Dear C-Sharpies:

It turns out that registering C# Express really is free. That
assumes that you value your time at zero.

In the interest of security, I run with JavaScript and cookies
disabled for most sites.

In order to get the registration to work, I had to allow
JavaScript on two sites and cookies on three. There were error
messages for each of these (good) except for one for cookies (Oops!).
That last one was very nasty: my browser was bouncing between two
sites.

Microsoft wished to confirm that I am the owner of my E-mail
address so they sent a confirmation E-mail. I did not get it. I
pulled for E-mail several times to no avail. Wait a minute. Maybe,
it was flagged by my ISP's spam filter as spam? It was.

I got the link to confirm, and after a disturbingly long delay, I
got the registration key. I entered it into C# Express, and the form
closed with no confirmation that the key had been accepted. (A retry
did result in a statement that C# Express was already registered.)

It strikes me that this process could have been considerably
easier and considerably less frustrating. There is no contact
information that I could see so that I could talk to someone to
resolve my problem.

If you have an in with someone appropriate at Microsoft, please
pass him this posting.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

On 8/4/2011 5:12 PM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> It turns out that registering C# Express really is free. That
> assumes that you value your time at zero.
>
> In the interest of security, I run with JavaScript and cookies
> disabled for most sites.

JavaScript and cookies are used by most web sites.

You should not expect a smooth web experience when disabling them.

Arne

On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:45:01 -0400, Arne Vajhøj <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On 8/4/2011 5:12 PM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>> It turns out that registering C# Express really is free. That
>> assumes that you value your time at zero.
>>
>> In the interest of security, I run with JavaScript and cookies
>> disabled for most sites.
>
>JavaScript and cookies are used by most web sites.
>
>You should not expect a smooth web experience when disabling them.

Considering the amount of malware on the Web, that is also true
of when one has them enabled.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

On 8/10/2011 8:22 PM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:45:01 -0400, Arne Vajhøj<(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>> On 8/4/2011 5:12 PM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>>> It turns out that registering C# Express really is free. That
>>> assumes that you value your time at zero.
>>>
>>> In the interest of security, I run with JavaScript and cookies
>>> disabled for most sites.
>>
>> JavaScript and cookies are used by most web sites.
>>
>> You should not expect a smooth web experience when disabling them.
>
> Considering the amount of malware on the Web, that is also true
> of when one has them enabled.

Let your browser auto update.

The chance of actually becoming a victim of a zero day browser
JavaScript exploit is rather small.

Arne