Windows 2000 cd key

[kch93]

Hello I have install the windows 2000 pro SP4 .When I instaling finished the cd not required the serial number its not seem like first of windows 2000.Its windows 2000 register online .If not
register the platform of windows 2000 still running ok.Thx for
reply

[snowmonkey]

As long as you have purchased the Windows 2000 CD legally then it doesn't matter if the CD key was part of the install or not,,, there are ways to add serial number and Service pack to the original Windows Installation (They call it Slip Streamed)...I wouldn't worry about the registration, just go ahead and do it.


cheers

[Dotcoman]

Hey Snowmonkey,

Did this guy posibly purchace a brand spanking new release of W2K pro w/SP4 installed? If so, that could mean those Microsoft weenies could have adopted the same BS registration scheme they require for Win XP.

He did mention something about registering on line?

[snowmonkey]

Dotcoman, just for you information..
Windows XP registration scheme is quite different then what our friend here described...
Anyone with Windows 2000 Server can prepare a client push install package,, that means you would run a certain command and then put Windows 2000 Pro Cd in the system and provide a serial number too, then your 2000 server will create a installation package with could be push toward a system via network connection..... (That's how big corporation do a recovery when someone's system crashes and they are on the other side of the world)...somehow, someone changed that installation package and put it on a CD and this dude has it installed.

I hope that helps

cheers

[Dotcoman]

Hi Snowmonkey,

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I've set up and slipsteamed network installations, and created custom distros using Sysprep and the like, myself. What you are describing is RIS. RIS has changed from from the NT days, in that the RIS server now needs to have a separate DC running.

You can create a custom CD using slipstreaming with an unattended.txt file easy enough.
You can also create custom installs like Gateway, Dell etc do too, but those are for specific machine set ups and a guy should use the Sysprep Utility, which would wipe the SID and prep the installation to ask the installer to accept the MS license agreement etc, unless of course you used that answer file/ unattended setup file option.


Most likely you are right. However as kch93 stated: “Its windows 2000 register online” and that got me to thinking, since I have not purchased any new Microsquish W2K products in a while; I was just wondering if one of those Corpranazi SOB’s in Redmond might have got the wild hair of a bad idea to make some changes to the W2k for new sales of W2k packaged w/SP4? Seems to me since they figured it out for XP, so why not back track, and screw up everything else too?

Semantic started using that pain in the arse, BS registration crap on Norton Anti-virus ’04 as well. Apparently, bad ideas are infectious.


If you are right and the person who started this thread is either using a standard installation that has had SP4 slipstreamed in and uses an unattended text answer file to cover the ULA and cover CD Key issue for him.

Or he is using a custom image made with something like Norton Ghost or say Drive Copy, in which case he needs to very careful; because those are generally created for a specific hardware set up, and the Master and the destination (machines) must be nearly Identical and using the same HAL, BIOS, APCI, etc.


Still, “Its windows 2000 register online” bothered me?

[snowmonkey]

Just a quick note about SP4 built into the package... I have purchase Windows 2000 Server about 2 years ago (more or less) and it had SP3 incorporated in it.

cheers

[Dotcoman]

Well good for you.

Still doesn't anwer the question if they could have backtracked and changed the registration for the SP4 release of Pro.

I'm not saying that it happened, I'm just saying that I wouldn't put it past them. Bill is sort of anal like that.

[Play_The_0dds]

Hello I have install the windows 2000 pro SP4 .When I instaling finished the cd not required the serial number its not seem like first of windows 2000.Its windows 2000 register online .If not

the orriginal post looked to me like they had installed the os and it didnt ask for the key durring install, but wanted to know if it was ok to register it with microsoft,.......by the wording i am not sure. as for Dotcoman's idea that MS might add the same activation crap to later releases of older software,....it wouldnt surprize me at all if they did, and i have suspected it for sometime. as far as i know they have not.....but i have not bought anything but xp and server 2k3 in a couple of years.