Boy do I hate Microsoft Activation
Category None
I understand it exists because people copy their software, but as a paying customer it sure doesn't feel like a very good customer/supplier relationship.
The problem with Microsoft Activation is that after you install the product a couple of times you can no longer activate online, and you have to call them up and give them what feels like 50 numbers and wait for them to give you 50 numbers back. Now anyone that uses Windows over time, knows that eventually the thing will come to a crawl and you'll have to reinstall, do it a couple of times and you have the pleasure of calling "Amy" in India.
So let's take my example this weekend of Windows and Flight Simulator. FSX had already been installed on an existing machine, but as Microsoft's requirements were so out of whack with what is really needed I needed a new box. No problem, I have plenty of windows licenses and I remove FSX from the existing box and go buy a new box. Why doesn't the uninstaller tell the Microsoft Servers that I have uninstalled it? Then when you get to install Windows on a newish machine, why oh why does Microsoft insist on having a floppy disk to install a RAID driver? Stupid stupid, why can't I point it at a CD, or USB drive. I even went and purchased a USB floppy drive, and guess what, Windows install doesn't recognize it, so I ended up having to take an old machine apart to temporarily plug in an IDE FDD.
So FSX and Windows is installed on the new hardware (takes about 15 reboots with updates and driver reboots). All seems good, until a Windows Update is applied, which causes a blue screen of death on boot, and last good config etc. doesn't work. Windows update apparently updated something which conflicted with the joystick, arrggh. Windows being a secure OS is hosed, and as I like wasting my time on stuff that should be a basic function of the OS, I reinstall windows and FSX, only to find out that both products can no longer be activated online and need to be activated by phone.
Seriously, this is like the issue with CD and DVD cases that are impossible to open, it becomes easier to download songs from the web than get the CD open. The same is true for software, in this case it becomes easier to get an illegal hacked versions of the software than trying to deal with a legit copy. Years ago 1-2-3 had a key disk. It created a tremendous amount of support calls, created ill will with paying customers and people that didn't want to pay for a legal license still managed to get hacked versions that didn't require the key, so in the end Lotus stopped using the keys on it's diskettes.
I hope that this kind of respect for paying customers screws Microsoft, or at least the members of the committee that made the decision to take this approach.
Steps:
Friday November 10th 2006: 10,940
Saturday November 11th 2006: 13,682
Sunday November 12th 2006: 10,122 (boy what a miserable, cold, wet day for walking 10,000 steps)
I understand it exists because people copy their software, but as a paying customer it sure doesn't feel like a very good customer/supplier relationship.
The problem with Microsoft Activation is that after you install the product a couple of times you can no longer activate online, and you have to call them up and give them what feels like 50 numbers and wait for them to give you 50 numbers back. Now anyone that uses Windows over time, knows that eventually the thing will come to a crawl and you'll have to reinstall, do it a couple of times and you have the pleasure of calling "Amy" in India.
So let's take my example this weekend of Windows and Flight Simulator. FSX had already been installed on an existing machine, but as Microsoft's requirements were so out of whack with what is really needed I needed a new box. No problem, I have plenty of windows licenses and I remove FSX from the existing box and go buy a new box. Why doesn't the uninstaller tell the Microsoft Servers that I have uninstalled it? Then when you get to install Windows on a newish machine, why oh why does Microsoft insist on having a floppy disk to install a RAID driver? Stupid stupid, why can't I point it at a CD, or USB drive. I even went and purchased a USB floppy drive, and guess what, Windows install doesn't recognize it, so I ended up having to take an old machine apart to temporarily plug in an IDE FDD.
So FSX and Windows is installed on the new hardware (takes about 15 reboots with updates and driver reboots). All seems good, until a Windows Update is applied, which causes a blue screen of death on boot, and last good config etc. doesn't work. Windows update apparently updated something which conflicted with the joystick, arrggh. Windows being a secure OS is hosed, and as I like wasting my time on stuff that should be a basic function of the OS, I reinstall windows and FSX, only to find out that both products can no longer be activated online and need to be activated by phone.
Seriously, this is like the issue with CD and DVD cases that are impossible to open, it becomes easier to download songs from the web than get the CD open. The same is true for software, in this case it becomes easier to get an illegal hacked versions of the software than trying to deal with a legit copy. Years ago 1-2-3 had a key disk. It created a tremendous amount of support calls, created ill will with paying customers and people that didn't want to pay for a legal license still managed to get hacked versions that didn't require the key, so in the end Lotus stopped using the keys on it's diskettes.
I hope that this kind of respect for paying customers screws Microsoft, or at least the members of the committee that made the decision to take this approach.
Steps:
Friday November 10th 2006: 10,940
Saturday November 11th 2006: 13,682
Sunday November 12th 2006: 10,122 (boy what a miserable, cold, wet day for walking 10,000 steps)
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