I think by now everyone is well aware that I despise Microsoft's latest OS, but this morning I added a new reason to the pile. Last night I set up the machine for benchmarking, which required installing XP, Vista and then Fedora. All went well. I configured each OS before shutting down for the night, installing all applications and also disabling each OS' internet capabilities.
Whenever I install Vista for benchmarking, I don't put in a serial key, rather just install without it, which gives 30 days of access to the OS. Well, not using a product key and disabling the internet prior to shutting down was a bad, bad idea. I noticed that the date in the BIOS was off by a month, so I changed it back to July. On the next Vista boot, I received a "You must activate Windows to continue".
That's bad enough, because I've already used a couple different serial keys I have, and don't feel like calling Microsoft to get them fixed. Even if I wanted to activate though, I couldn't... because I disabled my internet earlier. Because of that simple fact, as a normal consumer, I would have been completely SOL. You have the option to set up a new internet connection, but what if you don't have a new one to set up? For whatever reason, at this point of the activation process, Vista disables the "Network and Sharing". If it allowed that screen, I would have been able to re-enable the network device.
You could say I am a tad disgruntled at it, since I have to re-install Vista and then re-write the GRUB boot loader. Pain in the ass.
Whenever I install Vista for benchmarking, I don't put in a serial key, rather just install without it, which gives 30 days of access to the OS. Well, not using a product key and disabling the internet prior to shutting down was a bad, bad idea. I noticed that the date in the BIOS was off by a month, so I changed it back to July. On the next Vista boot, I received a "You must activate Windows to continue".
That's bad enough, because I've already used a couple different serial keys I have, and don't feel like calling Microsoft to get them fixed. Even if I wanted to activate though, I couldn't... because I disabled my internet earlier. Because of that simple fact, as a normal consumer, I would have been completely SOL. You have the option to set up a new internet connection, but what if you don't have a new one to set up? For whatever reason, at this point of the activation process, Vista disables the "Network and Sharing". If it allowed that screen, I would have been able to re-enable the network device.
You could say I am a tad disgruntled at it, since I have to re-install Vista and then re-write the GRUB boot loader. Pain in the ass.
