Damn Microsoft Activation!!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seth Brundle
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Seth Brundle

I am SO SICK AND TIRED of calling Microsoft on the telephone to
reactivate every goddamn time I change my motherboard!!!

They are the *only* software company I know of which requires hardware
enthusiasts who change hardware regularly to constantly call them and
read off strings of numbers whenever there is a significant hardware
change. It is *SO* *FREAKING* *ARROGANT*!! I own hundreds of software
titles - they are the *only one* that makes me do this.

What makes it so bad is that installing new hardware can sometimes be
a *very* frustrating experience, especially if you get a bad board or
RAM. Once you get to this screen, you may have been pulling your hair
out for hours, and you just want to scream when you see you have to
call them.

To add insult to injury, their automated system was all screwed up
today, and the automated voice kept dropping out and wouldnt respond
to input, so I had to get forwarded to a human.

I have no problem whatsoever with them incorporating antipiracy, but I
have *lots* of software with antipiracy techniques, and NONE of them
are this obnoxious.

What really annoys me is that all I have to do is tell them that I am
installing a new motherboard and I dont have it on multiple computers
- and they are like 'ok!'.

If thats OK, then how about just putting a radio button thats says 'I
installed some new hardware and am only running this on one computer -
leave me alone!' and save us both a lot of trouble!!!

GAAHHH!@!!
</rant>
 
-----Original Message-----
I am SO SICK AND TIRED of calling Microsoft on the telephone to
reactivate every goddamn time I change my motherboard!!!

They are the *only* software company I know of which requires hardware
enthusiasts who change hardware regularly to constantly call them and
read off strings of numbers whenever there is a significant hardware
change. It is *SO* *FREAKING* *ARROGANT*!! I own hundreds of software
titles - they are the *only one* that makes me do this.

What makes it so bad is that installing new hardware can sometimes be
a *very* frustrating experience, especially if you get a bad board or
RAM. Once you get to this screen, you may have been pulling your hair
out for hours, and you just want to scream when you see you have to
call them.

To add insult to injury, their automated system was all screwed up
today, and the automated voice kept dropping out and wouldnt respond
to input, so I had to get forwarded to a human.

I have no problem whatsoever with them incorporating antipiracy, but I
have *lots* of software with antipiracy techniques, and NONE of them
are this obnoxious.

What really annoys me is that all I have to do is tell them that I am
installing a new motherboard and I dont have it on multiple computers
- and they are like 'ok!'.

If thats OK, then how about just putting a radio button thats says 'I
installed some new hardware and am only running this on one computer -
leave me alone!' and save us both a lot of trouble!!!

GAAHHH!@!!
</rant>
.
Click to expand...

"Hardware enthusiasts"?? You sure make it sound like a
lovely and relaxing avocation. You need to understand that
your frustration is a result of your neurosis, and not
the fault of a large corporation that's out to get you.
Yes, activation is a PITA, and it serves mainly to obstruct
honest users, but you need to get a grip and stop looking
for trouble. Why not try knitting?
 
well thats not right you should not have to do this if the
screen come up again to call microsoft try control alt
delete and stop the program.they have no legal right to
know whats on your computer other than windows,thats why
motherboard makers provide microsoft with drivers etc...
 
That has absolutely nothing to do with why drivers are provided to
Microsoft.
Drivers are provided to Microsoft by the manufacturers if the
manufacturer desires to have their driver certified.
There is no requirement for certification.

Microsoft does not know or care about your hardware specifications.
Stopping activation as you suggest does nothing more than prevent
Windows from being used.
You should read this to get your facts straight about activation:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm
 
Greetings --

Replacing a non-defective motherboard more frequently than every 4
months is not "hardware enthusiasm." It's just plain silly.
Particularly since you know in advance that activation will be
requires - you're just deliberately asking for trouble and looking for
an excuse to whine. I've no sympathy. Perhaps you'd prefer one of
these other common means of software copy-protection:

1) The hardware dongles that must be attached to the parallel port to
enable an application to work?

2) Faxing a document signed by a company officer certifying the
number of installations before being sent a code to enable the
software?

3) Performing the application installations at bizarre hours of the
night because you have to call another time-zone during the
installation in order to obtain the necessary registration code from a
company representative?


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
 
I'm afraid I don't believe this rant. I think it's just another Microsoft
basherlooking for an excuse to bash, but one who obviously has not really
done what he claims he's done.

I just upgraded my daughter's computer (took the poor kid out of the Bronze
Age and into the Hot Sh*t Age) It required the motherboard, processor, and a
gig of new memory. I read up on the horror story that I expected to go
through, which is how her computer would now fail the 'voting' procedure that
decides whether the machine is a completely different one. And that I'd be
given a fifty character number which I would have to recite to Microsoft over
the phone. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I'm an honest person and I
understand why it's neccessary.

Lo and Behold, I never read the most important part...you only have to do
that if you buy a computer with XP pre-loaded, and you have THEIR disk and
not the XP disk. We have three computers in our house, and we each have our
own XP Home Full disk. After I rebuilt her computer, I reformated her
primary hard drive, reinstalled XP, and reactivated it over the net in about
fifteen seconds. I was quite a happy camper.

Since I've actually done what I claimed, I know what I'm talking about,
which is why I seriously doubt that this guy does.

Steve
 
Replacing a non-defective motherboard more frequently than every 4
months is not "hardware enthusiasm." It's just plain silly.
Click to expand...

Thats your opinion. I can do whatever I want to do with my computers,
and I choose to upgrade frequently - no one gets to tell me what is
'silly'. Recently I upgraded my dual-boot system to AMD64 because Suse
can run 64-bit software, which I required to port my Linux software
projects so my users with AMD64 can compile and make use of the
extensions, but I dont need an excuse that good to upgrade any time I
choose. Thats my business, not M$'s
Particularly since you know in advance that activation will be
requires - you're just deliberately asking for trouble and looking for
an excuse to whine. I've no sympathy.
Click to expand...

No, its just that if I have decided I want new hardware, Im not going
to let Microsoft stop me from doing it just because its the one piece
of software on 16 of my workstations and servers which makes me call
them, like a friggin parent, to get their permission.

Let me ask you this - how would you like it if *every* piece of
software you own worked exactly like WPA? Doesnt scale very well, does
it? I would have been on the phone with over 25 companies every time I
make a significant hardware change. What is so special about Microsoft
that they get to do this?

Perhaps you'd prefer one of
these other common means of software copy-protection:
Click to expand...
(snip)

I dont own one single piece of software that requires any of those
methods, so I dont know what youre talking about.

Of the hundreds of titles I do own, Microsoft Windows and Office 2003
are the *only* ones that insist on getting involved when I change
hardware. Period.

Although even as a Linux developer I would be the last one to ever say
that Linux can replace Windows at this point, I *cant wait* until it
can. Even commercial Linux distros dont make me go through M$'s happy
horseshit.

What is really funny is that the only company which requires me to
take such invasive and bothersome steps to prevent piracy is also the
most profitable software company in the world - and was long before
WPA.
 
Seth;
Unfortunately you are in an extreme minority.
Microsoft thought long and hard before implementing WPA.
Microsoft came up with a plan which is a compromise between user
convenience and protection of their property.
The majority of users have little inconvenience.
I do understand the frustration of constantly calling in for
activation.
Unfortunately I have no practical suggestion.

If you want to get away from phone activation, the only thing I can
think of is another Windows XP license.
Then you could rotate them and reduce the chance for having to call.
Not a good solution at all but if you want to constantly change
hardware and avoid the phone, that may be the only solution.
 
LOL, the truth is if you are doing something that requires you to change
the hardware this much, you should look into getting a Corp version.
Many hardware review websites purchase special VLK licenses for a
handful of machines so that they don't have to deal with Activation
every time. Most of them save the money and just don't activate though :)
 
Jupiter Jones [MVP]

I can understand a hardware tester doing this. The hardware tester
most likely has a volume license key that requires no activation.

He going to break his machine if he keep changing his hardware.


Greg R
 
Greetings --

Wouldn't bother me a bit.

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
 
Lo and Behold, I never read the most important part...you only have to do
that if you buy a computer with XP pre-loaded, and you have THEIR disk and
not the XP disk. We have three computers in our house, and we each have our
own XP Home Full disk. After I rebuilt her computer, I reformated her
primary hard drive, reinstalled XP, and reactivated it over the net in about
fifteen seconds. I was quite a happy camper.

Since I've actually done what I claimed, I know what I'm talking about,
which is why I seriously doubt that this guy does.
Click to expand...

No, thats not true at all. I have a full retail boxed XP Professional
and built the original machine from scratch. Its not OEM. You can
activate Windows a second time like you did and it may be fine, maybe
not. But once you have changed motherboards 4-5 times like I have, it
starts pinging you every time, retail or OEM makes no difference.

Ive built over 3 dozen machines, both Linux and Windows, workstations
and servers, in the past 10 years. You will notice that even the MVP's
and M$ folks dont dispute my claim here, but hilariously some people
think WPA is fine - even one guy saying that he wouldnt mind a bit if
he had to call every software vendor every time he changed his
motherboard (LOL!) Lil more experience then the guy upgrading his
daughters computer.

The fact is, the only reason M$ gets away with WPA is that they are
the only ones doing it so far for the most part, other titles which
have hardcore activation not being nearly as mainstream.

But you notice M$ is not offering WPA as a solution within the OS to
other software vendors (why not? works great, right - why not offer it
as an OS service?), because once 4 major titles start doing it people
will start screaming.
 
I have 7 computers with quite a few different hardware configurations.
I do beta testing and many other things that require me to switch up
these configurations constantly. I am always running into WPA and
having to call in and activate. They never argue with me and it takes
all of about 5 minutes. I agree that it is almost pointless because the
only people who are going to be stopped from stealing Windows because of
WPA are simple folk who don't know anything about computers.

WPA would be a great feature if it weren't so easily bypassed. The
purpose of WPA has been defeated and the only other reason for it is to
prevent people from installing their single licensed XP on all of their
computers. Personally, I don't like WPA very much, but honestly it
doesn't bother me at all. I can live with having to call in and
activate over the phone. Now the day they tell me they won't activate
it for me will be when I go ranting as you have :)
 
No, thats not true at all. I have a full retail boxed XP Professional
and built the original machine from scratch. Its not OEM. You can
activate Windows a second time like you did and it may be fine, maybe
not. But once you have changed motherboards 4-5 times like I have, it
starts pinging you every time, retail or OEM makes no difference.

Ive built over 3 dozen machines, both Linux and Windows, workstations
and servers, in the past 10 years. You will notice that even the MVP's
and M$ folks dont dispute my claim here, but hilariously some people
think WPA is fine - even one guy saying that he wouldnt mind a bit if
he had to call every software vendor every time he changed his
motherboard (LOL!) Lil more experience then the guy upgrading his
daughters computer.

The fact is, the only reason M$ gets away with WPA is that they are
the only ones doing it so far for the most part, other titles which
have hardcore activation not being nearly as mainstream.
Click to expand...

Nortons and Macromedia are using it. Others will follow.
 
Stop crying Please
Steve said:
I'm afraid I don't believe this rant. I think it's just another Microsoft
basherlooking for an excuse to bash, but one who obviously has not really
done what he claims he's done.

I just upgraded my daughter's computer (took the poor kid out of the
Bronze
Age and into the Hot Sh*t Age) It required the motherboard, processor,
and a
gig of new memory. I read up on the horror story that I expected to go
through, which is how her computer would now fail the 'voting' procedure
that
decides whether the machine is a completely different one. And that I'd
be
given a fifty character number which I would have to recite to Microsoft
over
the phone. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I'm an honest person and I
understand why it's neccessary.

Lo and Behold, I never read the most important part...you only have to do
that if you buy a computer with XP pre-loaded, and you have THEIR disk and
not the XP disk. We have three computers in our house, and we each have
our
own XP Home Full disk. After I rebuilt her computer, I reformated her
primary hard drive, reinstalled XP, and reactivated it over the net in
about
fifteen seconds. I was quite a happy camper.

Since I've actually done what I claimed, I know what I'm talking about,
which is why I seriously doubt that this guy does.

Steve
Click to expand...
 
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