Vista Retail = OEM?

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "EJ"

When Windows originally alerted me about the issue, it was midnight, so in
reponse to your sarcastic reply, YES, it was difficult at the time.

The activation call center is open 24/7.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "Shane

I guess it's because I live in washington so I typically call the local 425
area code # up here.

I wrote it down back in the early XP days, did they switch to an 800 only
scheme?

Nope -- I always call the local number (it's actually cheaper due to the
way my VoIP setup works)

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <#[email protected]> "Capt

experience in reactivating Windows (in message


A couple of minutes? Was that to India? If you succeeded in that length
of time you were very fortunate, or I'm very unfortunate. My last call to
activate, to a person in India, required 30 minutes, and my average is not
much better.

With all due respect, you're doing something very wrong. The longest
activation call I can find on record is about 10 minutes (I call from my
cell phone or my VoIP system, both of which dump the call records to a
searchable index)

I have one call that was only three minutes, I believe the phone system
activated me, the rest are typically seven to eight minutes in length,
about half of which is spent with the rep, the rest is talking to the
automated system.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

There should be NO reason to call to ask permission to use something one has
paid good money for, no reason at all, being as the program doesn't stop
piracy one iota and, last I heard, not one paying customer has volunteered
to be an MS' cop without pay.

If MS thinks that someone is stealing from them, they should call the proper
legal authorities and not force paying customers to help them in the cat and
mouse game they are losing with the real crackers and pirates!

Alias

Then don't reactivate your software, sir. It is, after all, your choice.

By the way, the words "should" and "ought to" do not belong in the English
language, since they do not describe realities.

 

[Brian W]

In message <[email protected]> "Dale


The problem is that if you ignore the hard drive, it's relatively simple
to buy a dozen identical systems and use one OS license cloned out
amongst the various systems.

The drive's serial number is about the only unique identifier that will
vary between otherwise identical hardware configurations.

Is this the drive's actual hard-coded serial number or the volume serial
number (created when the disk is formatted) ? It's very easy to change the
volume serial number of the partition.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "Brian W"

Is this the drive's actual hard-coded serial number or the volume serial
number (created when the disk is formatted) ? It's very easy to change the
volume serial number of the partition.

It appears to be the hard-coded serial number AND the volume serial
number, although I haven't proved that yet.

 

[Capt Nemo_MSMVXPshelluser]

5 minutes is about par for me.
Once it was close to 10 minutes.

As for where they are located, I never have any idea or care since it is
not relevant to me.

You should ask them where they are, I find it very peculiar that we have
to call India to activate, but then perhaps you are not the curious type.
Perhaps you get through better from Canada than we do here.
I don't like the Press 1 for Enlish thing either, that is so prevalent these
days,
but maybe I'm just a patriotic old American that's not too happy with all of
the illegal immigrants, the scary trade imbalance with China and their rapid
military buildup, and ol' Putin's rattling his sword again, or mabye I'm
just
getting crochety in my old age. And, I must be a slow reader, it takes me
more than "a couple of minutes" just to get through to read all of those
doggone numbers to an automatic answering machine that I know is going
to say tuff luck fella, you'll have to call India. Sometimes I get cut off
and
have to start all over again...whooeee that makes my day. When all goes
well, and I can actually understand the person on the other end of the line,
I have to write down about 50 numbers and that adds to my activation time.
Sometimes I take a chance and don't write them down, I just type them in.

 

[Alias]

You should ask them where they are, I find it very peculiar that we have
to call India to activate, but then perhaps you are not the curious type.
Perhaps you get through better from Canada than we do here.
I don't like the Press 1 for Enlish thing either, that is so prevalent these
days,
but maybe I'm just a patriotic old American that's not too happy with all of
the illegal immigrants, the scary trade imbalance with China and their rapid
military buildup, and ol' Putin's rattling his sword again, or mabye I'm
just
getting crochety in my old age. And, I must be a slow reader, it takes me
more than "a couple of minutes" just to get through to read all of those
doggone numbers to an automatic answering machine that I know is going
to say tuff luck fella, you'll have to call India. Sometimes I get cut off
and
have to start all over again...whooeee that makes my day. When all goes
well, and I can actually understand the person on the other end of the line,
I have to write down about 50 numbers and that adds to my activation time.
Sometimes I take a chance and don't write them down, I just type them in.

Check out www.ubuntu.com and order the CD. Get version 6.06, NOT 6.10.
You can run the CD live without installing it from the CD and see if you
like it and if your hardware is compatible. No numbers to type in and
you can reinstall it five times a day if you want and no numbers to type
in unless you choose to use numbers in your user name or password.

It's free and the postage to send you the CD is on Ubuntu.

Alias

 

[Rich]

Check out www.u2canbuntu.com


He needs help, not grief

Good grief

Rich

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

"You should ask them where they are, I find it very peculiar that we have
to call India to activate, but then perhaps you are not the curious type"

I am curious, but it is not relevant.
Irrelevant information prolongs the call and in some cases may lead to
delays in activation if the irrelevant information is technical.
To those it is relevant, some of their motives are based more on bigotry
than facts.
A persons voice tells little of their location since people from everywhere
move to everywhere.
At least there are a great many in the various places I have lived.

"I don't like the Press 1"
There are a wide variety of languages in the world.
In the US, many comfortable with another language other than English.
Many of those are long time citizens.
IIRC, Canada and the US have the same activation number

If I would have a problem understanding them, I would politely end the call
and call back.
But I would not assume they were from a specific location based on their
voice.

I do not write the numbers down, but I successfully activate before ending
the call.

The key to a short activation call is get to the point and nothing more.

 

[EJ]

Dear Readers,

Just over a week ago I shelled out over £200 for Windows Vista Home
Premium *Retail*, from Ebuyer.com. I decided against the OEM version, as I
intend to use it for a while to come, and will no doubt be upgrading
various hardware throughout this time. After studying many websites,
forums and usenet posts, I was under the impression the OEM 'tied' itself
to your hardware at point of install, while Retail gave me the freedom to
upgrade my PC as I wished, so this was the version for me.

Upon taking delivery of Vista, I immediately ventured to the Microsoft
site to order a 64-bit edition. 28 days delivery expected.

Eager to explore this new operating system, I installed my 32-bit version,
and within days my primary hard drive began failing, so I immediately
purchased a replacement. This arrived within days and I re-installed
Vista. The same day, I received an email, notifying that my 64-bit edition
had been dispatched (so much for the 28 days wait). With this in mind, it
didn't occur to me to bother re-activating Vista, as I expected to be
re-installing it again when my 64-bit edition imminently arrived.

A few days later, still awaiting my 64-bit DVD, Windows politely informs
me that it can not auto-activate, as my key is already in use. It then
suggests I buy a new registration key! (There is no option to convince it
that the key was already in use by me!).

I am quite simply astounded and appauled at what I'm reading. Simply
changing a hard drive has voided my entire £200 worth of software which I
have owned for little over a week?! Specifically, software which I even
bought to avoid these kind of issues!

I emailed Microsoft two days ago, who have not bothered to respond as yet.

Can anyone explain why there has apparently been many false statements on
the internet regarding Retail versus OEM? Is there really a difference
between the two versions? It can't be the support, as I'm receiving none
so far! I am experiencing the kind of behaviour I would expect from the
OEM version - are Ebuyer.com selling falsely/illegally labelled copies?

I am utterly disappointed in the way Microsoft have rewarded me as a
legitimate customer so far. Maybe someone can shed some light on my
situation?

Thank you for reading.

Elliot

P.S. There is no way at all that anyone else could have taken my key.

Just an update to any and all who might be interested. I received an email
from Microsoft yesterday:

"I completely understand your frustration. This is by far not the way that
we want to treat our customers. Unfortunately it is the case that the
activation issue is a known problem, and we are attempting to resolve the
issue.
If you wish to activate by phone, you can simply call the UK Microsoft
product support and just ask for the activation team. If this is not what
tyou want, then I might have a workaround for you.

Please let me know what coarse of action you would like us to take."

'a known problem'.... hmmm.

I managed to get home from work early last night, so I could re-activate by
phone. Quite a laborius task to say the least... And the operater confirmed
I *will* need to re-activate again upon installing my 64-bit edition.

Ciao for now.

 

[Alias]

He needs help, not grief

Good grief

Rich

What "grief"? I installed Unbuntu in less that a half an hour and it
works wonderfully.

Alias

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

How nice for you.. you should spread this news in the Linux newsgroups..

What "grief"? I installed Unbuntu in less that a half an hour and it works
wonderfully.

Alias

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Alias]

How nice for you.. you should spread this news in the Linux newsgroups..

No need, as they already know. It's the Windows users who don't know.
Hence, I am posting it here.

I dare you to go post your ill-informed anti Ubuntu drivel on
alt.os.linux.ubuntu. That would be fun to watch!

Alias

 

[Donald McDaniel]

You should ask them where they are, I find it very peculiar that we have
to call India to activate, but then perhaps you are not the curious type.
Perhaps you get through better from Canada than we do here.
I don't like the Press 1 for Enlish thing either, that is so prevalent these
days,
but maybe I'm just a patriotic old American that's not too happy with all of
the illegal immigrants, the scary trade imbalance with China and their rapid
military buildup, and ol' Putin's rattling his sword again, or mabye I'm
just
getting crochety in my old age. And, I must be a slow reader, it takes me
more than "a couple of minutes" just to get through to read all of those
doggone numbers to an automatic answering machine that I know is going
to say tuff luck fella, you'll have to call India.

Why do all that? Why not speak with a human being in the first place?

When you call the Microsoft Activation Hotline, FAIL to answer ANY questions
(usually the first 3 questions) asked by the machine. You will automatically
be added to a queue to speak with a PERSON. It normally takes about 3 minutes
to get to a PERSON. It doesn't really matter to ME that this person is in
Bangalore, India. It's not costing me anything but a little time and
patience, and will return my needed results if I am patient and polite. In
addition, my problem is giving needed employment to a very poor Third-World
individual.

Sometimes I get cut off and
have to start all over again...whooeee that makes my day. When all goes
well, and I can actually understand the person on the other end of the line,

You, sir or Madam, are extremely anti-American, from my point of view.
Americans have ALWAYS been considerate of other cultures, and have ALWAYS been
willing to make sacrifices to help the poor. What happened with YOU?

I have to write down about 50 numbers and that adds to my activation time.
Sometimes I take a chance and don't write them down, I just type them in.

Why do you write them all down at all? You will never need them again,
anyway.

1) The Activation person assumes you are entering them in the boxes in the
order he/she gives them to you. They ALWAYS give them 5 numbers at a time.
If you are TOO OLD to do this, get a younger person to do it for you. They
LOVE to care for the elderly. Especially them "hot lookers".
2) ALL the Activation persons are instructed to NOT shut you off until you
are successfully activated. So they are actually MOTIVATED to get your
licensed OS activated. If you have problems with short-term memory, ask them
to REPEAT the series of numbers (5 characters at a time) until you ARE
successful.
3) POLITENESS is the word to be considering here, sir or Madam. The Indians
are extrememly polite as a people, especially the ones who are educated beyond
Grammar School. If you OFFEND their sense of polity, they MIGHT be more
willing to shut you off, in spite of their motivation to get you activated.

Considering the fact that I myself have sometimes been extremely impolite to
them, and even to the point of yelling at them, they have NEVER cut me off,
and have ALWAYS been more than helpful, and have ALWAYS seen me through until
I obtained a successful activation (even when I didn't deserve one).

So, if they have cut you off, as you claim, you must REALLY have offended
their sense of polite behavior.

Try it again, sir or Madam. But be kind, patient, polite, and honest the next
time. It will pay huge dividends in the end.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

I guess it's because I live in washington so I typically call the local 425
area code # up here.

I wrote it down back in the early XP days, did they switch to an 800 only
scheme?

If so that might be an issue, but then again I work for a call center so I
talk to other call centers with people that are worse than those in india by
far so I'm used to having to decipher notsobrightese.

Your words "I am used to deciphering 'nobrightese' are extremely offensive to
anyone who has a lick of human understanding.

Don't you realize that "misunderstanding parochial English" and "the speaker
is not being very bright" (as you imply by your idiotic compound word) are two
different concepts?

Even the "brightest" individual is going to sound "not so bright" if he/she is
not understanding or speaking your native language as well as he/she could or
should.

Please, be a little more understanding of other cultures and languages?

And try to remember that when you call the Microsoft Activation Hotline, you
will more than probably be speaking with an individual for whom English is a
SECOND language.

If you want to activate your licensed Microsoft OS via telephone, then use a
little common-sense and human understanding from now on.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <#[email protected]> "Donald McDaniel"

Why do all that? Why not speak with a human being in the first place?

Personally, I can get through the automated system faster then a
person...

 

[Bob]

Why do all that? Why not speak with a human being in the first place?

When you call the Microsoft Activation Hotline, FAIL to answer ANY
questions (usually the first 3 questions) asked by the machine. You will
automatically be added to a queue to speak with a PERSON. It normally
takes about 3 minutes to get to a PERSON. It doesn't really matter to ME
that this person is in Bangalore, India. It's not costing me anything but
a little time and patience, and will return my needed results if I am
patient and polite. In addition, my problem is giving needed employment
to a very poor Third-World individual.




You, sir or Madam, are extremely anti-American, from my point of view.
Americans have ALWAYS been considerate of other cultures, and have ALWAYS
been willing to make sacrifices to help the poor. What happened with YOU?


Why do you write them all down at all? You will never need them again,
anyway.

1) The Activation person assumes you are entering them in the boxes in the
order he/she gives them to you. They ALWAYS give them 5 numbers at a
time. If you are TOO OLD to do this, get a younger person to do it for
you. They LOVE to care for the elderly. Especially them "hot lookers".
2) ALL the Activation persons are instructed to NOT shut you off until
you are successfully activated. So they are actually MOTIVATED to get
your licensed OS activated. If you have problems with short-term memory,
ask them to REPEAT the series of numbers (5 characters at a time) until
you ARE successful.
3) POLITENESS is the word to be considering here, sir or Madam. The
Indians are extrememly polite as a people, especially the ones who are
educated beyond Grammar School. If you OFFEND their sense of polity,
they MIGHT be more willing to shut you off, in spite of their motivation
to get you activated.

Considering the fact that I myself have sometimes been extremely impolite
to them, and even to the point of yelling at them, they have NEVER cut me
off, and have ALWAYS been more than helpful, and have ALWAYS seen me
through until I obtained a successful activation (even when I didn't
deserve one).

So, if they have cut you off, as you claim, you must REALLY have offended
their sense of polite behavior.

Try it again, sir or Madam. But be kind, patient, polite, and honest the
next time. It will pay huge dividends in the end.

This is off topic but relevant to the preceding conversation ( I think!). It
will open some eyes....
http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv
Enjoy,
Bob

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Ubuntu is no match for Vista or XP and you know it.. you are the one
trollling..

The alt newsgroups are full of profanity and stupidity.. why would I want to
go there?

No need, as they already know. It's the Windows users who don't know.
Hence, I am posting it here.

I dare you to go post your ill-informed anti Ubuntu drivel on
alt.os.linux.ubuntu. That would be fun to watch!

Alias

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Nemo MS MVXPshelluser]

Why do all that? Why not speak with a human being in the first place?

When you call the Microsoft Activation Hotline, FAIL to answer ANY questions
(usually the first 3 questions) asked by the machine. You will automatically be
added to a queue to speak with a PERSON. It normally takes about 3 minutes to
get to a PERSON. It doesn't really matter to ME that this person is in
Bangalore, India. It's not costing me anything but a little time and patience,
and will return my needed results if I am patient and polite. In addition, my
problem is giving needed employment to a very poor Third-World individual.




You, sir or Madam, are extremely anti-American, from my point of view. Americans
have ALWAYS been considerate of other cultures, and have ALWAYS been willing to
make sacrifices to help the poor. What happened with YOU?


Why do you write them all down at all? You will never need them again, anyway.

1) The Activation person assumes you are entering them in the boxes in the order
he/she gives them to you. They ALWAYS give them 5 numbers at a time. If you are
TOO OLD to do this, get a younger person to do it for you. They LOVE to care
for the elderly. Especially them "hot lookers".
2) ALL the Activation persons are instructed to NOT shut you off until you are
successfully activated. So they are actually MOTIVATED to get your licensed OS
activated. If you have problems with short-term memory, ask them to REPEAT the
series of numbers (5 characters at a time) until you ARE successful.
3) POLITENESS is the word to be considering here, sir or Madam. The Indians are
extrememly polite as a people, especially the ones who are educated beyond
Grammar School. If you OFFEND their sense of polity, they MIGHT be more
willing to shut you off, in spite of their motivation to get you activated.

Considering the fact that I myself have sometimes been extremely impolite to
them, and even to the point of yelling at them, they have NEVER cut me off, and
have ALWAYS been more than helpful, and have ALWAYS seen me through until I
obtained a successful activation (even when I didn't deserve one).

So, if they have cut you off, as you claim, you must REALLY have offended their
sense of polite behavior.

Try it again, sir or Madam. But be kind, patient, polite, and honest the next
time. It will pay huge dividends in the end.

You are so far out in left field you don't deserve an answer, but being the
patient and tolerant type, I'll give you a hint as to how far astray you have gone
by addressing the "cut off" issue. You have made same terrible assumptions about
my statement of being cut off. I hadn't even reached a person, let alone made
them angry enough to hang up. That has never happened, but, during the transfer
process, where my call from an automatic answering machine was transferred to a
person in India, the line went dead. I was 'cut off' by the machine, not a
person, you bone head.

You have an extremely vivid and grossly inaccurate imagination, you should be
writing fiction, some people might enjoy it, but I'd venture to say that almost
everyone in this newsgroup don't. But, I try to see the best in people, and we
can agree on one point you made...you are extremely impolite. Have a nice day,
and try not to make such wild assumptions next time. In the meantime, I'll try
not to confuse you with the facts because I know your mind is made up!