many fields, especially security. Anyway here's the EULA

14. SOFTWARE TRANSFER.
Internal.
You may move the Software to a different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely remove the Software from the former Workstation Computer.
Transfer to Third Party.
The initial user of the Software may make a one-time permanent transfer of this EULA and Software to another end user, provided the initial user retains no copies of the Software. This transfer must include the Software and the Proof of License label. The transfer may not be an indirect transfer, such as a consignment. Prior to the transfer, the end user receiving the Software must agree to all the EULA terms.

Volume licensing and OEM are different - and very hard to find. Some good reading can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/oempreac.mspx

Well, I would basically agree with what everyone else has said here.
The sale sounds legit on the basis of the price, it doesn't sound like a "too good to be true" deal, it's reasonable.
The reason the software won't upgrade is probably due to the fact that you have been sold only the PC and not the Operating System Software.
As far as I know there is no way of rendering hardware unusable if it is stolen, only software and there are ways around this.
I would suggest you get hold of a full copy of Windows or another operating system and test it out before making any purchases. Maybe the guy who sold you the PC can help you with that.
Don't forget that you will maybe need drivers for all the hardware so I would write out a list of all the installed hardware before formatting anything and make sure you have the drivers first.
Good Luck.

Same thing happened to a friend of mine. He purchased a used pc with xp pro but got no disk. Turns out it was an illegal copy of windows. As one of the previous poster's suggested make a list of the hardware, buy an oem copy of your choice ,home or pro (much cheaper than retail) and format and install and your legal. You can also just go to the dell site and d/l the drivers for that particular model of dell before formating and copy them to a cd for after your windows install. Good luck

doesn't matter where you got it from, you can go to the authentication web site and buy online the authentication package. Don't know how much the home is but pro was 169.00 plus tax. simpist way if you don't want to wipe out and reinstal. or go to ebay and buy a secnd hand copy.

jdawg