Re: [tlug] HP Envy 15 first impressions

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On Wednesday, April 11, 2012, Darren Cook wrote:

> [Jonathan Byrne wrote:]
>
> > The next order of business will be to boot Windows, create
> > recovery media, then DD it off to a USB disk to later be slurped into
> > VirtualBox, and repartition for upgrade to Linux.
>
> Does that work? I thought modern Windows tied themselves to the
> hardware, and running under it as a virtual machine would count as
> different hardware.

Yes, it works, it just accuses you of being a thief by running in the
"this is not legitimate software" mode.

I bought a copy of Windows when I was interviewing for an Xbox
developer job at a game studio here in Sweden. I ran it in VirtualBox
on my Linux machine, until I didn't get the job, at which point I
killed off my VB and installed the copy of Windows on my wife's
MacBook instead. (As an aside, the Swedish immigration authority
allows you to apply online, but requires IE in Windows!!!)

I tried to register, and was told that my code wouldn't work. I
Googled around, and found that the code takes about 30 days to be
usable on different hardware. A year and a half on, I've tried the
code every six months or so (read: every time I boot into Windows),
but to no avail. I keep meaning to call Microsoft, but they've made
their number so bloody hard to find that I always give up after five
minutes or so. Given that I use Windows for about an hour a year, I
can't really be arsed to get to the bottom of it.

But this is software that I paid 100 Euro for, and am using, as per
the EULA, on only one machine. And yet I can't register it. Awesome.

Cheers,
Josh