I'd forgotten to purchase windows with all my computer parts, so I dl'd an apparently "activated" version of windows from the pb. It ended up not being activated and asked me for a key on install. I just clicked activate later, and then didn't worry too much.
I keep getting a full blue screen saying "Activate Windows". How to I prevent this? I don't want to buy windows because I've already settled into this version. ;p
There are a few things you can do.
1. Buy a activation key, 2. Get a linux OS
3. Have no OS
That third option sounds too good to be true!
Buy a windows key for the version of windows you have. Pirating is generally frowned upon in this community, at least.... I think o.O
Regardless, I'm sure someone has found a solution in the comment section where you downloaded it, they're pretty damn persistant.
I know that pirating is frowned upon here (or just not mentioned as it could bring chaos among the peoples) but I have typically found that the Dell OEM pirated versions are pre-activated and will install on any machine. Although this will still require a complete reinstall.
What has been done to them is "hacking" of the BIOS check scripts which typically check for a Dell specific BIOS. They are edited to accept any BIOS and thus allow you install on any computer. Since they are pre-activated, then there is no need to worry about the blue screen popping up and screaming in your face to buy a key and they are fully capable of Windows Updates.
Still, in the end... you should probably just bite the bullet and purchase a license key.
I once activated an enterprise edition through microsoft's own servers, using nothing more than cmd.exe
I assume that was XP or before? Newer versions are significantly harder to activate, to the best of my knowledge there's no perfect activator for win8, although you can stop the activate windows blue screen. I assume OP is using win8 since there is no blue activation screen in previous version AFAIK.
Nope, it was windows 7 enterprise. My dad had an original key (each key has multiple activations). He got lucky and got the last one, and I was left out. Google it, you could (before an update I think) activate on Microsoft's own key management service. *forever*
Enterprise is the same as Ultimate except that it's using a different name and activation technique.
Mod should shut this thread.
"Enterprise is the same as Ultimate except that it's using a different name and activation technique."
No it isnt.
Yeah it is, have you tried it?