Win XP and computer hobbyist

[Dodge7]

Since Win XP requires activation, I wonder if that has been a problem for anyone here? It seems to me that if you have a problem with a new computer and have to do mulitple re installs, or you keep adding components on your computer, activation could be a problem.

I beleived MS limits activated of one OS to three or four tiimes?"

[sdkfz]

"Since Win XP requires activation, I wonder if that has been a problem for anyone here?" Nope, it did pop up once back a couple of years back for some reason, but was able to reactivate online no problem.

"It seems to me that if you have a problem with a new computer and have to do mulitple re installs." Just do not activate right away if you beleive you will have problems/reinstalls, you have 30 days to activate. It is probably best to wait a while regardless.

"or you keep adding components on your computer, activation could be a problem." The activate clock/ changed component counter resets every 120 days. Also the 'components changed' have different weights, some do not count at all so you could swap them out every day to no effect.

"I beleived MS limits activated of one OS to three or four tiimes?" Online - yes during any one 120 day window, and then you just call them and do it on the phone. No big deal.

edit- here is some more info taken from http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

How does product activation determine tolerance? In other words, how many components of the PC must change before I am required to reactivate?

Common changes to hardware such as upgrading a video card, adding a second hard disk drive, adding RAM or upgrading a CD-ROM device will not require the system to be reactivated.

Specifically, product activation determines tolerance through a voting mechanism. There are 10 hardware characteristics used in creating the hardware hash. Each characteristic is worth one vote, except the network card which is worth three votes. When thinking of tolerance, it's easiest to think about what has not changed instead of what has changed. When the current hardware hash is compared to the original hardware hash, there must be 7 or more matching points for the two hardware hashes to be considered in tolerance. If the network card is the same, then only 4 additional characteristics must match (because the network card is worth 3, for a total of 7). If the network card is not the same, then a total of 7 characteristics other than the network card must be the same. If the device is a laptop (specifically a dockable device), additional tolerance is allotted and there need be only 4 or more matching points. Therefore, if the device is dockable and the network card is the same, only one other characteristic must be the same for a total vote of 4. If the device is dockable and the network card is not the same, then a total of 4 characteristics other than the network card must be the same.