The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid ....

XP Pro User / Microst Update site will allow any updates except for SP2. When
I attemp to update to SP2 I get the error message:
The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid .....
I have run Belarc Advisor and it does list the Product Key as follows:

Microsoft - Windows XP Professional 55274-640-0000356-23040 (Key:
FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8)

Does anyone know how I can overcome this problem please. Any help would me
much appreciated !!!!

In
mykeytosuccess wrote:
XP Pro User / Microst Update site will allow any updates
except for SP2. When I attemp to update to SP2 I get the
error message:
The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid .....
I have run Belarc Advisor and it does list the Product Key
as follows:

Microsoft - Windows XP Professional 55274-640-0000356-23040
(Key: FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8)

Does anyone know how I can overcome this problem please. Any
help would me much appreciated !!!!

You can either buy a legitmate copy of XP or complain to the
people who sold you your computer. This web site has an
excellent explanation of your situation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCKGW

If you're interested in any other sources, you might want to
Google the first five characters of your CD key.

Nepatsfan

Please do not post product keys on the Newsgroup.

Error Message: The Product Key Used to Install Windows Is Invalid
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326904


--
===========================
TaurArian [MS-MVP] 2005-2006
===========================


"mykeytosuccess" wrote in message
...
XP Pro User / Microst Update site will allow any updates except for SP2. When
I attemp to update to SP2 I get the error message:
The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid .....
I have run Belarc Advisor and it does list the Product Key as follows:

Microsoft - Windows XP Professional 55274-640-0000356-23040 (Key:
FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8)

Does anyone know how I can overcome this problem please. Any help would me
much appreciated !!!!

Normally I suggest not posting Product Keys publicly unless you are in the
habit of passing $100.00 bills to strangers as they pass by.
But in this case you have posted a well known pirate key.

You need to buy a legitimate Windows XP Pro and perform a Repair
Installation if you want to keep your current configuration:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/invalpk.htm

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"mykeytosuccess" wrote in message
...
XP Pro User / Microst Update site will allow any updates except for SP2.
When
I attemp to update to SP2 I get the error message:
The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid .....
I have run Belarc Advisor and it does list the Product Key as follows:

Microsoft - Windows XP Professional 55274-640-0000356-23040 (Key:
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx)

Does anyone know how I can overcome this problem please. Any help would me
much appreciated !!!!

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 18:39:10 -0700, "Jupiter Jones [MVP]"
wrote:

Normally I suggest not posting Product Keys publicly unless you are in the
habit of passing $100.00 bills to strangers as they pass by.

Perhaps if windows priced it's software at a lower price then people
wouldn't constantly feel the need to do things like HE did.

You've got 90% of the PC home market so why charge $100 [$200 in my
case] for an OS?

/rant

"mykeytosuccess" wrote in message
...
XP Pro User / Microst Update site will allow any updates except for SP2.
When
I attemp to update to SP2 I get the error message:
The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid .....
I have run Belarc Advisor and it does list the Product Key as follows:

Microsoft - Windows XP Professional 55274-640-0000356-23040 (Key:
FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8)

Does anyone know how I can overcome this problem please. Any help would me
much appreciated !!!!


So just WHERE did you, ahem, "buy" this copy of Windows?

No one needs to.
It is possible the OP was not aware the OS is pirated.
I do not make the assumption you did.
Many buy used computers at a good price not realizing until later why it
came with Windows XP so cheap.
There are also other possibilities.

The price is only an excuse people use to justify theft.
Thieves will steal regardless the price.
Otherwise there would be little or no theft of the lower priced shareware
etc.
If they can afford the computer, they can afford the OS usually less than
the cost you suggest.
Or just as well, stay with whatever they currently have on the computer
until they can afford the asking price.

There are a lot of things priced higher than I feel appropriate.
At that point I make a choice:
1. Steal...Out of the question
2. Buy it anyway
3. Buy another product
4. Do without.
There may also be other options, most are better than stealing.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"Theodore Baldwin Boothe III" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 18:39:10 -0700, "Jupiter Jones [MVP]"
Perhaps if windows priced it's software at a lower price then people
wouldn't constantly feel the need to do things like HE did.

You've got 90% of the PC home market so why charge $100 [$200 in my
case] for an OS?

/rant

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 20:24:34 -0700, "Jupiter Jones [MVP]"
wrote:

No one needs to.
It is possible the OP was not aware the OS is pirated.
I do not make the assumption you did.
Many buy used computers at a good price not realizing until later why it
came with Windows XP so cheap.
There are also other possibilities.

The price is only an excuse people use to justify theft.

I never said theft was ok. I am saying this. A person can buy and
build a fair computer for around $600 these days. Why should the OS
cost 1/6th the total price of an entire computer?

A house is nice at $100,000 each. Imagine paying 1/6th the price of
the home for electricity or something else like phone service?

All I'm saying is that a higher price tends to lead people to theft.
If you doubt this then why do banks get robbed more often than the
dollar store?
The bank has cold hard cash but the dollar store has trinkints so
worthless that a trunk full of merchandise would yeild at most $500.

Like I said, I do not and am not advocating theft of any product or
service. But I do not BUY into the theory that the price of an item
has nothing to do with the rate of it's theft.

Thieves will steal regardless the price.
Otherwise there would be little or no theft of the lower priced shareware
etc.

Shareware? Most of the shareware has the person being told they can
donate money if they want to. Most shareware doesn't require some
payment. Also, many people program and update software they have
offered to the public for far less than $5 per copy. And even then
it's voluntary at best.


If they can afford the computer, they can afford the OS usually less than
the cost you suggest.

At 1/6th of the cost of the entire computer? For a corporation that
might be sustainable, but for a home user that will not work very
long.

Google spends a LOT of money for what it offers for free. Yes they
make money off of advertising but they charge nothing up front. Is
their business model flawed? Is their $400 per share stock price the
result of a failed business model?
Just asking.

Or just as well, stay with whatever they currently have on the computer
until they can afford the asking price.

There are a lot of things priced higher than I feel appropriate.
At that point I make a choice:
1. Steal...Out of the question
2. Buy it anyway

UH, you know some people don't make $50K per year and can only buy a
computer every 3 or 4 years at most. I suppose someone with a good
paying job would pay MORE than $200 for an OS. But the other 99% would
either wait or steal it. And "NO" I am not advocating someone steal
anything at all, not at all.

3. Buy another product

Which OS would that be exactly? Linux? It's free btw. And when
application/game developers code things they try to cater to what they
know most people are using as an OS. That is why people are literally
forced to by a MS OS. Choices? Hardly.

4. Do without.
There may also be other options, most are better than stealing.

Yes, for the 197th time, stealing is wrong. I agree. However if MS
continues to make more and more expensive OS's and APP's then they
before do something about that price.
Reminds me of those $399 computers for sale at places like walmart,
and they include a monitor. I will be you money that walmart or hp
didn't $100 per copy on each of those computers?

I just say if sales drop or piracy becomes a problem, perhaps look
around and see if perhaps the price is steep?

And no, again, let me be clear, in no way whatsoever do I advocate or
support the theft or piracy of software.

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 04:46:41 GMT, Leythos wrote:

In article ,
says...
In article ,
says...
I never said theft was ok. I am saying this. A person can buy and
build a fair computer for around $600 these days. Why should the OS
cost 1/6th the total price of an entire computer?

The OS doesn't cost anything UNLESS you want to pay that much for an OS
that costs that much. As an example, for a typical home user, Linux
Fedora Core 3 or 4 would provide a viable workstation platform on a lot
of hardware and with a lot of apps - and it doesn't cost a thing.

If you don't want to pay for an OS, no one is going to FORCE YOU to buy
Windows OS, you do it because YOU WANT TO and must see some benefit to
it.

Oh, one other thing - the Motherboard costs more than 1/6th the cost of
the computer, so does the CPU.... Did you really have a point or just
like bitching about Windows OS.

Well, it didn't take long for the swearing to start.
Oh well, I guess free speech isn't allowed in this newsgroup.
bye sir!

In ,
Jupiter Jones [MVP] had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Normally I suggest not posting Product Keys publicly unless you are
in the habit of passing $100.00 bills to strangers as they pass by.
But in this case you have posted a well known pirate key.

You need to buy a legitimate Windows XP Pro and perform a Repair
Installation if you want to keep your current configuration:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/invalpk.htm

Off Topic...

Where did you manage to find that this was a pirated key? I'm curious
because I'd like to be able to keep something like that in mind. I took a
look at the link you gave but your site didn't contain any information on
how you knew it to be pirated. I'm just too curious I suppose...

While I'm posting off-topic - I'll respond to the rant.

I've seen cracks for the free version of mIRC, XNView, and even a key was
floating around for Kelly's Tasbbar Repair Kit which is pretty inexpensive
at something like $5 USD if I recall. Crackers crack for the sake of
defeating the methods. Users use them to steal the application. Price is not
a factor. If such a statement were true than the thieves would go after big
targets all the time and yet the most commonly stolen items (at the one lone
department store where I worked for a whole 3 weeks and using only their
statistics so it's perhaps skewed data) are very inexpensive items and the
most common loss is due to employee theft. I'd wager that the statistics are
similar for software as you don't generally see people pirating something
like an ERP system.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of
existence." - Sherlock Holmes

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 01:39:44 -0500, "Galen"
wrote:

In ,
Jupiter Jones [MVP] had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Normally I suggest not posting Product Keys publicly unless you are
in the habit of passing $100.00 bills to strangers as they pass by.
But in this case you have posted a well known pirate key.

You need to buy a legitimate Windows XP Pro and perform a Repair
Installation if you want to keep your current configuration:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/invalpk.htm

Off Topic...

Where did you manage to find that this was a pirated key? I'm curious
because I'd like to be able to keep something like that in mind. I took a
look at the link you gave but your site didn't contain any information on
how you knew it to be pirated. I'm just too curious I suppose...

While I'm posting off-topic - I'll respond to the rant.

I've seen cracks for the free version of mIRC, XNView, and even a key was
floating around for Kelly's Tasbbar Repair Kit which is pretty inexpensive
at something like $5 USD if I recall. Crackers crack for the sake of
defeating the methods. Users use them to steal the application. Price is not
a factor. If such a statement were true than the thieves would go after big
targets all the time and yet the most commonly stolen items (at the one lone
department store where I worked for a whole 3 weeks and using only their
statistics so it's perhaps skewed data) are very inexpensive items and the
most common loss is due to employee theft. I'd wager that the statistics are
similar for software as you don't generally see people pirating something
like an ERP system.


OK, let me state up front, I do NOT support piracy or theft. BUT I
really want someone to explain the following. How can a company like
microsoft be so alarmed and upset with piracy when they have nearly
$100 Billion in assets and cash on hand? Also MSFT continues to make
more and more and more money year after year even with all this Piracy
going on?
Did I miss something?

Also. Car alarms are for keeping cars from being stolen. Yet, cars get
stolen anyway, even when people install $1,000 systems. I also know
that if you have full coverage car insurance that the company will
simply write you a check for the stolen car. So why spend $1,000 on an
alarm when a common car theif can steal it? If you say it's for a
premium deduction I wonder just how much you think you saved? $1,000
wll not return too soon when your discounted premium difference is $25
per month.

Yes theft is VERY WRONG. But why do we place priority on protecting
$100 Billion corporations from losing money over some guy who owns a
corner drug store and has a 3% profit margin?

Just wondering. And btw, every time you catch the piracy or method of
transmitting pirated software, some 12 yr old kid in his closet will
code something new and better than before. Then stop that one, and
here is another 12 yr old with new program code. and so on.

Again, I do not and have never supported piracy or theft. NEVER!

Galen;
That OP has one of the most common if not the most common pirated key.
I have seen it so many times on forums, newsgroups etc, that I recognize it.
Try a Google search on that key.

The web site I gave has this link at the top:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326904
The Product ID given by the OP is the top ID listed on that page.
The list of invalid Product IDs is not a complete list, just the most common
IDs.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"Galen" wrote in message
...
Where did you manage to find that this was a pirated key? I'm curious
because I'd like to be able to keep something like that in mind. I took a
look at the link you gave but your site didn't contain any information on
how you knew it to be pirated. I'm just too curious I suppose...

While I'm posting off-topic - I'll respond to the rant.

I've seen cracks for the free version of mIRC, XNView, and even a key was
floating around for Kelly's Tasbbar Repair Kit which is pretty inexpensive
at something like $5 USD if I recall. Crackers crack for the sake of
defeating the methods. Users use them to steal the application. Price is
not a factor. If such a statement were true than the thieves would go
after big targets all the time and yet the most commonly stolen items (at
the one lone department store where I worked for a whole 3 weeks and using
only their statistics so it's perhaps skewed data) are very inexpensive
items and the most common loss is due to employee theft. I'd wager that
the statistics are similar for software as you don't generally see people
pirating something like an ERP system.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of
existence." - Sherlock Holmes

Your example with banks is not valid.
You are not stealing a product, you are stealing currency. Even then there
is stealing in all ranges.
The desperate and inept go after $5, the intelligent and clever try the big
jobs such as banks and much larger operations.

The OS only costs what the buyer is willing to pay, not a penny more.
There are computer components that cost more than the OS, do you also
complain about their cost as you do with Windows?

I do not buy into the theory that price is a cause, but price is a major
excuse many use to justify their actions.
Or perhaps you are suggesting the price of products should be lowered until
theft stops?
The owners of a product set the price.
The buyers then decide to buy or not.
Windows at any price would be stolen same as any other product cheap or
expensive.

Your house is another bad example.
But since you brought it up, what % is the foundation? Land? Etc?
The major components must be over priced since many can not afford a home.
And a home is a little more essential than a computer.

Some shareware costs, even the cheaper software gets stolen as was already
stated.

Your example of computers at Wal-Mart does not do much for your point.
Most computers come with an OS, and as you said "didn't $100 per copy on
each of those computers".
So the customer gets it cheaper.
There is no need to buy retail or even OEM Windows by itself especially if
the persons financial status does not allow.
Keep the original OS on the computer and save the $.

Tell me, Who needs the OS so bad and does not have the resources that they
feel they have to steal it?
Just the people without the resources but have the need.
Do not count those with the resources to buy or without a genuine need.
Like any other product, the consumer chooses, no one is being forced.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"Theodore Baldwin Boothe III" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 20:24:34 -0700, "Jupiter Jones [MVP]"
wrote:

No one needs to.
It is possible the OP was not aware the OS is pirated.
I do not make the assumption you did.
Many buy used computers at a good price not realizing until later why it
came with Windows XP so cheap.
There are also other possibilities.

The price is only an excuse people use to justify theft.

I never said theft was ok. I am saying this. A person can buy and
build a fair computer for around $600 these days. Why should the OS
cost 1/6th the total price of an entire computer?

A house is nice at $100,000 each. Imagine paying 1/6th the price of
the home for electricity or something else like phone service?

All I'm saying is that a higher price tends to lead people to theft.
If you doubt this then why do banks get robbed more often than the
dollar store?
The bank has cold hard cash but the dollar store has trinkints so
worthless that a trunk full of merchandise would yeild at most $500.

Like I said, I do not and am not advocating theft of any product or
service. But I do not BUY into the theory that the price of an item
has nothing to do with the rate of it's theft.

Thieves will steal regardless the price.
Otherwise there would be little or no theft of the lower priced shareware
etc.

Shareware? Most of the shareware has the person being told they can
donate money if they want to. Most shareware doesn't require some
payment. Also, many people program and update software they have
offered to the public for far less than $5 per copy. And even then
it's voluntary at best.


If they can afford the computer, they can afford the OS usually less than
the cost you suggest.

At 1/6th of the cost of the entire computer? For a corporation that
might be sustainable, but for a home user that will not work very
long.

Google spends a LOT of money for what it offers for free. Yes they
make money off of advertising but they charge nothing up front. Is
their business model flawed? Is their $400 per share stock price the
result of a failed business model?
Just asking.

Or just as well, stay with whatever they currently have on the computer
until they can afford the asking price.

There are a lot of things priced higher than I feel appropriate.
At that point I make a choice:
1. Steal...Out of the question
2. Buy it anyway

UH, you know some people don't make $50K per year and can only buy a
computer every 3 or 4 years at most. I suppose someone with a good
paying job would pay MORE than $200 for an OS. But the other 99% would
either wait or steal it. And "NO" I am not advocating someone steal
anything at all, not at all.

3. Buy another product

Which OS would that be exactly? Linux? It's free btw. And when
application/game developers code things they try to cater to what they
know most people are using as an OS. That is why people are literally
forced to by a MS OS. Choices? Hardly.

4. Do without.
There may also be other options, most are better than stealing.

Yes, for the 197th time, stealing is wrong. I agree. However if MS
continues to make more and more expensive OS's and APP's then they
before do something about that price.
Reminds me of those $399 computers for sale at places like walmart,
and they include a monitor. I will be you money that walmart or hp
didn't $100 per copy on each of those computers?

I just say if sales drop or piracy becomes a problem, perhaps look
around and see if perhaps the price is steep?

And no, again, let me be clear, in no way whatsoever do I advocate or
support the theft or piracy of software.

Wow I was thinking to myself yesterday that nobody looks at newsgroups like
this at weekends, based on some of the questions that go unanswered or only
partially answered. It's interesting how a non-technical question draws such
a strong and heated response showing that the threads are read by many more
people than one thinks.

Theo is off course right-Windows XP is massively over priced compared to its
manufacturing costs. My view is that you should look at a Microsoft OS in
the same way as a new drug under patent. At first it needs to be very
expensive to recover the multi-million dollar cost of development, after
that has happened and the generics appear the price comes down to virtually
nothing. The problem with Microsoft OS's is there's no generic manufacturers
to bring the price down and in business the rule is charge as much as you
can get away with. I know I do that and bet you do as well. I would suggest
that OS software should have a limited patent giving the developer time to
make a good profit and recover development costs. After the patent expires
others can make the product and create a market with competition. This would
force Microsoft to push harder to deliver Windows versions in less
time-enabling flaws and security issues to be better dealt with and support
for emerging hardware to be better supported. I don't expect this to happen
but it would shake up the computer industry if it did.

Chelsea

"mykeytosuccess" wrote in message
...
XP Pro User / Microst Update site will allow any updates except for SP2.
When
I attemp to update to SP2 I get the error message:
The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid .....
I have run Belarc Advisor and it does list the Product Key as follows:

Microsoft - Windows XP Professional 55274-640-0000356-23040 (Key:
FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8)

Does anyone know how I can overcome this problem please. Any help would me
much appreciated !!!!

Interesting...you can come to this group and speak intelligently and at
the same time spew rasict, sexist garbage in the other groups. Way to
go Theodore Baldwin Boothe III.