Business N, WMP 11 and the media restore pack

[Bas]

As some of you might know, or have endured for themselves, all European
students that get windows form the MSDN Academic Allience got theirs with a
Business N license.

So no media player for us unfortunately. However, all is not lost you might
say, VLC is decent, and should you ever feel the need to use WMP anyway, you
just download it. Well no, you see, nobody at microsoft cares about the
annoying lowlives that call themselves students, so there's no download for
WMP whatsoever for Vista.

To make matters more interesting, somebody decided that while they were
stripping the player, they'd also just remove some random components like
the Mobile Device drivers from the N versions (SKU's). So now we can't use
our devices anymore. And I'm not talking about the iPod, I'm sure that works
fine, it's the Zune itself that doesn't work, and Windows Mobile devices
like my 400+ euro Dell Axim. That's right, N licensees can't load music on
their Zune or synchronise their PDA's at all.

However there was hope, we were promised the holy grail: after the release
of Vista to the public, fate would reunite us with our gadgets through a
magical piece of code that was to become available for download: the Media
Restore Pack. We would get our media player, our drivers, and all would be
good in the world again.

**********************************************
Well, we've waited for 2 months now. And I'm getting pissed.
Where is it??
**********************************************

 

[Ampy]

As some of you might know, or have endured for themselves, all European
students that get windows form the MSDN Academic Allience got theirs with a
Business N license.

So no media player for us unfortunately. However, all is not lost you might
say, VLC is decent, and should you ever feel the need to use WMP anyway, you
just download it. Well no, you see, nobody at microsoft cares about the
annoying lowlives that call themselves students, so there's no download for
WMP whatsoever for Vista.

To make matters more interesting, somebody decided that while they were
stripping the player, they'd also just remove some random components like
the Mobile Device drivers from the N versions (SKU's). So now we can't use
our devices anymore. And I'm not talking about the iPod, I'm sure that works
fine, it's the Zune itself that doesn't work, and Windows Mobile devices
like my 400+ euro Dell Axim. That's right, N licensees can't load music on
their Zune or synchronise their PDA's at all.

However there was hope, we were promised the holy grail: after the release
of Vista to the public, fate would reunite us with our gadgets through a
magical piece of code that was to become available for download: the Media
Restore Pack. We would get our media player, our drivers, and all would be
good in the world again.

**********************************************
Well, we've waited for 2 months now. And I'm getting pissed.
Where is it??
**********************************************

I totally agree here. It shouldn't be too difficult for MS to create
that Media Restore Pack... Just do it! I want to use my devices....

 

[JP]

Talk to your government(s). It is the European governments that are
making MS jump through hoops - take this out, add this in, open this up,
and on and on... If I was MS, I would say, "See ya", and stop selling Windows
in Europe.

 

[Troy McClure]

newsflash... its the EU thats forcing MS to do all this. do you really think
MS WANTS to?!?!?