Windows licensing
There are two versions of Windows XP Pro: OEM and full retail. They’re identical, but the OEM version is only valid when sold with a new PC, in theory. On the grounds that I want to be fully legitimate, I got the (more expensive) full retail version.
Alas, the CD was scratched.
Stewart kindly loaned me his XP CD, but like everyone elses’ in the planet, it was an OEM version. So I couldn’t install it. It wouldn’t accept my product activation key.
Massively annoying. I try to do the right thing by Microsoft by getting the expensive version, then they mess me about by not accepting my (expensive, full) activation key for the cheaper version of Windows. I can understand it the other way round, but this way round sucks.
Obviously when I phoned up customer service they were totally unwilling to help. Grrr.
I know I’m ranting a bit here, and that it’s not really so bad, but there we go. It annoyed me because I really wanted to get Windows working on this MacBook Pro.
Fortunately, in the end, the third computer I tried was able to read the CD and, a day after I started trying, I got Windows installed. Hooray! (It’s not even as if I like Windows… oh for a MacOS-compatible Symbian OS development environment.)