Connection Status, Original Software CDs

[GKatReliable]

Sorry for these elementary questions, I frequent other Tek-Tips programming forums and found this one on XP and hope some small problems can be answered.

Kid is going to college.
Mom sez go get him a notebook computer.
We come home with a top of the line Sony with XP Home preinstalled.
I do development with NT at work and have 98 at home, and go back to the MS-DOS days.
Two questions for you:
When online via modem connection, whatever happened to the connection status icon that used to be in the system tray, the one that looks like 2 PC's that are flashing green back and forth. I see no way to monitor a modem connection in XP, even to tell you that you are online or not, or provide the ability to disconnect.

The other problem with PCs nowadays is that you no longer get the operating system and installed software on CDs when you get it home and open the box. The only thing you are are allowed to do is create a restore set of CDs (one time only) and in the event of a problem, overlay your hard drive with how it came from the factory, instead of being able to do a clean install or reinstall. How do you folks get around not having Win XP Home on media when you purchase a new machine?

Regards,
Glenn Koproske

 

[jrbarnett]

Glenn,

I assume you have tried using the arrows on the XP system tray which hides icons, but if you go to start -> settings -> dial up connections, right click on your connection choose properties and put a tick in "Show icon in the taskbar when connected" that should fix your problem.

As for the actual operating system CD vs restore CD it is part of Microsoft's anti piracy initiative - in that if your CD can only be used to restore your own make and model of machine, it won't be pirated (as well as XP Home having to be activated).
Yes, it's very short sighted considering you paid for the license as part of the machine, and some companies do supply full OEM CD's with their machines, but obviously Sony isn't one of them.
My advice is to check up before you buy.

Strictly speaking, if you know somebody else with a full XP home CD and copy it for your own backup purposes only, provided that it is used with your own registration code on your laptop I can't see that there would be a license problem, as Microsoft won't be losing out on revenue and you are using what is rightfully yours.
If this isn't possible, I have found that OEM CD's can be purchased from a number of resellers for a small sum.

John

 

[GKatReliable]

I finally got my son off of the notebook from playing games on it and went to apply your suggestions for the connection icon.
In XP Home, under Start -->, there is no "Settings."
I finally found where you can change the properties of network connections to "Show icon in the taskbar when connected", but on that same dialog box, there appeared the AOL connection and the CompuServe connection, which for us are both dial-up, and those would not allow any properties to be modified.

 

[bcastner]

Those connections are "virtual." You should see the physical modem as well.