Blank looks
An unfailingly polite lady called to ask for help with a Windows installation that had gone terribly wrong.
Customer: “I brought my Windows disks from work to install them on my home computer.”
Training stresses that we are “not the Software Police,” so I let the little act of piracy slide.
Tech Support: “Umm-hmm. What happened?”
Customer: “As I put each disk in it turns out they weren’t initialized.”
Tech Support: “Do you remember the message exactly, ma’am?”
Customer: (proudly) “I wrote it down. ‘This is not a Macintosh disk. Would you like to initialize it?'”
Tech Support: “Er, what happened next?”
Customer: “After they were initialized, all the disks appeared to be blank. And now I brought them back to work, and I can’t read them in the A: drive; the PC wants to format them. And this is our only set of Windows disks for the whole office. Did I do something wrong?”
Yeah. You are not the registered user. Once a person uses a fresh copy of Windows it has a one-time-code which it matches with the product ID on the package. If the system (Windows) becomes corrupted or has to be reinstalled, it will do it on that computer alone. Putting it in another computer is not an option. But, there are ways of getting past this, none legal. When the disks are copied, the one-time-code is, too, and the product code. So, even though someone tries to copy the disks, there is no place to put the product key to unlock this lock. Your computer, if it is an Apple, will read a little of a disk and if it isn’t Apple, it will tell you so and ask you if you want to format the disk. If the disk is a ROM (Read Only Memory), it won’t even recognize you have a disk in the tray. If it is a DC-R or DVD-R(All disks you can record once on) and has information on it, it has already been formatted. I don’t think you can reformat it. At any rate, you lose all the information on that disk if it tries to reformat. If it is a CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW (these you record, erase and re-record on tham, supposedly as many times as you want, if you want to download anything you still have to make these disks compatible with the operating system (often called a platform) you are using- and you still lose all that old information. (If you happen to have a tape drive that has large enough memory and is compatible with you operating system, you can not only download all the information you want, but also add anything later, so long as the formats match. Tape drive hold amazing amounts of information, but operate slowly, sometimes too slowly for modern computers. But they will not let you download an old copy of Windows unless it is really old like Windows X or Windows 95. All the other versions are protected against copying. By the way, I have a feeling your home computer is an Apple or an Apple clone (copy, knock-off) You cannot legally buy or possess any Apple software unless you got if from Apple. In fact, Apple stuffs its computers with all the software before it leaves the factory. (I remember just a short time ago there was no Apple software to be sold or bought. It was big complaint for hackers and others who wanted to play with, improve, experiment with and make it useful with other operating systems like Windows and public market software designed for Windows. As a result, Apple was nearly shunned and it drastically lost sales. No one wanted an Apple even though it was the best operating computer on the market). Now, especially due to Linux OS, Many programs are compatible with Apple and its sales are booming. The software manufacturers have a new market. Linux, a many-flavored operating system patterned on Bell Lab’s Unix, is the most versatile operating system in the world right now. In amany cases it can be downloaded free and additional software is inexpensive. If you want the whole enchilada like Red Hat Fedora, SuSe, Open Linux or Mandrive, the professional sets cost anywhere from $100 to $200 depending what you like. (I use Mandrive and SuSe, though at many colleges they really like Red Hat Fedora). There is one UNIX you can download free: BSD which stands for Berkeley Software Distribution and which Berkeley owns. All these OS’s are part of GNU and “Open Source Foundation”. All Linuxes- and UNIX will use the maximum interface language called GNOME, and also a more efficient language/translator called Apache. Indispensible is a very advanced compatibility set of languages called JAVA, from Sun Microsystems. (Sun makes thos office systems where the stations don’t have much but a screen, a keyboard, a mouse and maybe a CD tray. a lot of Data Entry companies use Sun. We call it the ‘Gutless Wonder’. It has its own systems adminstrators like IBM. These guys do it all at the “hub”.
Yeah. You are not the registered user. Once a person uses a fresh copy of Windows it has a one-time-code which it matches with the product ID on the package. If the system (Windows) becomes corrupted or has to be reinstalled, it will do it on that computer alone. Putting it in another computer is not an option. But, there are ways of getting past this, none legal. When the disks are copied, the one-time-code is, too, and the product code. So, even though someone tries to copy the disks, there is no place to put the product key to unlock this lock. Your computer, if it is an Apple, will read a little of a disk and if it isn’t Apple, it will tell you so and ask you if you want to format the disk. If the disk is a ROM (Read Only Memory), it won’t even recognize you have a disk in the tray. If it is a DC-R or DVD-R(All disks you can record once on) and has information on it, it has already been formatted. I don’t think you can reformat it. At any rate, you lose all the information on that disk if it tries to reformat. If it is a CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW (these you record, erase and re-record on tham, supposedly as many times as you want, if you want to download anything you still have to make these disks compatible with the operating system (often called a platform) you are using- and you still lose all that old information. (If you happen to have a tape drive that has large enough memory and is compatible with you operating system, you can not only download all the information you want, but also add anything later, so long as the formats match. Tape drive hold amazing amounts of information, but operate slowly, sometimes too slowly for modern computers. But they will not let you download an old copy of Windows unless it is really old like Windows X or Windows 95. All the other versions are protected against copying. By the way, I have a feeling your home computer is an Apple or an Apple clone (copy, knock-off) You cannot legally buy or possess any Apple software unless you got if from Apple. In fact, Apple stuffs its computers with all the software before it leaves the factory. (I remember just a short time ago there was no Apple software to be sold or bought. It was big complaint for hackers and others who wanted to play with, improve, experiment with and make it useful with other operating systems like Windows and public market software designed for Windows. As a result, Apple was nearly shunned and it drastically lost sales. No one wanted an Apple even though it was the best operating computer on the market). Now, especially due to Linux OS, Many programs are compatible with Apple and its sales are booming. The software manufacturers have a new market. Linux, a many-flavored operating system patterned on Bell Lab’s Unix, is the most versatile operating system in the world right now. In amany cases it can be downloaded free and additional software is inexpensive. If you want the whole enchilada like Red Hat Fedora, SuSe, Open Linux or Mandrive, the professional sets cost anywhere from $100 to $200 depending what you like. (I use Mandrive and SuSe, though at many colleges they really like Red Hat Fedora). There is one UNIX you can download free: BSD which stands for Berkeley Software Distribution and which Berkeley owns. All these OS’s are part of GNU and “Open Source Foundation”. All Linuxes- and UNIX will use the maximum interface language called GNOME, and also a more efficient language/translator called Apache. Indispensible is a very advanced compatibility set of languages called JAVA, from Sun Microsystems. (Sun makes thos office systems where the stations don’t have much but a screen, a keyboard, a mouse and maybe a CD tray. a lot of Data Entry companies use Sun. We call it the ‘Gutless Wonder’. It has its own systems adminstrators like IBM. These guys do it all at the “hub”. Stop wasting your time. Return the copied disks to your “friend?” at the office and go somewhere to download a free copy of Linux or BSD.
Note that all linux’s love other operating systems, especially the language of your Apple called “E-Macs”. (E-Macs is a very wordy language with a lot of operations in it for routing a programming and whatnot. I don’t program in E-Macs and don’t own an Apple. don’t worry. You won’t have to, either. Linux is the easiest Os on earth, when you get the hang of it. It is better to start with one OS and stay with it through all the trials and tribulations you would have to go through with anything else, than start and get used to one and have to learn another. Only ‘ethical hackers’ like me have to do that stuff. Stay clean, stay sharp, stay on, communicate, learn and learn and don’t forget to have a whole lot of fun.