I don’t know how corporate IT departments handle licensing of software. The question comes to mind after the experiences of this past week.
On Monday our IT guy pulled a Pearl Harbor on me. We have no on-site IT people; they just come to visit every 4 months or so, and I usually know they’re coming. He walked in about 8:30 and told me he was there to upgrade my system from NT to W2000. When he left Tuesday afternoon there was still a little bit to be done with drivers and applications, so he left me the Windows CD telling me I could send it back to him when I’m done (I’ve subsequently learned that nobody in our office has a CD for their OS). Short version of a long week: by Thursday PM the entire system has deteriorated to the point that he agrees with me on the phone that a fresh install is necessary.
He also tells me that I’ll get some file copy errors during the install and I just need to run a Repair from the CD. And sure enough, I get errors and run the repair. And it seems to be working…oops, an error message, hmmm…Explorer won’t run and Device Manager is nowhere to be found, etc. After a few reinstallations , I realize that the installation CD is copying files in alphabetic order, and all the errors are clustered together in the 'm’s and 'n’s. Conclusion: bad spot on the CD.
This leads me to contemplate the CD. It says MicroSoft Windows 2000 Professional and has a serial number. It’s obviously a home-burn. I’ve received other home-burned software from our corporate IT department and have been told, “There’s no need to register it when you install; it’s been registered.”
OK, so I get to speculating with a friend who says he thinks sometimes site licenses are for a block of serial numbers and the licensee provides their own media. So, is that the way it works? Are these gifts from IT legit?