XP offline

A couple a weeks ago I started a thread asking about running my XP computer off-line. I received one repsonse that it did not contain any advice I can use to solve my XP offline problem. I have a Dell Inspiron 530s with both Windows XP-Pro (SP3) and Office 2003. Ocassionally Office 2003 wants to phone home claiming I changed the hardware configuration of my PC, which I readily admit to doing since I have disconnected it from the internet by removing its Neatgear Wireless Adapter. Is there a way to tell Office 2003 to learn to live without its connection to the Microsoft mothership?

 

office does not need to connect to the internet to work, I have about 35 updates for my office 2003, some of the updates are compatibility packs to allow opening doc's that were made with office 2007 and office 2010.

legitimate issues concern the motherboard of an oem pc, the license you buy for your windows install is tied to the pc.

office is separate, if you have a valid product key, which should be on the case, then it is legitimate regardless of removal of wireless adapter. You can call microsoft to question wether you copy is legitimate.

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antivirus, there are some free antivirus that you can use to go online there is no need to pay, I am using avast free on one xp and 360 internet security from Qihoo on two other xp pcs.

hope this answers you question this time if not reply back, no need to start a new thread.

 

I bought the Dell Inspiron 530s with Office 2003 already installed. I received a OEM Product CD when the PC arrived. On the back of the CD case is the 25 character product key tag. A 25 character product key tag for Windows Vista is taped to the side of the PC case. When the PC arrived I noticed that the product key tag said Windows Vista instead of Windows XP Pro, so I called Dell and I received a fuzzy explanation that basically said "don't sweat it, kid". After owning this PC for about six years now, I have never received either a complaint or even an enquiry from Microsoft, so I now except that, yes, I don't need to sweat it.

On the two ocassions that I did "receive" a message from Office 2003, the content of the messages is that if I don't re-register my copy of Office 2003, it will, after another 50 document accesses, cease allowing me to modify Office documents. It also claimed I had modified my PC hardware, which is strickly not accurate. I purchased this Dell PC without an internal wireless communication device, expecting at that time to use ethernet cable connection. But my domestic circumstances changed, and I soon found I needed to purchase a wireless adapter. All I have done is remove this "after-market" wireless adapter so I can use my PC with an internet connection.

Also, certainly I have attempted to call Microsoft and was told that re-registration by telephone is no longer available for Office 2003 or Windows XP from within the United States, although it appears that it is still available to almost every other country on the face of planet Earth.

As for my continued association with Norton, this is driven in part by my domestic circumstances. She hates it whenever I make a change to her Windows 7 PC. Although, I have made it clear that should she get hit by another virus like the Ad-Checker virus we just paid $80 to have removed, she will wake up one morning soon thereafter to find Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on her erstwhile Windows 7 PC.

 

XP offline.

I made several typos in my last post and would now like to correct the most important typo.

In the second paragraph I typed that "All I have done is remove this "after-market" wireless adapter so I can use my PC with an internet connection." I intended to type "so I can use my PC without an internet connection".

A very long time ago I was told by a very wise person that "there is no such thing as good writing, only good editing." Same sentiment applies to typing.

 

You could save yourself a lot of hassle by dumping Office and getting Open Office.

It's free and does everything Office does, without all the pretension.

 

Lusby Clark, Dell was wrong in that it would not matter, a coa sticker has the valid product key for the pc, if that coa says vista, then the product key is not valid on xp, if you go through WGA to validate your install of xp it will not pass.

As for office, if it came preinstalled, do you know if it was only for trial, a lot of oem's were sent out with office, but only on trial, and if you did not buy it then it would be invalidated.

Office would have it's own product key not associated with the pc.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...Before=&threadType=Questions&tm=1417818069303

the above website is the microsoft answers for xp and office 2003, I think you might get a more knowledgeable answer there and if you do, please post it here, sorry I could not help further.

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First in response to JoJo: I am satisfied that Libre Office Writer and Libre Office Calc are good substitutes for M/S Office 2003 Word and Excel. However, in my experience M/S Office 2003 PowerPoint capabilites are much better for things like engineering drawing than Libre Office Impress.

Elizabeth23,
Somewhere around here, I still have the receipt from when I purchased this Dell PC. I will check it tomorrow. I recall that I paid extra for Office 2003 when I purchased the PC. The only reason I can come up with that explains the mix-up with a Windows Vista product key being substituted for Windows XP-Pro is that I purchased this PC through a special deal my employer had with Dell. I recall that I got a small price break on the PC but not on the Office software. But thanks for the M/S URL.

 

you are welcome, and let me know if you get some assistance over there.

 

Yesterday I checked the receipt from when I purchased my Dell Inspiron 530s. It says I bought a "Windows Vista Down Grade" with the Dell Inspiron 530s, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. What exactly the phrase "Windows Vista Down Grade" is suppose to mean is not entirely clear, but its a good guess that it means Windows XP-SP3.

Along with the Dell Inspiron 530s, and all that came with it (about $790), I also proposed to purchase the Dell WFP-3007 30" monitor (about $975), a substantial purchase, don't you think. Last night I tried to recall how the conversation went in August of 2009 when I first contacted Dell about purchasing a PC with Windows XP. To the best of my recollection I was initially told that they were no longer selling PCs with Windows XP but they would sell me a Dell Inspiron with Windows Vista Ultimate. I told them the reason I wanted Windows XP was that I wanted my new PC to be exactly like the PC my employer provided me at work. They tried to convince me that Vista would work exactly like XP. As as my wife and I already had a PC with Vista on it and did not find it to my satisfaction, I knew better than to fall for this bogus claim. Again Dell, said "no can do". So I told them I would just have to go to a local computer store to purchase a PC with Windows XP-SP3. After a few more minutes of bickering back-and-forth, they suddenly found that they could, after all, sell me a PC with Windows XP installed on it.

It arrived a few days later, and sure enough, it had Windows XP installed as its operating system, just as it does today. As it did then, whenever I boot it up nowadays, the Windows XP logo shows up just as you would expect it to. Moreover it came with a Windows XP Reinstallation CD. I am holding it in my left hand right now while I type these words with my right hand alone. Its label is colored what I take to be cerulean blue with white lettering. Near its left hand edge is the statement "The software is already on your computer. Use this media only to reinstall the operating system on a Dell PC."

Did Dell do something wrong when they sold me one of their PCs with Windows XP and then send the PC to me with a Windows Vista Ultimate product key? I don't know. But consider this, when we go to a grocery store to buy a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread, we have to trust that the grocerer did not steal the milk from the dairy or the bread from the bakery, thus ensnaring us into the criminal act of receiving stolen property. The same principle applies here. I am fairly certain the courts would look askance at Dell selling me a copy of Windows XP that they were not entitled to sell. It seems to me that the Dell representatives I dealt with, including all of their technical support staff would be aware of the consequences of such an illegal transaction as well.

It turns out that getting through to a knowledgeable Dell representative on the telephone is virtually impossible. Once their telephone answering system determines my PC no longer has a current service contract, it refuses to transfer me to a knowledgeable Dell representative. If someone knows how to break through the fortress Dell has erected around itself so it does not have to deal with dissatisfied customer, I would very much appreciate a telephone number or an e-mail address.

 

well maybe it appears that it may be valid, download the mga diagnostic tool and paste the report in your next reply:

http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/win...rosoft-genuine-advantage-diagnostic-tool.html

 

9 Dec, here are some links to contact dell:

http://www.dell.com/support/contents/us/en/19/category/Contact-Information/Technical-Support

http://www.dell.com/support/incidents/us/en/19/Phone/HomeContact/s/n

http://www.dell.com/support/content...stomer-Support/customer-support-phone-numbers

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got all those links from this search page

 

I suspect that some of you may be wondering if I am up to something neferous by insisting I shopuld be allowed to run my Windows XP computer off-line. Like many members, my member name Lusby Clark is not my real name. As it says in my membership profile, I am a writer of stories. Currently there are about four novels in various stages of completeness on my XP machine.

Now, as to what has driven me to want my Windows XP computer off-line. Sometime in the last few years it was hacked into by the most insideous hacker I can imagine. I do not know who it was, and neither do I know that person's gender, so I'm going to refer to that person by the masculine gender, unless of course, one of you ladies out there want to own up to this hacking.

I must have stepped away from my PC for an hour or so while it was still on. When I came back, I found my mouse did not seem to work the way it had just a hour or so earlier. I would move its pointer to activate some file or application and it would immediately go back to where it had been just before I moved it. I moved it again, and again it moved back. I turned the PC off and then back on, only to find it was doing pretty much the same thing. I tried again turning it off again and found that there was a brief period during which I had normal control of my PC's assets, but rather quickly it went back to doing what it had been doing. As time went on, I noticed that whoever had hacked into my PC was looking over my files and other stuff. The next day it dawned on me that someone had managed hack into my PC very much as they would have had I invited them in via REMOTE ACCESS. I was forced at that point to take my PC off-line so I could backup what I treasured the most - my stories, the beginnings of stories, copies of patents, scientific papers I had written some years before while I was still employed, and other such things. I then went back on-line and used my Windows XP Reinstallation CD to get rid of this hideous character. I also had to reload the Office 2003 software, Norton Internet Security software, and several other applications of lesser importance. After this, whoever the hacker was, he moved on to bother someone else, thankfully. Later it occurred to me that my stories had been at risk while that hacker was looking at my files.

I had already had a story line stolen from me thirty years before and I now guard against this very carefully. Maybe you guys remember the Superman movie with Gene Hackman playing the villian. (It is, of course, purely coincidental that a Hack-man played at part in this story.) . Hackman's scheme in that movie was to use atomic bombs to set off a massive earthquake along the San Andreus fault thus separating the coastal portion of Southern California from the desert portion to the east, thus creating hundreds of miles of new beachfront property which he intended to sell at hughly inflated prices. Well, it turns out that in 1973 just on a whim I wrote a little short story with the idea of a massive San Andreus earthquake rupturing Southern California thus crearting hundreds of miles of new beachfront property. I showed my story to a colleague at work, a colleague who was so enamoured with it that he told it to some persons at his church, persons I later found out were movie moguls. What my colleague did was entirely innocent and I actually have no real proof that what he did lead to my idea being purloined by a bunch of Hollywood movie moguls but it did make me understand that I should take a better care to protect my creative endeavors in the future.

Now, what happens if I run this Microsoft Genuine Advantage check and my Windows XP fails the test? Is this possibly one of those questions the answer to which I may not wish to know? By the way, I did talk with a gentleman at the local generic computer store where I have previously purchased two PCs both loaded with the Ubuntu Linux operating system. He told me this was actually quite common five or six years ago and without my prompting him, said it was called a Windows Vista Down Grade.

I like Windows XP and Office 2003 for a variety of reasons. Again in my profile you will find that one of my several avocations is "ancient electronics". I am teaching myself the principles of bipolar junction transistor circuit design, something that only peculiar guys like myself still do. I have found PowerPoint from Office 2003 quite helpful in circuit lay-out in this endeavor. I have tried Open Office Impress and found it less than impressive, indeed perfectly useless.

 

there is no problem with running your xp offline, I had thought that you wanted to get office verified, there is no reason to have office phone home, as all the updates for that pc are done with.

If you look at this thread, on page 3 you will see all the updates that have been issued for office. each of those can be downloaded to a flash drive and carried over to your offline xp, if you do not go online then there is no reason for office to phone home.

 

I suspect that some of you may be wondering if I am up to something nefarious by insisting I should be allowed to run my Windows XP computer off-line. Like many members, my member name - Lusby Clark - is not my real name. As it says in my membership profile, I am a writer of stories. Currently I have some four novels in various stages of completeness on my XP machine.

Now, as to what has driven me to want my Windows XP computer off-line. Sometime in the last few years, it was hacked into by the most insidious hacker I can imagine. I do not know who it was, and neither do I know that person's gender, so I'm going to refer to that person by the masculine gender, unless of course, one of you ladies out there want to own up to this hacking.

I must have stepped away from my PC for an hour or so while it was still on. When I came back, I found my mouse did not seem to work the way it had just a hour or so earlier. I would move its pointer to activate some file or application and it would immediately go back to where it had been just before I moved it. I moved it again, and again it moved back. I turned the PC off and then back on, only to find it was doing pretty much the same thing. I tried again turning it off and this time found that there was a brief period during which I had normal control of my PC's assets. But rather quickly it went back to doing what it had been doing. As time went on, I noticed that whoever had hacked into my PC was looking over my files and other stuff.

The next day it dawned on me that someone had managed hack into my PC very much as they would gain access had I invited them in via REMOTE ACCESS. I was forced at that point to take my PC off-line so I could backup what I treasured the most - my stories, the beginnings of stories, copies of patents, scientific papers I had written some years before while I was still employed, and other such things. I then went back on-line and used my Windows XP Reinstallation CD to get rid of this insidious character. I also had to reload the Office 2003 software, Norton Internet Security software, and several other applications of lesser importance. After this, whoever the hacker was, he moved on to bother someone else, thankfully. Later it occurred to me that my stories had been at some risk while that hacker was looking over my files. Nothing has happened to give me concern that anything was stolen.

I had already had a story line stolen from me thirty years before and I now guard against this very carefully. Maybe you guys remember the Superman movie with Gene Hackman playing the villain. (It is, of course, purely coincidental that a Hack-man played a part in that story.) . Hackman's scheme in that movie was to use atomic bombs to set off a massive earthquake along the San Andreas fault thus separating the coastal portion of Southern California from the desert portion to the east, thus creating hundreds of miles of new beachfront property which he intended to sell at hugely inflated prices. Well, it turns out that in 1973 just on a whim I wrote a little short story with the idea of a massive San Andreas earthquake rupturing Southern California, thus creating hundreds of miles of new beachfront property. I showed my story to a colleague at work, a colleague who was so enamored with it, that he told it to some persons at his church, persons I later found out were movie moguls. What my colleague did was entirely innocent and I actually have no real proof that his telling it as he did led to my idea being purloined by a bunch of Hollywood movie moguls, but it did make me understand that I should take better care to protect my creative endeavors in the future.

Now, the mga test. What happens if I run this Microsoft Genuine Advantage check and my Windows XP fails the test? Is this possibly one of those questions the answer to which I may not wish to know? By the way, I did talk with a gentleman at the local generic computer store where I have previously purchased two PCs both loaded with the Ubuntu Linux operating system. He told me this was actually quite common five or six years ago and without my prompting him, said this was called a Windows Vista Down Grade.

I like Windows XP and Office 2003 for a variety of reasons. Again in my profile you will find that another of my several avocations is "ancient electronics". I am teaching myself the principles of bipolar junction transistor circuit design, something that only peculiar guys like myself still do. I have found Office 2003 PowerPoint quite helpful in circuit lay-out in this endeavor. I have tried Open Office Impress and found it less than impressive, indeed perfectly useless.

 

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f195/mgadiag-report-reading-684915.html

some info on mga diag

you can run this tool offline, I had merely wanted to see what it is saying is installed. if it were not genuine the report will show this but, since you do not want to go online, whether it is genuine or not should not matter,

running the tool offline and then posting the report back here will not do anything to your pc.

 

How does one run a program off-line if that program is only available via a URL?

 

you can download this to a flash drive from a pc that can connect to the internet, any pc, and then you carry the flash drive over to the xp pc, copy the mga tool to your desktop, double click it and then run!!

 

I am currently on my Ubuntu Linux, 64 bit PC. So, if I understand you correctly, I go to the proffered URL, copy the MGA tool to a flash drive. Then I copy the saved MGA tool to the desk top of my XP, 32 bit computer, after which I can run the tool and get a result. Will the output be saveable to the flash drive or will I have to do a print screen save?

As I am sure by now you have figured out that I could well be the world's worst blogger. You have been very patient as well very helpful. If you ever need to know something about general relativity or bipolar junction transistor circuit design, please be sure to give me a call. Thank you so very much!

 

it can be saved in notepad, and then saved to a flash drive and taken to the internet connected pc, can in notepad, go to edit, select all, edit, copy, then in your reply box, right click and choose paste

 

I just went to that MGA site you directed me to and realized that you are asking me to validate my Windows XP operating system. Perhaps this should be done at some point, but after talking with my contact at Tower House Computers, I feel more confident that everything with regard to my Windows XP is OK. It is my copy of Office 2003 that is giving me grief by repeately wanting to "phone home". Does the MGA tool validate Office products or is there an equivalent tool for Office products, and if so where can it be found.

By the way, I did, indeed, go to the MGA site you identified, but found no DownLoad button. A lot of discussion about the MGA tool lead by a Mr. NoahNP (?), but no obvious DownLoad button. Did I miss it?

In your last post you suggested I download something to NotePad and then store it onto a flash drive. I am guessing here, but I take it you meant to say download the MGA report to NotePad and to a flash drive.