August 2005

Here is a temporary fix suggested by a quick search on Google referred by one of my colleagues to the issue of Windows Updates on a non-Genuine installation of Windows XP.  This probably isn’t a permanent solution, but it’ll get you this week’s updates!

Cross-posted to []

While performing my patriotic duty of doing a Windows Update tonight, I found out that my RPI Help Desk-supplied copy of Windows XP is using an invalid license key (it fails the new Genuine Microsoft Software test integrated into Windows Update).  Apparently it is a key that has been marked as having been pirated?

In any case, thanks to recent changes at the Windows Update website, it no longer seems possible to update my copy of Windows because of its illegitimate status.  There are probably hundreds of other RPI students who were also given this key (whether by the Help Desk or friends) that will also no longer be able to update Windows.  Further, there are probably grandparents of RPI students out there who are using their relatives license key and don’t even realize what Automatic Updates are.

I understand that Microsoft is trying to crack down on piracy, but what about their corporate responsibility to those who have legally registered their software, which I presumably did by buying my laptop at RPI two years ago.  With a significant chunk of computers out there likely to fail the new piracy check, it will be only a matter of time before a new exploit propagates a worm that overwhelms corporate and government networks like the recent Sober creation did.

Anyone else have this happen to their RPI laptops?