I finally got my computer working the other day. Tony fixed it for me, and, being the gentleman he is, he installed Windows Vista on there for me. Finally, I am a part of the modern age! However, i couldn't find the product key for Vista, so after a day or two, Vista started complaining that my copy wasn't Genuine. How dare they insult my intentions!
When such things occur, they give you 3 options. You could quit and go back to the login screen, buy a product key from Microsoft directly, or you can operate in a reduced functionality mode of Windows. If you click on the reduced functionality option, it'll open up IE 7.0, and allow you to browse the web to buy a key online, or something like that.
Well, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer are pretty much the same piece of bread, I figured. I typed in 'c:/' as my URL, and what d'ya know! It opened up Windows Explorer. That's pretty funny. Now, I was able to watch movies and stuff while waiting for a product key.
Hey wait a minute... If i can still open up programs in reduced functionality mode, I should also be able to... I browsed to my c:/windows/ directory, and clicked on explorer.exe. Sure enough, it opened up a fully functions windows. Interesting.
So, if Vista complains about your copy not being genuine, just file browse to Windows and open up Windows manually.
Of course, you still have that non-minimizable and non-closable window complaining about your disingenuous copy of Windows. That scoundrel! But, you can just move that to a corner of your desktop.
I wonder how long it'll be before Microsoft patches this up.
PS: I'm sure this has already been posted somewheres on the internet a thousand times by now.