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by infinitelink - 7/9/05 8:05 PM

In Reply to: Re "How Many Times..." by raiello3

When Windows 98 came out there were over 11 OEM keys provided. An OEM VERSION OF AN OS IS MEANT ONLY TO RUN ON THE COMPUTER FOR WHICH IS SUPPLIED. An OEM of Windows is modified for the computer with which it came. Furthermore, you'll need one of the keys for that versioin of the OEM; I had the same problem, my old HP running Windows 98 died, and I didn't have the key. Funny thing is, when I called HP and retrieved the "right" key, it didn't work, and they told me to contact MS. I gave up, since I'm just trying to use it to back-up files, and I'll be using a small linux distro + "samba" (allows a linux and Windows computer to network) to do that. If all else fails, get an "easy" linux download, or buy a book on one of the linux distros and it should (check) include the disks to install it. If you have MS product dependencies, "Wine" might help you to run your programs, but might not. If you can find a key to your OEM version, you could just use that (sometimes they're posted online). But it MUST BE FOR THAT OEM VERSION. For example, an HP OEM has different keys than a Dell OEM. Remember though, as long as its any key for that version OEM it should work. happy [Note: this is technically illegal, but I have no problem with it just as long as the machine really did have a legitimate copy of Windows that needs to be repaired.]