I'm using it at present, but it won't install IE7 if I haven't activated the
machine first.

I'm using Autopatcher now. It still won't let me install IE7 on an
unvalidated Windows.

The alternative is of course to just install Firefox, I'd just like to give
Microsoft a chance to make IE7 more convenient or at least as convenient to
install in our environment.

Just thought I'd add that it is not uncommon for OEM licence-keys to fail to
activate by Internet. We get this all the time, even with genuine media and
keys.

In general I'd say it isn't a question of not caring, rather that the whole
process of setting-up a new PC demands so much manual input, the mindless
repetition of entering the same program-settings, over and over again, for
every PC.  Yet because of the installers used by modern programs, and because
of the need for activation, there is seldom any choice but to go the manual
route.

Only recently I found that thanks to strange registry-permissions, it is now
impossible to app-package Acrobat Reader for rollout, meaning that each copy
has to be laboriously set-up by hand, wasting hours of time and worse,
guaranteeing that no two machines will be identically set-up. The vendors
don't seem to realise (or don't give a damn) that this nonpackageability is a
huge setback for anyone who has to install multiple copies. My answer is
simple; use Foxit reader, which is packageable.

In general, this situation is crazy. A computer is a machine designed to
automate tasks. Yet, this fact seems to have been forgotten somewhere along
the way.