I bought a Toshiba Satellite PC from a big name retailer in Sydney. These PCs are ONLY sold with Windows
preinstalled and without supplying the windows CD. Despite having latest updates & antivirus
software, etc, because of security vulnerabilities in Windows the system became
infected & I needed to wipe my system clean and start again. A procedure was meant to reformat &
automatically reinstall Windows without the need for CDs but this didn't
work. An acquaintance got my system up and
running. No idea if he used a
non-genuine windows CD, but that's a red herring because I paid for windows as
a bundled part of the original laptop purchase.
Now I get a message saying my version of Windows is not Genuine! Presumably this disqualifies me from updates and further exposes me security-wise.
Given that my Toshiba Satellite PC simply isn't sold without
windows preinstalled, I don't see why I should have to pay again for another copy of
Windows.
Also, to post to this forum I needed to
sign up for Microsoft Passport Network which requires me to expose myself to
liability for payment for someone else's goods and services if someone breaks
my password. (point 5 of the
agreement). I only wanted to post to a
forum, not perform financial transactions, so why do I need to be exposed to
financial loss to do this?
Apart from moving to Linux, is there a way forward without paying twice for the one Windows product, especially when flaws (vulnerabilities) in that product led to my problem in the first place and wasted significant amounts of my time.
Can you help me please?
