Isn't
it wonderful how easy Microsoft makes it to be one of their customers?
All you have to do is find a reseller or OEM who can be trusted to
supply you with “Genuine Windows” software and pay your money. And then
activate it, of course, and you'd also better go through the Genuine Windows validation procedure to make sure you qualify for updates in the future. But whatever you do, don't lose your COA – the Certificate of Authenticity.
This is a lesson one reader has recently learned the hard way. “I
recently purchased Windows 2003 Server OEM, along with the requisite
hardware for a server I was building as part of a consulting gig with a
local business,” the reader wrote. “When I went to install the Windows
server software I realized that it was missing the COA, which includes
the product activation key. To make a long story short, I'm out of
luck. I can't get the software installed and Microsoft CAN'T help me.”
. . . [Ed Foster's Radio Weblog]