My girlfriend has a PC that was apparantly loaded with a pirated version of Windows XP Home Edition since it would not accept any of the newer security updates, etc. and could not be validated. I know where she got the OS from but, I wanted to make her legitimate without compromising or removing any of the other programs and data she had on the machine. Therefore, I purchased a licensed Windows XP Home Edition and loaded it onto her harddrive without reformatting it.
Everything now works just fine, and can be updated correctly.
I just have ONE problem ... and can't figure out how to fix it
When I boot her machine up, it goes through the usual DOS yada yada but then pauses at a notification screen before proceeding to load Windows. My problem is that the DOS notification screen has the option of proceeding with one of two operating systems, and has a 30-second delay before self-loading the first option ... or I can hit <Enter> to proceed. The first option is the new legitimate Windows XP Home Edition OS [that works] and the second option is the old pirated Windows XP Home Edition OS [that does not work].
How can I remove the second option from this start-up screen so that the computer just goes straight from the usual DOS yada yada to loading Windows?
Even better ... can I also hide the usual DOS yada yada from showing and scrolling on the screen?
Another thing you could have done was check MSKB for a way to change the license key, which is amazingly easy to do. You change a value in the registry, run MS' OOBE and do the telephone activation, within there you change the key.
here it worked so far with 10 people after M$ enforced its validation process. each one bought a legit copy we adviced them to change the pirated key using jellybean with the new legit key. every thing went ok and all the 10 passed M$ validation process without a problem.