Buying Windows XP in China

[ruidianren2]

Hey all

I'm planning to buy Chinese windows XP when I get back there, but how to I know that I'm getting the real deal ?

I searched for "xp 正版" at ebay.com.cn and there was not one version of windows xp that costs more than 50 yuan. It says that its supposed to be 正版, but is it really ?

I would not want to buy a copy of XP and then run windows update just to find out that "you are not using a legitimate version of windows" or some crap like that.

Are these cheap versions of XP the real thing or are they all pirate copies？And if it's real, how can the be so cheap when they cost like 50 times more here in Sweden ?

[roddy]

Try here - click through to the version you want and you'll get a list of stockists somewhere. I also had a look at Microsoft's Chinese site, but they didn't want to tell me about anything that wasn't Vista.

Joyo also has feasibly priced copies.

[djwebb2004]

I had to reinstall Windows over the last couple of days - yes it should take an hour but Microsoft makes it take a couple of days. I have a legal version of XP Pro that I bought in England 3 or 4 years ago. Formatting the hard drive, installing Windows XP, and then the fun starts: see if you can get the windowsupdate.com site to work properly. It is regularly unavailable. The Service Pack 2 was a joke - 6 hours by broadband for the download, which had to be constantly restarted so that I couldn't go anywhere or do anything while the d/l was happening, followed by continual problems with my Internet connection - a pppoe error. According to support.microsoft.com, such an error can be the result of installing Microsoft's updates. (If they know this, why don't they do something about it?? There attitude to many of these things is "Don't worry if your computer cannot start - it's a known bug. Thank you for your cash.") Their suggested methods of dealing with the pppoe error didn't work, and after much messing about, an 8 yuan Chinese version of Windows XP Pro SP2 has been a dream to install and use - genuinely a 40 minute installation, instead of a 2 day one fiddling about with the Service Pack 2. Why would you even go on to the Microsoft update site? It is much easier to just buy the lastest 8 yuan CD and install things in one fell swoop than continually patching faulty software. The same applies to Vista: you can buy it, spend days installing it - according to the BBC website - wait for numerous Service Packs and patches. Or just wait for a couple of years for the 8 yuan CD that will give you a dream installation. Should we be encouraging companies that abuse their market power, charge absurd figures for faulty software, expect you to spend days downloading service packs and patches (with no refund of the initial cost of the software and no payment of any fee for the time you spend doing this)? Trust me, after a couple of days of faffing about, you will wish you had done what I have outlined above. The whole notion of copyright has been taken to extremes anyway - software that is no longer supported is included, software that is ancient is included - and there is no mention in copyright legislation of spyware-style software. Really, software that collects information about you and all these pretend patches that are actually a way of conning you into installing Digital Rights Management so that you cannot view videos and files you have already paid for [my fingers are burned with PDF ebooks, of which I bought 30 or 40 from Amazon, none of which can be opened following reinstall of windows] should be explicitly excluded from copyright protection in order to foster the production of quality software.

[terran261]

I also have a tried and true Windows XP copy, but as you know, without SP2 it is basically a bug infested piece of whatever. With SP2 it is about the same, but unfortunately I like playing video games. Check out the link below to upgrade your SP1 disk to SP2:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

[edu-linux]

in China,XP PRO will cost you 1998RMB and xp home cost you 1198RMB.

[magores]

At zhongguancun in Beijing, they wanted 1000RMB for Chinese WindowsXP.

It looked completely real. Regular Microsoft retail packaging, etc. The packaging itself probably cost as much as the guy downstairs was selling it for.

The guy downstairs had it for MUCH less. Not real, of course.

[Battosai]

I don't know anyone in China who uses a real Windows

Pirated XPs still get all the updates. At work we run lots of XP machines (all fake) and they get updated regulary. Some of the English version have a pop-up that says ' you might be a victim of software counterfeiting, your version of Windows cannot be validated'.

Not that I encourage you to install a pirated Windows.

On the contrary, I encourage you to insatll Ubuntu Linux. It's free, safe, supports Chinese and is a lot of fun!

[Yang Rui]

I bought a genuine Chinese Windows XP Home SP2 in Shenzhen for 450 kuai. I trusted it was genuine based on the fact that the stallholders (in Saige Guangchang, SZ's equivalent of Beijing's Bainaohui) were friends of a friend, and they really wanted to install a fake Windows for free. It passed all the "Genuine Advantage" stuff.

To be more sure of getting a genuine copy, I would avoid buying online, and take a good look at the packaging. But the only way to know for absolutely sure is to try it...