<p>i dont think you should try it. First of all, the cd is not made by a "trusted" company....its from Hong Kong...besides the retail price is at least $150 cheaper than the price in u.s....i think it might be bootleg version....the website looks ok..but its way too good to be true.....and the pic looks just bad....dont do it...</p>
<p>Well if $35 doesn't seem like a big deal to you (in case it is a scam) then I say go for it because $35 is a great bargain. And if you use Visa or any other credit card, you're protected against having to pay anything that you didn't charge to the card.</p>
<p>It's a bootleg version. The company is located in Shenzhen, China which is a huge manufacturing center located in Guangdong province (just outside of Hong Kong). </p>
<p>CBS's 60 Minutes did a story last year about all of the illegal bootlegging that goes on there. Calloway golf clubs were being "manufactured" there. Tourist were buying them and later selling them on Ebay as genuine.</p>
<p>Some years ago, a Shenzhen company won a contract from Microsoft to print on silver foil, the hologram Windows logo. Evidently a "third" shift was added at the factory so that the foil seal was sold to counterfeiters of Window products. </p>
<p>Buy at your own risk...you'll have to activate Windows XP on-line. Hope that the software comes a valid serial number!</p>
<p>It would be fine if I was just wanting one for myself. But if im going to be putting them on customers computers, im going to need a legit version.</p>
<p>This brings back a lot of memories. Back in the 70's, I was working at an IBM clone shop in Ann Arbor. My boss got a great deal on "DragonDos". Out of Hong Kong, the operating system looked like it was a legitimate licensee of IBM. We bought a crate of it and sold it to our customers. A few weeks later, I was reading an article in InfoWorld about our "DragonDos", It was a fake and that the Feds were out to close their operations down. Needless to say, we dumped our stock. </p>
<p>Periodically, Microsoft and the FBI go after resellers who have counterfeit OS packages. </p>
<p>I know how to get free copies of windows xp. The thing is that I don't want to be selling computers, with illegal versions of windows. As stated, if it was for me, I'd go with the free stuff. But when your selling computers, it's a whole new story.</p>
<p>"Nearly 36 percent of all software worldwide is pirated, according to the Business Software Alliance, a software industry group."-pcworld :)</p>
<p>It's nearly impossible to get Windows XP for free because it won't work if you don't register it online in a certain time period. A lot of programs have this feature as I'm sure many of you know, but Windows' is nearly foolproof (notice how I said nearly).</p>