edwardrake Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 (edited) Since living in Thailand I've never owned a genuine copy of Windows & I imagine most buying computers here also get a cracked version & turn a blind eye. Had some virus trouble over the weekend so talked to the local tekkie who didn't do much except a System Restore rollback which took him 4 hours to get to actively fiddling. Watched what he did which was mostly running his own virus scanner a few times to little effect. The rollback is a temp fix & being fairly stable again tried reloading the anti-virus program I attempted to load before having to go to him, & same thing happened again, endless shut-down-start-up cycle which I fixed myself from Safe Mode simply deleted the offending program. What I tried reloading was a genuine scanner downloaded from the software co but by that point the disk was too messed up. Format is the only real fix in this case I believe, & a clean copy of Windows. After the rollback he spent 2 hours trying to update SP3. MSFT said NO, invalid cracked key whereupon he tried a few other cracked keys, none any good. AFAIK installing SP3 cannot be done without the genuine article (which includes Windows Genuine Advantage I think) otherwise why wouldn't he have the thing already on the shop disk? Maybe it can only be installed at download stage to an individual machine with the correct key, I don't know. Further, I discovered the anti-virus program installed for the last few months was also running on a cracked key which file happens to be a known virus, installed by another shop 6 months ago without my knowledge. I wonder how many people have problems because of pirate programs. Who knows what's on a cracked OS disk or any other cracked app. Nothing good I imagine. I've asked tekkies to get genuine copies for me before but only got sheepish smiles. At this point the system appears to be clean after running several malware-scanners which initially found 100+ malwares & 10 trojan viruses, all supposedly removed but who knows. Viruses can be highly compromising depending what one is doing & my thoughts now are it may be best to install paid for products with a much greater chance of being in a virginal state & avoid serious future disruptions. Anyone here using genuine Windows software bought in Thailand? Please let me know where from & how much? Cheers. PS why couldn't XP w/SP3 be imaged w/Ghost or similar. Wouldn't that work? Edited February 8, 2010 by edwardrake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfessorFart Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 You may have difficulties here. I've been on the lookout for a while now and can't find XP anywhere. It's all Vista and Windows 7. Even the MS people here in BKK told me to 'Try Panthip' Whether or not that was a euphemism for 'get a good pirate copy' or that I may well find a genuine copy there in the myriad computer shops I couldn't tell you. I'm planning to pop in to Panthip this weekend to have a look but I despise the place so if I find one I'll post here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardrake Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 You may have difficulties here. I've been on the lookout for a while now and can't find XP anywhere. It's all Vista and Windows 7. Even the MS people here in BKK told me to 'Try Panthip'Whether or not that was a euphemism for 'get a good pirate copy' or that I may well find a genuine copy there in the myriad computer shops I couldn't tell you. I'm planning to pop in to Panthip this weekend to have a look but I despise the place so if I find one I'll post here. found a gen copy yesterday w/SP3. may or may not be able to acquire a copy, I'll know next week. not averse to pirate software, only the malwares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfessorFart Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Where did you find it and how much was it if you don't mind me asking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardrake Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 (edited) Where did you find it and how much was it if you don't mind me asking? Professor, the original is still in the hands of a fellow who runs multiple computers & I may be able to get a copy of that, maybe next week. I'll keep you posted. a bar owner proudly offered a selection of 'superior cracked copies' for 400 baht premium over Panthip rubbish which I know were acquired at Panthip ... or maybe a street market. Edited February 9, 2010 by edwardrake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H2oDunc Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Stick with genuine software and you will have little or no problems. People who complain about XP are normally the ones unable to get the much needed automatic updates so open themselves to all kinds of trouble. The easiest way to get a genuine copy is to install a copy, download WGA and it will tell you it is a fake. Click the resolve now button and simply give MS your money direct. You get key through email and a DVD in the post from Singapore a week or so later. EASY. Simply set it up for automatic updates and it keeps your system running smoothly Have done it for XP and Vista Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackkopee Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 you might buy the Win 7 Pro, and then call microsoft told them that you want to downgrade to XP Pro. This is something you can do too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaibkk Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 had the same once.. bought computer with free os (linux? no thank you)... they installed windows and anti virus lol came home, did a scan and the AV found trojans and worms ... nice service... is it intented to be able to steal your data / credit card / sensitive info later ? I went back and asked my wife to say outloud : you sold me new computer with trojan on it they wanted to fix , but i said i already formatted myself no more trust Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardrake Posted February 15, 2010 Author Share Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) The "Probably the best security list in the world" thread http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread....ghlight=cloning take a look at the DEEP FREEZE SHADOW DEFENDER RENTURNIL SHADOW USER group of softwares. these let you run in virtual/shadow mode. as you browse nothing is written to the real drive, the changes only take place on the shadow/virtual drive which evapourate on reboot & your real disk remains in its original virginal state. Edited February 15, 2010 by edwardrake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welo Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 (edited) EDIT: Well, just noticed that my post was pretty OT and therefore removed it. Edited February 19, 2010 by welo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farangchopthai Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Windows XP Service Pack 3 - ISO-9660 CD Image File Had similar problems with a recently installed copy of Xp,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,would not let me download any uploads.....opened this site in Mozilla Firefox and downloaded the file above ,,be warned its 544.9 MB !! http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...50-fe22559d164e After installing returned to the regular Microsoft update page and successfully downloaded all current updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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