So for the past... oh... I don't know how many years, I have been using a Windows XP pro CD that I have, for installs on my PCs. It was a legit copy, with a legit volume license key. It wasn't from a business that I had any particular ties with, but its origins were clean.

It worked w/out a hitch for a long time, but for maybe the past 3 (re)installs, I started getting an error upon activation that said it was an out-of-date volume license key.

My easiest fix was always to just call Microsoft, talk to one of the tech support guys, and have them give me an activation code for it, over the phone. Golden.

Well I installed IE8 on my machine, and after the install the WGA software that comes with it, again "caught" something with my Windows. It disabled a shit-ton of features and blah-blah-blah, notified me that I was not "geniune".

Fast forward 15 minutes and the call to Microsoft was less than fruitful. I was repremanded about how my license key was reported stolen, blocked, and or otherwise unusable. No matter how I tried to sweet-talk, I was getting no love, and there would be no "over the phone" activation for me this time. Long-story-short, I ended up buying a new Windows XP instance for some $160 bucks. I got re-licensed over the net, and the CD is in transit now.

I guess the moral of this whole post is to let any of you IE7 users who are on a less-than-honorable (but working) version of XP, that you might want to hold off on your DL and install of IE8. It might end up biting you in the ass.