Downgrading

[captain_slinky]

Anybody have a good sollution to the probelm of downgrading from an illegal copy of Windows XP to a completely legal version of Win2k?

Here's the deal...

Bought a computer for my Mom two Christmases ago. It cam with Windows XP on it, but since it was a decomissioned DMV computer, the license on XP had expired. As soon as Mom clicke don the "Click Here to get Validated" pop-up, she's been getting the "Your computer may be at risk, not legit Microsoft Product, you are a bad person, yadda yadda yadda" message. $150 to get a legit license from Microsoft. So my Mom has just been living with the inconvenience all this time of losing her personal settings every time she shuts down and not getting any updates and the constant "Click here to resolve this problem" pop-ups.

BUT! At a garage sale a few weeks ago I found a legit, sealed retail copy of Windows 2000! Verified with the dude selling it that it was indeed a legit, unused, unregistered license for Windows 2000. He confirmed all this and explained that he was a developer who won it at a trade show years and years ago, never installed it because he's a Mac Guy.

So I paid a dollar for it.

Unfortunately, when i go to install it on my Mother's computer? It says "You already have a newer operating system on this computer so you couldn't POSSIBLY be trying to Downgrade, right?" and it cancels itself out.

Am i really going to have to back-up all my Mom's pictures and music files to whipe the hard drive and then re-install from scratch?

Comments

[cunninggod.livejournal.com]

We have a bunch of XP boxes here that are being junked...I could grab a license key for you to use...

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Dude, that would be AWESOME! Thanks!

[cunninggod.livejournal.com]

Key sent via FB

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Got it, thank you so much!

[teegin.livejournal.com]

You could also sell it to fairtrade and buy a copy of xp from them lol.

[rogh-sensei.livejournal.com]

Elaborate?

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

There's a local company up here called "Fairtrade" that makes pretty good money by reselling legit software. Since we're the home of Microsoft, Nintendo and Adobe, there's A LOT of product testing that goes on here which these companies pay for with promotional copies of their software. it's a really nice set-up! You go in on Saturday morning, play a game that won't be on shelves for another 3 to 6 months, get some free pizza, and walk out with about $900 worth of software for your trouble! They offer everything from XBox Games to full operating systems and beyond.

But what do you do with $900 worth of software? You can't return it for cash or credit at any stores - the company who issued the software put a special UPC code on it that won't be in any retail database. That's where Fairtrade comes in!

You have a copy of Microsoft Project Standard, retail price of $600. "Legit" (and I use the term loosely here) copies are available on Ebay and Craigslist for as little as $90. How sad :( But the fine folks at Fairtrade will buy pretty much ANY unopened retail copy of any software AND pay in cash! Unfortunately, they're only gonna pay you $250 for it. Still $10 to $50 more than anybody on Ebay or Craigslist will offer you, though, so why not?

[teegin.livejournal.com]

OK fine add in the maniacal laugh while you do it. MWHa!hahahahahahaaaaa!!! Make sure Molly sees this part.