New Microsoft Licensing

[Gleep 0]

I was a Microsoft Fan until yesterday when I went in to build my new computer at my friend's computer shop.

 

Here's basically what he told me.

 

On all new microsoft applications you MUST register each time you install. Inculding OS's. Now you can ONLY register twice on the internet, after that you HAVE to call them to register. They monitor how long it has been since you last installed. The phone staff can also tell you what IP you registered from, and who your ISP is.

 

Here's the kicker. They will only let you register 10 times. After that go buy another copy.

 

Here's what happened. He was building a computer for a client who had purchased Office 2000 with his system. My friend not knowing about this just clicked next next next through the registration process just to get through it like most of us do. He normally installs everything twice to make sure that everything is working properly (fdisk, reformat, reinstall). Something went wrong the first time so he did it two more times to be sure. On the 3rd time, Office wouldn't let him register. So he called MS thinking it was something simple and the phone rep laid it all out for him.

 

You have to register each and every time you install. You can only register a maximum of 2 times online. After that you must call. They will only re-register 10 times for one license. If you are not connected to the internet, you must call them each and every time you want to install any of their products.

 

THIS INCLUDES OS's. Their reasoning is that this is the only way they can stop piracy. While this may work, the rest of the honest folk are fux0red.

 

Most of the office machines I am not worried about. A majority of the basic workstations have only been formatted twice. Once to install NT, and 2 years later to install Win2k. The highend machines get formatted more regularly because my users tend to open nasty e-mails and get infected, or we juggle around workstations. Even then I think the most formatted for those are about 5 times.

 

The graphic stations are a little different simply because of what the users do. They tend to get reformatted often.

 

My home station gets reformatted VERY regularly. Twice a month, sometimes more. And that's not counting the bad installs. On a given instance I might reformat 3 times to get my system exactly where I want it. And when tweaking, if you screw something up, you need to reformat.

 

This rant is so long, only because they are ramming the hard-core computer crowd up the ying-yang.

 

Hurrah for MS, those bastards.

[CrazyKillerMan 0]

I am so with you on this one, but can they really say that once it has been used so many times, they just leave u out in the cold. Id sue for that....thats gonna make alot of ppl angry.

 

As you say, you format twice a month, heck ive already done that this month. Also...what happens if your on # 10 and u get a virus. Man....that rep would be sorry he picked up the phone.

[Brian Frank 0]

If MS insists on playing hardball, I will actively use cracks on all products I have legally purchased. There is NO reason why there should be a limit on the number of installs. Plus for those of us, including myself who own more than one pc, we'll have to end up buying a copy of MS products for each one. Im sorry, but this is bullsh!t. If MS continues this line of crap, Linux may get the last laugh after all.

[BladeRunner 0]

Why is it that on a near daily basis we have some crap like this posted?

If you don't mind I'll just go through this thread, rip apart all those pieces of information which are rubbish / total rumour / first I've heard.

 

"On all new microsoft applications you MUST register each time you install. Inculding OS's"

 

Incorrect.

What you must do is activate the OS each time that you install it.

Product activation takes place before registration, registration still being optional.

The only information gathered during product activation is the country where the product wwas purchased and a software key generated from various pieces of hardware in your system.

 

"Now you can ONLY register twice on the internet, after that you HAVE to call them to register. They monitor how long it has been since you last installed. The phone staff can also tell you what IP you registered from, and who your ISP is."

 

Incorrect.

Although the final figure from Microsoft has not yet been released, it would appear that you will be able to re-install the OS somewhere between 5-10 times before further activation, a phone call is required.

The Internet activation takes 10 seconds, the phone call MS have promised will take 5 minutes, so maybe a phone call will take 10 minutes.

Yes, they probably do monitor how long it has been since you last installed - and the problem there is?

The support staff telling what IP address you activated the product from, well again yes, this has been used for a long time in secure transactions over the Internet.

Somebody tries to do credit card fraud over the net and their IP address is logged to assist with a police enquiry.

Oh, in case you were interested, anybody knowing an IP address can take some really simple steps to find out which ISP owns that particular address, but to what ends?

 

"Here's the kicker. They will only let you register 10 times. After that go buy another copy"

 

Incorrect.

It does however show that you are getting your information from many sources and things are getting a little bit muddled up.

The 10 times is a possible figure for the amount of times you can activate the product over the Internet.

There will be no top-end figure, IE no copy of an OS is going to be totally locked, never to be used again, unless Microsoft have good reason to believe piracy is going on, ie that product code is sat on a ***** site.

 

"Here's what happened. He was building a computer for a client who had purchased Office 2000 with his system. My friend not knowing about this just clicked next next next through the registration process ....."

 

I would just say incorrect at this stage, but I'm going to have to add BS too.

Office 2000 is in no way tied to product activation in any form.

You have the option to register, (please note these are two entirely different things, registering and activating) but you are not forced to register Office 2k as you wont be forced to register WinXP or OfficeXP.

So, on the third installation of Office 2000 on a PC it would not let him register?

Rubbish, I know this from experience, I use retail copies of Office 2000 on many machines that have bought licenses.

The only thing I know of that can disable an Office 2K installation is the latest Service Packs, they deactivate known compromised CD-Key's (again, those downloadable from ***** sites)

So he called MS and they told him all this?

Sorry, more BS, Microsoft support would not have told a user / re-seller this because it isn't true, it's rumour and the usual scare-mongering available from any anti-Microsoft web site.

 

I think that just about covers everything, all I can see in your post is rubbish, crap & basic BS.

So your home station is re-formatted twice a month?

Well, are you using WindowsXP & OfficeXP?

If you are or you will be then yes, everythime you re-format your machine and re-install these products you will be asked to re-activate them.

This can either be done in 10 seconds over the Internet or if you have exceeded your 5-10 times, a 5 minute phone call.

If you are using WinXP & OfficeXP and are re-formatting your home machine twice a month I'd seriously take a look at your hardware and maybe find out where your problem lies.

I've had Win9x installations last longer than two weeks, as for Win2k installations - I've had them for a year without a re-installation required.

[CrazyKillerMan 0]

Quote:

I've had Win9x installations last longer than two weeks, as for Win2k installations - I've had them for a year without a re-installation required.

That may very well be...so you install the OS and dont touch it.

As far as my veiwpoint goes, I'm still in school and I try to learn as much as I can about 2k, and i do screw things up a bit. Whats wrong with installing hte program 50 times a month as long as your learning what everything does???

Im sure that in a place of business there would probably be no need for formatting every other month, but it can happen.

What I am basiclly saying is, how can M$ govern how many times I wish to use the product legally, that I bought. Like if you buy a car...you can park it, drive it, put a turbo in it, whatever, and Dodge wont stop me from doing that.

[BladeRunner 0]

"What I am basiclly saying is, how can M$ govern how many times I wish to use the product legally, that I bought"

 

Please, quickly re-read my post on that.

They aren't.

What they are saying is, if the same CD-Key has requested an activation code from the MS clearing house 10 times there is a good chance the key has become compromised.

They can then check the logs (or knowing MS it will do this automatically) and see exactly how many times a key has been used.

50 times on one key, 5 times within the last hour - deactivate that key now.

9 times in 4 months, well that's possible I guess, 10 times in a year, well again possible - lets just get the guy to call in and confirm.

 

Lets be totally honest here.

Lets say MS go for the top end of 10 installations before a phone call is made.

How many Win2k users do you know who have re-installed their OS 10 times since it's release?

I'm not talking about installing on different PC's, firends PC's etc.

I mean, their main system.

Not that many I would hazzard a guess.

As WinXP is going to be even more stable and P&P friendly, hardly anyone is ever going to meet the magic number.

[Bursar 0]

If you're so completely inept at operating a Windows based PC that you have to reinstall the OS every 2 weeks, then you probably won't need to activate the software at all anyway.

 

The current Whistler beta allows full access to the OS for 14 days. After that you have to activate it. The final release will have a 30 day grace period before activation is required.

[Brian Frank 0]

Well, Im not really too crazy about this activation crap to begin with, especially when I have leagally bought a product. I will use war3z/cracks if necessary to avoid this activation crap. Plus, if I do go a head and get XP final, I will buy one copy and one copy only. I will be blunt--if you have more than one computer at home, you should not have to buy a copy of software for each computer. This is not illegal to my knowledge, and since I purchased the software I should be allowed to install the single copy I have on all of MY computers, not anyone elses. I have heard some horror stories about activation, and you can bet I will fight against activation, because I think MS or any other company should not put the consumer through this crap if they have legally purchased a product. True, there are the few bad apples that do burn off Windows copies by the truckload, but most of us are honest people (I think).

BTW, Ive been running XP, and I think that Win2k is better, so Im probably sweating over nothing.

 

I do screw up Windows, but not fast enough to reinstall every two weeks. Im glad Sonic Foundry was nice enough to up my activation times so I dont have to buy another copy of ACID. Im hoping MS will work on a better system so that it can nail the crooks without having to smack the consumers.

[maxg 0]

Quote:

I will use war3z/cracks if necessary to avoid this activation crap. Plus, if I do go a head and get XP final, I will buy one copy and one copy only. I will be blunt--if you have more than one computer at home, you should not have to buy a copy of software for each computer. This is not illegal to my knowledge, and since I purchased the software I should be allowed to install the single copy I have on all of MY computers, not anyone elses.

but most of us are honest people (I think).

Does anyone else see the contradictions here??

This is not a personal flame. I have just seen too much of this self-serving, "rational justification" of piracy to let it pass one more time without voicing my opinion.

Now having said that.... I may very well do the same, but i sure as heck ain't gonna fool myself into believing it's perfectly legal.

Bottom line (IMHO of course): If you purchase a license that states: "You may install this software on one and only one computer..." and you Don't agree with it, Return it for a refund and buy something else . . . PERIOD!

_OR_ Go ahead and install/crack it to 4000 computers if you wish. BUT DON'T WHINE, COMPLAIN or PREACH that you have a right to steal because you don't agree with the license!!

Sorry Brian. Like I said, it's not you personally. Hundreds of people in dozens of forums say the same thing. I know quite a few people that voice the same opinion, and although I agree MS may very well regret this line; it doesn't change the fact that (at this time) they have the right to make those restrictions.

[Brian Frank 0]

Im not for piracy here. I just think that if you have legally purchased any product, you should not have to continually register. And if using a crack to stop having to register every single time I will. Im not gonna burn off my copy of XP, go buy it yourself. I dont mind putting in an product code, but it bugs me that I have to register the OS, everytime. That is something that should be optional, and not have a time limit. Im not endorsing copying a ton of programs from somebody else for yourself and then cracking them all. I really dont feel like having to call up MS and have them give me a registration code. Also, I dont know about you, but I dont feel like getting the same software for each computer I have (I have 3), so the OS alone, just the upgrade if I bought it for each OS would be $600. Why should I buy the same software twice?

Also, if, and a big if at that, this product activation makes it so if you replace a bunch of parts so your machine is way different than when you installed XP the first time, you might not be able to register it.

Plus, think about these review sites that take out motherboards and other parts on a regular basis. Im sure they do a clean install once in a while, so this activation is a problem there. Plus, whats all the latest and greatest hardware if you keep loosing your data? You data, it would seem, makes the computer, not the hardware. The activation looks like it checks the hardware on your pc.

We're all smart enough here, figure it out.

 

Plus, I know a lot of people here like XP, so Im not trying to start a little flame war here. I dont like it as it is, I think that Win2k is better right now. XP should be good in its final release, but Im sure thats what was said about ME when it was in beta still.

[ThC 129 0]

I see a large difference in installing a piece of software on 2 computers and installing the same piece on 20 computers. If someone won't let you install a piece of software on a homenetwork (not more than 3 computers) and make you purchase 3 different versions so they can make more money is bullshit. It doesnt cost them profits by a few extra installs. It is the people who violate their site liscenses by installing 1 piece of software on a corporate network instead of buying the site liscense that anger me otherwise im not really that opposed to casual copying.

[JMD 0]

Sorry but why in HELL would a person reinstall a OS 2 TIMES A MONTH.

Even 2 times a year is silly. I have been running NT 4.0 for several years and only had to reinstall once because of a virus.

 

I can understand someone wanting to practice installing a software, but once you have learned it .....leave it. LOL

 

Tweaking and installing and uninstalling who the hell needs that.

 

 

Just my 2 cents worth

 

CHEERS