[NEWS] Microsoft to Disable Online Windows Activation

[alinosa]

i got around having to activate every time by imaging my clean install to a second hard drive. That way when i corrupted my boot drive i just had to re-image it and i was on my way... it's quicker to restore an image than to do a clean install anyways. no more calling microsoft ( i've activated mine way too many times online now.) to let them tell me it's ok to use something i already paid for.

 

[wizard james]

if this does happen.. it will end fast, too many people who are really true buyers will get soooo ****ed off , that or they speak other langages.. and so many other varables that..well hell. . its WASTE OF MONEY ..then again its mirco****s...so they gota lot of it

 

[deRusett]

The issue is , they are trying to stop illegal version, but there have been "work arounds" for activations since XP came out - now it just means more people will use them and they are easy enough to find so in the end MS is stopping nothing and only creating more issues for legit money spending people / companies.

I think MS needs to study a LITTLE harder the "illegal" side of how their software is being used and getting by these checks because they obviously did not on this one killing online activation.

MS is not TOTALLY getting rid of Online activation though, it is Getting rid of Online Re Activation for OEM designated CD keys.

if you have a retail copy of Windows XP, you can still do online reactivation as much as you did in the past, only having to call in after major changes.

And they have taken a few good steps to fix some illegal issues, I had 2 copies of Windows XP installed, 1 retail copy, and one P2P shared copy using the CD key that was distributed before windows XP was even released. the Bad copy was so I could work on a pirated version when I am asked to help someone fix there PC and they are using it, that version of XP was not able to upgrade DirectX from Microsoft Update, nor was it able to download WMP 10, and a few of the hardware updates, that the legal version was able to do,
they also have a program you install to verify your copy, it verified my legal copy, but not the bad copy,

they are taking steps slowly, but baby steps they don't want to drive 1000's of people to linux quickly by smacking down hard, they just make it harder and harder, so a few people give up and buy a OEM version or something,

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^^ thank you for clarifying, in all this i figured they were ditching it all at some point.

As for legal and not legal, i have been there and i do have a version and cd key(s) that do work fine with updates and SP2 - so no, MS is not taking very good steps.- i as you use it to test systems out - since i have 3 retail copies of XP from work for my own computers when i was using them for work.

 

[David]

Eh... I guess I should have read the news link first whoops.

I think its a lose:lose situation for Microsoft really.

If they crack down big time on piracy people will *****, moan, find ways round it and move to Linux (I moved almost entirely to Linux after getting annoyed with XP - I have one minimal XP install on my dually only for World Of Warcraft!).

If they dont crack down, people will continue using illegal copies.

I guess it isnt really fair to *****, moan and whine at them unless you have a better idea, although we all agree the way they are heading is probably not in a nice direction.

I am really NOT looking forward to DRM......

Time to learn Linux *sigh*
(the *sigh* is directed at the learning part )

Its not that hard, once you get past the rather steep part at the beginning. Check out Overclockix here: http://overclockix.octeams.com/

OK Linux evangelism/threadjack finished

 

[JimmyG]

This is really just MS greed. Most people are honest. Joe Sixpack buys his computer at Dell and other big names. This is 95% of the market. Joe Sixpack wouldn't know how or care about ripping off a pirated copy of Windows. This is directly aimed at the small - and I do mean small percentage of the geek world that is dishonest!

 

[Dermen]

Let me make sure I am reading this right. The little certificate of authenticity on a lot of OEM PCs have unused Windows XP CD keys? So people are going to schools/businesses and writing down the CD keys off the little stickers and selling them.

Thats almost as stupid as Windows Corporate Edition. I really don't understand how they can not predict that things like this will happen. What they were thinking with Corp. Edition, Hey guys lets do all this work designing online activation and then release a version of windows that doesn't have it. Everybody I know who has an illegal version of windows has the corp edition, same with Office.