Activation and reactivation and so on, and so on ...

G

Guest

this wpa issue is ludicrous. i change my pc more than the wpa allows (according to http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm) every two or three weeks. I will neither be using XP, nor will I recommend it to my clients ... or anyone, for that matter.

I would be calling the activation center to explain the changes at least 24 times a year. I would have to invoice someone for my time. lol. Maybe I should go ahead and install it!

thanks for nothing,
h
 
P

purplehaz

Normal users, heck even hardcore users, don't change hardware or computers
that much, thus activation doesn't effect them as much. I have a tech
support business and activation has never really bothered me much. I would
imagine that your situation is somewhat unique and you'd probably be in the
1% range of overall users. A os is made for the masses not for the 1% of
unique situations. Now, I'm in no way sticking up for activation, but for
your situation, as much as you change hadeware or computers, you can't blame
the os. It's just unfortunate that you change so much, for whatever reason.
BTW - if you can get your hands on a Volume License version of XP, then you
don't have to activate. The volume license version don't require or use
activation.
 
R

Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers

Then you would be doing your clients a disservice. If you make that frequent
hardware changes, then you will need to live with that. I doubt that your
clients will be doing this, so why refuse it to them? If you read the
article, then you know why that it has to be this way, at least for now.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone



hate ms said:
this wpa issue is ludicrous. i change my pc more than the wpa allows
(according to http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm) every two or three weeks. I
will neither be using XP, nor will I recommend it to my clients ... or
anyone, for that matter.
I would be calling the activation center to explain the changes at least
24 times a year. I would have to invoice someone for my time. lol. Maybe I
should go ahead and install it!
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Greetings --

Perhaps if you took the time to learn how to maintain a PC and its
operating system, you wouldn't have to reinstall so often.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


hate ms said:
this wpa issue is ludicrous. i change my pc more than the wpa
allows (according to http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm) every two or
three weeks. I will neither be using XP, nor will I recommend it to
my clients ... or anyone, for that matter.
I would be calling the activation center to explain the changes at
least 24 times a year. I would have to invoice someone for my time.
lol. Maybe I should go ahead and install it!
 
M

Michael Stevens

hate said:
this wpa issue is ludicrous. i change my pc more than the wpa allows
(according to http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm) every two or three
weeks. I will neither be using XP, nor will I recommend it to my
clients ... or anyone, for that matter.

I would be calling the activation center to explain the changes at
least 24 times a year. I would have to invoice someone for my time.
lol. Maybe I should go ahead and install it!

thanks for nothing,
h

If you change it that often, don't activate. You have 30 days to activate.
And your clients do the same as you?
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
G

Guest

I agree with hate ms. I have also not moved to xp because of the activation hastle. Sometimes because of incompatable programs I may do a LLF format 5 times in one day and do a one every six months to keep the system clean. It has been my experiance that an repair instulation does not get rid of unwanted files and other types will not get rid of boot sector coruption, when I want a program and all it's files gone I mean gone. They say reativation is free and unlimited but it's not unlimited and if done over a certain amount you have to plead your case to some half baked phone person. I am sure at some point they will call you a lier and insist your activating on multiple machines or just a pirater and refuse to give you reactivation codes unless you buy another licence. Aslo a point everyone has missed "what happeneds to you when you need to reactivate and microsoft no longer supports the product activation?" forever is never for forever just try to get replacement disks for win 3.11 or windows 95a,b or c. The $50 per reactivation charge will be part of the xp replacement.
 
D

dmac

I have reactivated close to 20 times in last 1 1/2 years. due to hardware
changes, bios changes, me screwing up while experimenting, etc.
never had a problem, just told them that I did a hardware change and they
reset each time w/o a problem.

--


David MacLeod
Etna, Maine USA
P4 2.8 OC to 3.13
1 GB DDR 466
Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB
2 Seagate 120 RAID 0

BigBears2 said:
I agree with hate ms. I have also not moved to xp because of the
activation hastle. Sometimes because of incompatable programs I may do a LLF
format 5 times in one day and do a one every six months to keep the system
clean. It has been my experiance that an repair instulation does not get rid
of unwanted files and other types will not get rid of boot sector coruption,
when I want a program and all it's files gone I mean gone. They say
reativation is free and unlimited but it's not unlimited and if done over a
certain amount you have to plead your case to some half baked phone person.
I am sure at some point they will call you a lier and insist your activating
on multiple machines or just a pirater and refuse to give you reactivation
codes unless you buy another licence. Aslo a point everyone has missed "what
happeneds to you when you need to reactivate and microsoft no longer
supports the product activation?" forever is never for forever just try to
get replacement disks for win 3.11 or windows 95a,b or c. The $50 per
reactivation charge will be part of the xp replacement.
 
Y

Yves Leclerc

Other people have said that MS may release an update to XP just before they
terminate support that will remove product activation.
 
P

purplehaz

BigBears2 said:
I agree with hate ms. I have also not moved to xp because of the
activation hastle.

What hassle. I have never had an activation problem or hassle and I have
activated probably 50 or so machines.
Sometimes because of incompatable programs I may
do a LLF format 5 times in one day and do a one every six months to
keep the system clean.

With proper computer maintenance, security, patches, updated xp compatable
drivers, good surfing habits, and knowledge of good and bad programs this is
not necessary.
It has been my experiance that an repair
instulation does not get rid of unwanted files and other types will
not get rid of boot sector coruption, when I want a program and all
it's files gone I mean gone.

True, a repair install is not intended to get rid of any files. It just
fixes corrupted windows files. What's your point?
They say reativation is free and
unlimited but it's not unlimited and if done over a certain amount
you have to plead your case to some half baked phone person.

It is unlimited and if you have to call it is automated or if you have to
talk to a person it a painless two minute call. The only time you will have
to call is if you change significant hardware or its been less than 120 days
since your last activation. If your changing hardware and/or activating in
less than 120 days frequently you may want to look into a volume license of
xp that has no activation or become an oem. A normal user does not have the
need to activate this often.
I am
sure at some point they will call you a lier and insist your
activating on multiple machines or just a pirater and refuse to give
you reactivation codes unless you buy another licence.

How are you sure? Have you heard it happen? I have never been refused. The
only time you could get refused is if you have an oem xp version and you
transfered it to another computer, which is not allowed.
Aslo a point
everyone has missed "what happeneds to you when you need to
reactivate and microsoft no longer supports the product activation?"
forever is never for forever just try to get replacement disks for
win 3.11 or windows 95a,b or c. The $50 per reactivation charge will
be part of the xp replacement.

When support for xp is gone the activation requirement will be taken out of
xp with a patch via windows update.
 
R

Ralph Malph

Activation is an unacceptable pain. I recommend using only XP Pro. The
getting a download of the XP Pro Corp edition, and use a key gen to
generate a good key for it. It will never bug you about activating,
and Microsoft will have gotten their money.
I have had many a repair situation, as a systems engineer, where I
have to swap out components to determine which ones are bad, and /or
do multiple re-installs.I charge by the hour, and the customer get
ripped off by MS due to the extra time, 10 to 20 mins per activation
that I have to go through. The last time I had to do this I had to
reactivate XP Home 10 times, and I had to do it via the phone as it
quit allowing me to do it automatically after the 2nd time. This of
course is ridiculous because a legitimate user will always say that
they have the software installed on only one machine, which is what MS
asks you during the activation phone call to make sure you are legit.
Of course so will someone who is not legit, and MS can't tell the
diff, and still has to activate it. This of course, make the whole
process RIDICULAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!. So use the XP Pro Corp method, just
make sure that you have bought a legitimate copy for each PC.


Enjoy, and lets make it a major pain and expensive embarasment for MS
to continue to require activation. I recomend suing them for time lost
on repairs ect......Alright repair guys of the world, lets send them
the BILLL !!!!

Ralph Malph
 
P

purplehaz

1 - Activation has never bothered me in this way, cause I don't charge by
the hour for my support. I always thought that support professionals that
charge by the hour are the ones doing the ripping off. Everything I do has a
charge no matter how long it takes. I don't necessarily charge for trouble
shooting, usually just for fixing it. It's not about the money for me, its
about fixing computers right the first time and not ripping the customer
off, like the local stores do.
2 - You should never reccomend that someone use pirated software. Any
support professional that does this IMO, is a poor businessman. Any legal
license they have for their xp is not a license for a downloaded pirate
version of xp pro, so no matter what its not right, against the eula, and
not ethical.
 
K

kurttrail

purplehaz said:
What hassle. I have never had an activation problem or hassle and I
have activated probably 50 or so machines.

Well, I have been hung up on just for asking to talk to a supervisor, when
activation Office XP. And you didn't think it was a hassle to type in 50
numbers on a telephone? Then if you sent on to the PA phone rep, you got to
go through telling them the whole friggin' number all over again. To me,
that is a hassle.
With proper computer maintenance, security, patches, updated xp
compatable drivers, good surfing habits, and knowledge of good and
bad programs this is not necessary.

I know that after rebuilding my system after a major hardware upgrade, it
sometimes takes me two are more installs until I'm happy with the results.
There are many reason to want to reinstall, and PA just makes it one step
harder to do things you want when you want to do them.
True, a repair install is not intended to get rid of any files. It
just fixes corrupted windows files. What's your point?

I see the point as being that a repair install isn't a cureall. And when XP
gets corrupted, the only recourse is to do a clean install, and got through
MS's PA dance all over again.
It is unlimited and if you have to call it is automated or if you
have to talk to a person it a painless two minute call. The only time
you will have to call is if you change significant hardware or its
been less than 120 days since your last activation. If your changing
hardware and/or activating in less than 120 days frequently you may
want to look into a volume license of xp that has no activation or
become an oem. A normal user does not have the need to activate this
often.

A normal user doesn't even need to deal with PA, as most of them buy their
computer's from a Major OEM that uses BIOS-Locking. PA has always been
targeted towards those of us that aren't normal. Those that build their
own.
How are you sure? Have you heard it happen? I have never been
refused. The only time you could get refused is if you have an oem xp
version and you transfered it to another computer, which is not
allowed.

Again, I got hung up on, and even Mike Stevens told me that he was hung up
on once. Sure all I did was call back and got another rep, but I know all
the ins & outs of MS's PA policies, but most home system builders don't.
When support for xp is gone the activation requirement will be taken
out of xp with a patch via windows update.

Are you sure about that?

"Microsoft will also support the activation of Windows XP throughout its
life and *will* *likely* provide an update that turns activation off at the
end of the product's lifecycle so users would no longer be required to
activate the product."

Whenever MS says sh*t like "will likely," I tend to take it with a big grain
of salt, and wait to see.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
 
K

kurttrail

Ralph said:
Activation is an unacceptable pain. I recommend using only XP Pro. The
getting a download of the XP Pro Corp edition, and use a key gen to
generate a good key for it. It will never bug you about activating,
and Microsoft will have gotten their money.
I have had many a repair situation, as a systems engineer, where I
have to swap out components to determine which ones are bad, and /or
do multiple re-installs.I charge by the hour, and the customer get
ripped off by MS due to the extra time, 10 to 20 mins per activation
that I have to go through. The last time I had to do this I had to
reactivate XP Home 10 times, and I had to do it via the phone as it
quit allowing me to do it automatically after the 2nd time. This of
course is ridiculous because a legitimate user will always say that
they have the software installed on only one machine, which is what MS
asks you during the activation phone call to make sure you are legit.

Of course *OFFICIAL* MS PA policy says, "The only information required to
activate is an installation ID," so by requiring any info other than the
installation ID, MS's PA phone reps are going beyond MS's *OPENLY* stated PA
Policy.
Of course so will someone who is not legit, and MS can't tell the
diff, and still has to activate it. This of course, make the whole
process RIDICULAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Yep!

So use the XP Pro Corp method, just
make sure that you have bought a legitimate copy for each PC.


Enjoy, and lets make it a major pain and expensive embarasment for MS
to continue to require activation. I recomend suing them for time lost
on repairs ect......Alright repair guys of the world, lets send them
the BILLL !!!!

LOL! What we need is Bill's home phone number, and everytime someone needs
to activate, we'd call him to do it.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
 
K

kurttrail

purplehaz said:
1 - Activation has never bothered me in this way, cause I don't
charge by the hour for my support. I always thought that support
professionals that charge by the hour are the ones doing the ripping
off. Everything I do has a charge no matter how long it takes. I
don't necessarily charge for trouble shooting, usually just for
fixing it. It's not about the money for me, its about fixing
computers right the first time and not ripping the customer off, like
the local stores do. 2 - You should never reccomend that someone use
pirated software. Any support professional that does this IMO, is a
poor businessman. Any legal license they have for their xp is not a
license for a downloaded pirate version of xp pro, so no matter what
its not right, against the eula, and not ethical.

He is not advocating piracy, but the circumvention of copy protection. MS
still got their money for their copy of software. And remember that the
Owner of a copy of software has the right to adapt it, and even the DMCA
says, "Nothing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations,
or defenses to copyright infringement, including fair use, under this
title." - DMCA - http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.html

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
 
P

purplehaz

kurttrail said:
He is not advocating piracy, but the circumvention of copy
protection. MS still got their money for their copy of software.
And remember that the Owner of a copy of software has the right to
adapt it, and even the DMCA says, "Nothing in this section shall
affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright
infringement, including fair use, under this title." - DMCA -
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.html

Kurt you know I'm all for multiple installs when you pay for the software
and I'm not gonna argue the eula with you cause I think we agree pretty much
on that as well, but is what your saying that since he already paid ms once
for his leagal copy of xp, that it's ok to download a more expensive copy
and use that instead when you did not pay for it? I have to disagree with
that. That to me is like stealing because he did not pay for the downloaded
copy. If you pay for it then you can do what you want with it, but if you
don't pay, you can't play. Buying one copy of xp imo doesn't mean you get
unlimited copies for ever. I do agree you can install it on your computers
in your home, but only if you pay for it. XP pro corp is different and more
expensive than xp home or xp oem. Just because you pay for xp home or oem it
doesn't give you the right to get xp pro corp for free. Isn't that like
buying a car, then at midnight sneaking back onto the lot, putting the car
you paid for back and take the same model car only one that's loaded with
all the options?
 
P

purplehaz

kurttrail said:
Well, I have been hung up on just for asking to talk to a supervisor,
when activation Office XP. And you didn't think it was a hassle to
type in 50 numbers on a telephone? Then if you sent on to the PA
phone rep, you got to go through telling them the whole friggin'
number all over again. To me, that is a hassle.

I suppose it could be a hassle, but I don't have the energy to let a simple
phone call bother me anymore. An example of a hassle to me is driving 30
miles in heavy traffic every morning to work, when I could do all my work
remotely, but can't for varoius reason. It's a pain in the butt. A phone
call and pushing some numbers in...... ehh....whatever, no big deal.
I know that after rebuilding my system after a major hardware
upgrade, it sometimes takes me two are more installs until I'm happy
with the results. There are many reason to want to reinstall, and PA
just makes it one step harder to do things you want when you want to
do them.

Wow, you might be more critical with your machine than me. I usually install
once then fix anything that needs fixing.
I see the point as being that a repair install isn't a cureall. And
when XP gets corrupted, the only recourse is to do a clean install,
and got through MS's PA dance all over again.

Ok, that makes sense. I understand that point.
A normal user doesn't even need to deal with PA, as most of them buy
their computer's from a Major OEM that uses BIOS-Locking. PA has
always been targeted towards those of us that aren't normal. Those
that build their own.

Could that be because the people who usually build their own are the ones
who know how to get the cracked versions or "corp" versions. I never knew
anyone who bought oem that also downloaded a pirate copy or even knew what a
"crack" for software was. Maybe ms finally got smart and realized that the
ones using the "corp" versions are the geeks like us who build our own.
I do see your point, but I think I make one as well.
Again, I got hung up on, and even Mike Stevens told me that he was
hung up on once. Sure all I did was call back and got another rep,
but I know all the ins & outs of MS's PA policies, but most home
system builders don't.

That's just inexcusable. If someone did hang up on you, they should be
fired.
Are you sure about that?

"Microsoft will also support the activation of Windows XP throughout
its life and *will* *likely* provide an update that turns activation
off at the end of the product's lifecycle so users would no longer be
required to activate the product."

Whenever MS says sh*t like "will likely," I tend to take it with a
big grain of salt, and wait to see.

LOL - no I'm not sure at all. I just heard or read it somewhere.
 
K

kurttrail

purplehaz said:
Kurt you know I'm all for multiple installs when you pay for the
software and I'm not gonna argue the eula with you cause I think we
agree pretty much on that as well, but is what your saying that since
he already paid ms once for his leagal copy of xp, that it's ok to
download a more expensive copy and use that instead when you did not
pay for it?

No, you use 11 files from the corp version and modify the copy you own, so
that PA is disabled.
I have to disagree with that. That to me is like stealing
because he did not pay for the downloaded copy. If you pay for it
then you can do what you want with it, but if you don't pay, you
can't play. Buying one copy of xp imo doesn't mean you get unlimited
copies for ever. I do agree you can install it on your computers in
your home, but only if you pay for it. XP pro corp is different and
more expensive than xp home or xp oem. Just because you pay for xp
home or oem it doesn't give you the right to get xp pro corp for
free. Isn't that like buying a car, then at midnight sneaking back
onto the lot, putting the car you paid for back and take the same
model car only one that's loaded with all the options?

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
 
K

kurttrail

purplehaz said:
Kurt you know I'm all for multiple installs when you pay for the
software and I'm not gonna argue the eula with you cause I think we
agree pretty much on that as well, but is what your saying that since
he already paid ms once for his leagal copy of xp, that it's ok to
download a more expensive copy and use that instead when you did not
pay for it? I have to disagree with that. That to me is like stealing
because he did not pay for the downloaded copy. If you pay for it
then you can do what you want with it, but if you don't pay, you
can't play. Buying one copy of xp imo doesn't mean you get unlimited
copies for ever. I do agree you can install it on your computers in
your home, but only if you pay for it. XP pro corp is different and
more expensive than xp home or xp oem. Just because you pay for xp
home or oem it doesn't give you the right to get xp pro corp for
free. Isn't that like buying a car, then at midnight sneaking back
onto the lot, putting the car you paid for back and take the same
model car only one that's loaded with all the options?

You just use 11 files from the corp version and modify the copy you own, so
that PA is disabled on your modified copy. The only real difference between
Retail/OEM XP Pro & VL XP Pro is PA, so any added expense of VL, is just the
lack of PA funtionality.

And is VL really that much more expensive? I wouldn't know, I never looked
into it.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
 
K

kurttrail

purplehaz said:
I suppose it could be a hassle, but I don't have the energy to let a
simple phone call bother me anymore. An example of a hassle to me is
driving 30 miles in heavy traffic every morning to work, when I could
do all my work remotely, but can't for varoius reason. It's a pain in
the butt. A phone call and pushing some numbers in......
ehh....whatever, no big deal.


Wow, you might be more critical with your machine than me. I usually
install once then fix anything that needs fixing.


Ok, that makes sense. I understand that point.


Could that be because the people who usually build their own are the
ones who know how to get the cracked versions or "corp" versions. I
never knew anyone who bought oem that also downloaded a pirate copy
or even knew what a "crack" for software was. Maybe ms finally got
smart and realized that the ones using the "corp" versions are the
geeks like us who build our own.
I do see your point, but I think I make one as well.

<snip>

Yes you did, but who really needed a cracked version of MS software until
PA?

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
 
A

Alex Nichol

Ralph said:
Activation is an unacceptable pain. I recommend using only XP Pro. The
getting a download of the XP Pro Corp edition, and use a key gen to
generate a good key for it. It will never bug you about activating,
and Microsoft will have gotten their money.

Just one comment. Microsoft will *not* have got their money. That so
called 'Corporate' version is a pirated volume license for which MS have
received nothing

Merely reformatting (and I cannot see why the OP is doing it five times
a day) will not cause you to run out of ability to activate on the net.
If he *is* doing this he gets a new 30 days in which to activate each
time, so he probably never needs activate at all.

There is however one point that can conserve a 'vote' in the matter if
you reformat: See the 'Format Hard disk' section at my page
www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm
 

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