OK re OEM but I don't see how M$ could tell that I did or did not buy some hardware...
On this installation, I am not bothered about not getting latest updates because it isn't used for general internet access. What I don't want is the constant popup in the bottom right telling me I am a victim of counterfeiting... can one disable that somehow? Or can one roll back the updates until one has removed the point at which the validation update was run?
although I wonder how you were online while installing windows as the key's only asked for during the initial stages of the install before anything like drivers are installed
IIRC, the install process asks for the key very early, and it is after that that it goes off to M$ to download the latest updates. This is all before the normal windoze screen appears. I would have thought that M$ would validate the key immediately - it seems an obvious thing to do because otherwise anybody could install any bootleg XP CD, and get a pretty up to date fully working XP.