laserblazer Posted May 17, 2009 Posted May 17, 2009 An ex-teacher just called me at home (Sunday and I was watching TV!) When her last school was closed she was able to keep her laptop but she told me a vague story about not being able to log on because the licence had expired. She couldn't even confirm to me that it was Windows. I believe there is an issue like this when the MS Genuine Software validation thinks it's a pirate version, so I'm guessing that this is the case here but is there anything else it could be. She's bringing the laptop in tomorrow. Seems she will be back teaching here next term.
laserblazer Posted May 17, 2009 Author Posted May 17, 2009 Time restrictions? As in when a user can access the computer?
Michael Posted May 17, 2009 Posted May 17, 2009 Either using Active Directory or locally (using the command prompt), you can specify what time(s) users are allowed to logon on an hourly/daily basis. If you attempt to logon, you'll be denied due to time restrictions. If you're within your restrictions, you can logon as you would normally. 1
laserblazer Posted May 17, 2009 Author Posted May 17, 2009 It's something to look at but she did say it said licence expired. All will no doubt be revealed.
m25man Posted May 17, 2009 Posted May 17, 2009 Is it running a KMS Product Key? If it has not been validated against it's KMS recently it may have expired.
mossj Posted May 17, 2009 Posted May 17, 2009 When microsofts validation thing kicks it, it restricts you down but I don't beleave it locks you out...
laserblazer Posted May 17, 2009 Author Posted May 17, 2009 I suspect it will be something like that. The next question is, if the laptop was on a volume licence and it's given away does the new owner still have a licence? I suspect not.
Jamman960 Posted May 17, 2009 Posted May 17, 2009 The owner will have a licence for whatever the sticker on the laptop says, any additional rights gained via a volume licence/schools agreement etc are void. having a volume license version of XP pro installed and an XP pro sticker should be fine though technically.
SYNACK Posted May 17, 2009 Posted May 17, 2009 I agree with m25man, this sounds very like Vista with KMS managed activation. It checks back with the server every 120 days (default) to reactivate. I have ours set to a couple of months as if the teachers have not connected to the network in that long they are obviously not using it for school work. If it was on volume license which is likely they are not still covered unless the subscription period of the school is still valid. On the plus side there should be a COA for an OS on the laptop for some bersion of Windows as this is a requirement for VLK installs. It may only be XP or a home edition but at least its something.
ricki Posted May 18, 2009 Posted May 18, 2009 HI I had this a bit back with loads of laptops if its what I think it is. All our laptops have the same volume licience key and microsoft changed a windows update that checked the key and it did not like it and kept kicking you out at log in. We had to log in as administrator and run windows update and the genuine copy program and it fixed it but it was a real pain at the time. Just an idea. Richard
Jamo Posted May 18, 2009 Posted May 18, 2009 If it is Vista I believe it locks you out fully, I have come across a few Vista laptops back when it was first released that ended up unvalidating themselves, ie performed an update on a healthy system and it rebooted to say please validate your copy and wouldn't let you in with out validating. Saying that this was PC world so I am unsure of how the laptops were treated by the users :s Microsoft had a few fixes which included chkdsk and a few other things but none of them worked.
laserblazer Posted May 18, 2009 Author Posted May 18, 2009 It's XP Pro SP3 and her son has obviously been using it as a games machine. When it boots up it immediately goes into a 3rd Party "We can fix all your computer problems" programme. Luckily the admin password is blank, logging on immediately tries to connect to Tiscali. There's no anti-virus software so I'm currently running Stinger, then I'll look at clearing out the cr@p. Oh and it's an Evesham Micro.
Michael Posted May 18, 2009 Posted May 18, 2009 It sounds like you have some lovely spyware on your hands! Oh the joy!
m25man Posted May 19, 2009 Posted May 19, 2009 Lovely, lovely spyware eh! Should have expected the easy answer! I have been pointing end users towards Vipre AV after one lady gave me her PC with over 2000 viruses on it! Sophos and AVG didn't come close to cleaning it up, Vipre did it in a single pass. Home users can get the whole house covered for less than a Norton subscription. Worth checking out - the 15 day trial is a bit short though. 1
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