If you are running a pirated copy of Windows XP Professional (or Home Edition), you can very easily convert it into a properly licensed version by just updating your XP Product Key that comes with the Get Genuine kit.
This is definitely a good offer for “unlicensed” Windows XP users who wish to legalize their software without having to reformat the computer or re-install the OS.
But a surprising part of the story is that software pirates, who later go genuine through the amnesty route, get a “better deal” from Microsoft than customers who buy legal software first-hand.
For instance in India, where majority of assembled computers are shipped with illegal XP software, a full licensed edition of Windows XP Pro costs ~$275 at the Microsoft Online Store while the Get Genuine kit (that convert illegal software into licensed version) is priced at only ~$200.
Also read Bill Gates’ confession on Software Piracy.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/windows-xp-pirated-converted-to-genuine/1879/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
It may interest you to know that in India, no one buys a Full Licensed edition. Everyone buys an “OEM Edition” which is priced closer to $150 and hence buying online makes less sense.
Written by Navneet Karnani on 12.03.07
Whats the problem with the pirated version of XP.It has got a still better offer –> People using Pirated software need not give money atall….until they have been caught by….by….???????
Written by SATISH on 12.03.07
A biiiiiiiiig news in India, aint it? ;)
Written by Bhaanu on 12.03.07
Also the price comparison you gave, I think to round it all OEM licensing must be touched upon. Without that it would be wrong to say that pirates get a better deal through amnesty deal. It is often a case that people make the mistake of comparing the price at which an assembler is selling you something with listed MRPs.
Hats off to you though, for you are always the first one to hit the news.
Written by Bhaanu on 12.03.07
That’s interesting that they get a better deal. Nice post!
Written by news bandit on 12.03.07
We can get the OEM pack for much lesser price.
Written by Srinivasan on 12.03.07
good offer form Microsoft, but I doubt how many people in India will be interested in this !!!!
Written by Davinder on 12.03.07
Satish: There are plenty of advantages of using Genuine Windows. For instance, you cannot get Windows Update on your pirated version of Windows.
I think getting genuine windows makes complete sense.
Written by Thilak on 12.03.07
Well looks like it is new rule of the game. You occupy a property first and then buy it later at much cheaper prices and go legal.
Written by Rajeev Hirani on 12.04.07
Hi Thilak,
I am using Priated XP and I am getting all the windows updates till now.
Use the cracks dude..And those updates which come along with original XP…., hope this much facility is enough for the pirated users, I dont find any problem in the pirated XP,
Is there any???
What so you say?
Written by SATISH on 12.04.07
The only way out for Windows to make money is to very soon launch the ad-supported versions of Microsoft Office. No “deal” is going to get the conscience out of the consumers in South Asia and China and get them to pay for an OS…
Written by Anand on 12.04.07
i got a legal vista home edition with my new laptop i need to change it to professional can i do it by just updating the key or do i need to install the professional edition.
Written by SticKer on 12.09.07
From a long time I am working as a customer support engineer I use to install my customer the piracy ver. Of Microsoft windows now I realized that what is steeling what is cheating
Now I suggest my customers to go for genuine but most of all 99% they don’t feel the the thing what I am feeling in steeling. And I am loosing my customers for being faithful and genuine. They are finding other system engineers who will install any thing for the little amounts. (now I am planning to show those who are using un licensed versions of windows and other Microsoft software. How to contact with Microsoft in this case plz guide me. absabz@gmail
Written by abs on 02.28.08
Microsoft or any other company doesnt make software for nothing. Always go for the original. Don’t kill good software now, like the movies.
Written by Anoop on 03.06.08
Get a life man! Use the pirated XP copy…..don’t worry about the wga fix or crack and so on. We are working on it to get more fixes for those who love piracy.
Think again supporting those people who spent nothing but selling expensive stuffs to consumers when the cost price is like $0.01?
F.O dude.
Written by Hell on 03.12.08
People have you never heard of Linux???
As an ex software developer - I hate pirates and would never knowingly purchase pirate fake goods.
How long will the industry survive? maybe 20 years? maybe less? Who knows, I don’t know how long the music & film industry will survive and if or when it crashes due to Pirates - who’ll be the ones complaining or out of business?
Do everybody a favour use Linux - its far better than M$ Windoze. Its free, you don’t need a virus checker and or extra firewall defences therefore your computer will run notably quicker. Use Open Office for your Business transactions. Opera and/or FireFox for your Internet Experience. Use NetBeans or Eclipse for your software development platform for whatever language you wish to program in.
Everything in Linux is freely downloadable, I use Fedora 8 and my wife uses Ubuntu, the learning curve is very comfortable and refreshing - the experience is the wisdom you will atain and realising that you can now do business legally and relax about it.
Written by Nicomo on 04.10.08
I am using Priated XP and I am getting all the windows updates till now.
Written by AvinashAntony on 08.06.08
dude using pirated windows slow downs the system startup
Written by Rock009 on 10.06.08
Nicomo - The problem with the music (and to a lesser extent film, and even less software) industries is that this idea that a copyright should last for decade after decade. It was and should again be treated like a patent - the principal being that it is good for the general public to share the knowledge and use of methods and designs as public property, yet to allow the original creator to make a reasonable profit for their efforts first, only they are allowed to sell their idea for the first 5 years or so, if they are able to, then it becomes public property.
This makes sense, and the internet and other technologies are going to force those with lifetime copyrights to face reality - big corporations paid to get the laws changed, but they are now loosing control again - as they should! A reasonable time to make a reasonable profit is all anyone should get. Monopolies are BAD, and should be discouraged in the first place. The FDA only allows one or maybe two companies to make any given medication, so it’s like they have a monopoly on it, and are now charging whatever the patient is willing to pay for the relief. Under a true free market system, at least 5 to 7 companies should be allowed to produce the product, so they only charge what they need for a profit, or their competitors will charge less and take all the business. Good for consumers, good for business too, because this drives innovation and keeps quality high. Quality products for a fair price.
It’s the fair price part that Microsoft fails to recognize, and the lack of competition since OS/2 has shown ever since. Now Linux is finally bring it back, and Microsoft will have to get tighter code and be cheaper to stay in the game - better prices ffor a better product. Free marketing works the best for all concerned, other than those unbelievably greedy SOB’s who use every trick they can to get a monopoly going so they can extort unearned $ from all that they can. Good for no one but a very few members of the society which we all share. No one should have leverage over their peers like that.
Written by A_Sovereign on 01.16.09
Amazing that ppl just don’t use a free Linux distro. As of todate, a good number of the hundreds of Linux distro can play the media that ppl most often use and enjoy, maybe not all the games, but some ppl say that Wine will allow most games and programs to run as good, if not better, or worse than if natively played on a Windows system. Now, I’m not for this religiously played war of which OS is better, that just defeats the purpose of using software, unless it’s religious software. I use it to fulfill a need or requirement, and pirated users seem to be doing things that Linux could easily allow without paying a dime to anyone or running afoul of the laws of any land. So each individual can do what they consciously want, no matter the opinion of others, but still remain sweat free of the law. So buy Windows or Mac if you want, but don’t cry when you go illegal and someone comes after you in person or through a WGA notice, or if you want to do similar things at no cost, download or cheaply buy a Linux distro and be done with this part of the fight.
Written by Agnostic on 01.20.09
Whatever is said to make this world pirate free is fine..but tell me some thing..MS creates one lousy software and market it with big bang worldwide. After 3 days it releases bug list and fixes for that. Are we paying for the bugs or MS is using our skills to test their software after paying it.
Its not one instance, every software comes with mulitple services packs to fix the bugs within few days of the release of their software.
Everyone pay & buy the product thinking that its complete & foolproof, but its never. With all their experience with hacker market, still its not hacker proof, virus proof.
MS does not offer any assurance of quality for their tools. It may work or may not work. May support a driver or may not. Still you have to pay & buy, buy a Firewall & anti-virus to protect OS , pray the god, that let everything go smooth
Its funny but true !!!
Written by Raj on 04.27.09
M$ monoploy is perfectly alright!!! I may sound harsh but its true…whats wrong in using Windows and paying for it??? I use windows ,go to the worst of websites,do not use an antivirus,and still have not encountered any virus..or any other malware crap on my pc…nor any so called “Blue screen of deaths”…everything is alright with my pc…i dont understand why people favor linux..its the most inconsistent stuff i have ever encountered…just see the desktop..two icons of home folder..and god how many linux distributions are out there..is that freedom of choice or a totally confusing sea of shitpile…and linux community brags abt their innovation and open source crap…linux does not have even a good installer package like windows or mac os x…i just couldnt install a gcc package just bcoz of those mind boggling dependencies shit…can there not make a single package which does all the job like what we have in windows and mac….i think linux guys shud learn from these two on how to make a publicly appealing and easy to use OS..not a messy,inconsistent piece of crap..
Anyway history has it that it was Microsoft and Apple which brought the computing revolution..and not Linux…People simply blame microsoft for charging exhorbitant price for their products…in my college a small software project made us realize that producing a software which just runs correctly takes an enormous amt of thinking,planning and hard work… so if u make an OS it shud be an exceedingly complex task…shud they not charge for it??if we pay microsoft..we pay those who put their talents and time to develop the os… os development is not a joke…
linux is after all a clone of unix and there are many far better clones out there…openoffice and even linux gui all are developed to be as similar to windows..why?? bcoz windows has standardized how things shud work out….
talking abt pirated windows..plz dont use non genuine windows..go to torrent sites and download pre activated windows which passes wga…i got win xp home oem on my dell
and then downloaded win xp pro x86 and x64,win server 2003 x86,win vista hp,ultimate x86 win server 2008 x86 and win hpc server 2008 x64 all free of cost and all genuine software…i freely distribute them to all who ask…i even have a mac installed on my hackintosh…
so USE WINDOWS for entertainment..and MAC OS X for development and programming..these two proprietary easy to use and virtually free OSes will never again make u look back to a nightmarish LINUX…
Written by anonymous on 04.30.09
one more comment…we shud teach people how to use windows better rather than to simply keep complaining abt malware…
personally i did not have the need of using any antivirus on my pc..bcoz i used some common sense…thats all…people who keep complaining abt proprietary software shud use some common sense on how to use computers..if maintaining an easy to use Microsoft os is a pain …what pain wud be to maintain an unknown ,inconsistent LINUX…and last point…if linux grows in popularity..there wud be free opensource viruses and malware available for it also…
MORAL:POPULARITY INEVITABLY BRINGS JEALOUSY….
Written by anonymous on 04.30.09
The problem with Linux distros is that they’re tricky to install. I tried installing Ubuntu then Mandriva, and Ubuntu apparently didn’t work with my video card (boot screen was very dark, then I saw a screen with with 3 Ubuntu logos, and two bars) and Mandriva loaded the boot screen, then went black and crashed. Meanwhile I installed Windows XP Pirated Edition on my family’s computer (they lost their xp cd and it was the only option atm) and it installed beautifully (although their computer got the blue screen of death after a while)
Written by Jason on 05.18.09