ghetto reactiviation

[ValuedCustomer]

Originally posted by: nweaver
The other thing is a consistant stand. MS makes a lot of money, S/W company B does not, so that makes it OK to steal from one, but not the other?

I work in the QA industry, piracy directly affects the bottom line of my company, as increased piracy is decreased revenues, and thus less money to spend on QA for the next product. That is why I am one of those "techie dorks" who care.

nice knee-jerk.. who's talking about "piracy" besides you guys? This guy is not stealing anything. He's not necessarily following the rules to the letter but the point being here is M$ has all the money they should.. you guys are getting wrapped up in semantics. Piracy is wrong. Stealing is wrong. No one?s arguing those points. Lighten up.

 

[doornail]

Originally posted by: STaSh

I'll betcha a million bucks that's not "cool" w/ the EULA but as I said/asked, who cares?

As a shareholder, I care. Sure, there are much bigger piracy fish to fry, like the millions of counterfeit crap coming out of Asia. But these other cases add up quickly, and they add up to a huge loss in potential revenue yearly.

Now I know everyone thinks "who cares, M$ has soooo much money, what difference does it make" but shareholders care about these things. Like it or not, Microsoft is a company that is in business to make money. And piracy is a huge hit to the business.

Maybe, as a shareholder, you should care even more that WPA is such a pain that it's alienating customers. You're making it a way bigger hassle to buy rather than pirate. I mean, THINK about that.

I dropped MS because of this invaisive policy. I don't want to pirate and I don't want to have to beg permission to use a product I paid for -- so I went Linux and am enjoying it a lot.

 

[stash]

Maybe, as a shareholder, you should care even more that WPA is such a pain that it's alienating customers. You're making it a way bigger hassle to buy rather than pirate. I mean, THINK about that.

I agree that is a hassle for the 'enthusiast' power-user, whatever crowd. However, the huge majority of customers never have to deal with activation. They get SLP'ed installed disks from their OEMs and never have to worry about it.

I think there are some changes planned for the power users in Vista, but I'm not entirely sure. I change my hardware frequently on many of my boxes, so I've run into this a few times. But it was hardly a hardship for me to make a 2 minute phonecall to get activated.

 

[nweaver]

I spend a LOT of time swapping hardware/ imaging to boxes with similar hardware and such in the test lab. We have VL edition, but use retail/oem sometimes too. In the last year (I've moved out of the imaging stuff mostly) I have called in 2 times total. Both times, it was seamless. I don't understand the big deal about activation. If you are swapping hardware and doing strange things, do it off a fresh install, then you have 30 days before you have to activate.

 

[doornail]

Originally posted by: STaSh
But it was hardly a hardship for me to make a 2 minute phonecall to get activated.

I keep seeing select people say "it's ok because it's fast and painless" yet at the same time it seems like half the threads in this forum are about folks banging their heads against WPA.

 

[nweaver]

/shrug, I only have my experience to draw on, work in a test lab, and helping the family. I've never had a problem yet. For every "it sucks and is broken" WPA thread, how many "it' painless" experiences go unnoticed by millions of users?

 

[stash]

Originally posted by: doornail

Originally posted by: STaSh
But it was hardly a hardship for me to make a 2 minute phonecall to get activated.

I keep seeing select people say "it's ok because it's fast and painless" yet at the same time it seems like half the threads in this forum are about folks banging their heads against WPA.

Well the original poster of this thread felt it necessary to create this thread to bitch rather than actually attempt to make the two minute phonecall.

Seems like that just makes it harder than it really is.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: doornail

Originally posted by: STaSh
But it was hardly a hardship for me to make a 2 minute phonecall to get activated.

I keep seeing select people say "it's ok because it's fast and painless" yet at the same time it seems like half the threads in this forum are about folks banging their heads against WPA.

It is fast and painless, far less effort than a driver install for instance. People bitch about everything...big deal.

 

[js186]

Originally posted by: STaSh

I'll betcha a million bucks that's not "cool" w/ the EULA but as I said/asked, who cares?

As a shareholder, I care. Sure, there are much bigger piracy fish to fry, like the millions of counterfeit crap coming out of Asia. But these other cases add up quickly, and they add up to a huge loss in potential revenue yearly.

Now I know everyone thinks "who cares, M$ has soooo much money, what difference does it make" but shareholders care about these things. Like it or not, Microsoft is a company that is in business to make money. And piracy is a huge hit to the business.

I care enough to pass out XP Corp disks like Halloween candy

 

[ValuedCustomer]

Originally posted by: js186

Originally posted by: STaSh

I'll betcha a million bucks that's not "cool" w/ the EULA but as I said/asked, who cares?

As a shareholder, I care. Sure, there are much bigger piracy fish to fry, like the millions of counterfeit crap coming out of Asia. But these other cases add up quickly, and they add up to a huge loss in potential revenue yearly.

Now I know everyone thinks "who cares, M$ has soooo much money, what difference does it make" but shareholders care about these things. Like it or not, Microsoft is a company that is in business to make money. And piracy is a huge hit to the business.

I care enough to pass out XP Corp disks like Halloween candy

That's real nice.. dumba$$.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: js186

Originally posted by: STaSh

I'll betcha a million bucks that's not "cool" w/ the EULA but as I said/asked, who cares?

As a shareholder, I care. Sure, there are much bigger piracy fish to fry, like the millions of counterfeit crap coming out of Asia. But these other cases add up quickly, and they add up to a huge loss in potential revenue yearly.

Now I know everyone thinks "who cares, M$ has soooo much money, what difference does it make" but shareholders care about these things. Like it or not, Microsoft is a company that is in business to make money. And piracy is a huge hit to the business.

I care enough to pass out XP Corp disks like Halloween candy

You're bragging about blantantly pirating XP? What a dumbass, ban sounds good IMO.

 

[dlebeau]

From a legal perspective you have likely breached the license and theoretically MS could cancel your license and not refund you any money. They could also cancel your corporate license if the license does not allow the company to authorize it for home use.

Very few corporate licenses actually permit endless installations, but rather have a limited number of "users" and the corporation is supposed to police the installation under the license and limite the number of users to the actual number permitted by the license.

 

[pkme2]

I had to call Microsoft and get a new 42 digit number and it was very pleasant and uneventful, in fact the person I had was very helpful and nice. I would rate the whole experience as a 7.5!
I bought my x64 off a person who couldn't use it on his older system, but since I was building an AMD 64, I jumped at the deal. He activated it but didn't register, so when I installed it on my computer, I had to call Microsoft. MS seemed scary to deal with, but it was a surprise. Its usually the people who try to get something for nothing that..... Need I say more. All my past experiences have been very pleasant. No, I don't own any stock in MS. Aloha!

 

[Maximilian]

Ive never come across this before. Ive upgraded the cpu and added a second cpu, fiddled with the memory, changed the graphics card, added and removed a sound card, same with the netowork card and windows stays fine. Only thing was it wouldnt boot when i changed the motherboard.

 

[stash]

What kind of license? Volume, OEM or retail?

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
stupid microsoft activation wants me to reactivate my computer. all i did was change my network card and cpu.

Isn't easier to reactivate than change your card? Click...wait...done.

No actually it's like:

click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

It's a pain in the ass.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
stupid microsoft activation wants me to reactivate my computer. all i did was change my network card and cpu.

Isn't easier to reactivate than change your card? Click...wait...done.

No actually it's like:

click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

It's a pain in the ass.

I've gone through the same scenario a few times myself, and even at that, it still takes longer to install a piece of hardware and the driver's for it, and thats the worst case scenario for activation, and much more rare than the click through that is the normal activation experience.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: nweaver
I spend a LOT of time swapping hardware/ imaging to boxes with similar hardware and such in the test lab. We have VL edition, but use retail/oem sometimes too. In the last year (I've moved out of the imaging stuff mostly) I have called in 2 times total. Both times, it was seamless. I don't understand the big deal about activation. If you are swapping hardware and doing strange things, do it off a fresh install, then you have 30 days before you have to activate.

People are too lazy. Plain and simple.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
stupid microsoft activation wants me to reactivate my computer. all i did was change my network card and cpu.

Isn't easier to reactivate than change your card? Click...wait...done.

No actually it's like:

click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

It's a pain in the ass.

here's a trick for those of you who hate punching in the numbers. when you get to the "are you calling to activate windows xp?" saying, just dial * 0 and it takes you directly to the customer service reps, bypassing the entire type the customer ID crap.


hope this helps you in your activation woes next time around.

joe

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: jpbelauskas

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
stupid microsoft activation wants me to reactivate my computer. all i did was change my network card and cpu.

Isn't easier to reactivate than change your card? Click...wait...done.

No actually it's like:

click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

It's a pain in the ass.

here's a trick for those of you who hate punching in the numbers. when you get to the "are you calling to activate windows xp?" saying, just dial * 0 and it takes you directly to the customer service reps, bypassing the entire type the customer ID crap.


hope this helps you in your activation woes next time around.

joe

COOL! I have to call those damn places so many times at work for customers. It's annoying.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
stupid microsoft activation wants me to reactivate my computer. all i did was change my network card and cpu.

Isn't easier to reactivate than change your card? Click...wait...done.

No actually it's like:

click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

It's a pain in the ass.

I've gone through the same scenario a few times myself, and even at that, it still takes longer to install a piece of hardware and the driver's for it, and thats the worst case scenario for activation, and much more rare than the click through that is the normal activation experience.

Click through will only work a few times per key.

And...I don't know about you but I can easily install new hardware/drivers on my system in plenty less time than it takes to call for activation.

 

[Shamrock]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
stupid microsoft activation wants me to reactivate my computer. all i did was change my network card and cpu.

Isn't easier to reactivate than change your card? Click...wait...done.

No actually it's like:

click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

It's a pain in the ass.

I've modified this post for my experiences. I have activated 4 times since 2001 for the UPGRADE version.

1st experience:
click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...wait in line for 8 minutes...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you...press enter...get denied...oh wait (support blows a sigh...customer calls off number to support....support says my fault for punching in a wrong number...(wrong, it was his dumba$$ foreigner that cant speak a lick of English. It was a B, not a D!))....get it corrected...done. (a great way to impress a customer!)

2nd experience:
click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

3rd experience:
click...wait...done (halleluyah!)

4th experience:
click...wait...get denied...pick up phone...dial number...punch in long damn code....get denied again....wait for actual person to pickup...give them part of the code...answer serveral questions....wait...punch in long damn code they give you....done.

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
stupid microsoft activation wants me to reactivate my computer. all i did was change my network card and cpu.

My roommate bought new Dell 700m laptop with Win XP Home and he asked me to find a better memory and then installed it Win XP did not tell to re-activate his laptop.

 

[anarchyreigns]

Originally posted by: STaSh

I'll betcha a million bucks that's not "cool" w/ the EULA but as I said/asked, who cares?

As a shareholder, I care.

Yeah, I'm sure you're just beside yourself when Microsoft commits illegalities too. You're right there in the front row at all the shareholder meetings screaming about it.

 

[stash]

I don't know about 'illegalities' but when the company makes dumb choices like not working on search technologies soon enough, or not leveraging their existing mapping technologies (terraserver) and letting companies like Google wipe the floor with them in those areas, then yeah, I get upset as a shareholder.

But I know you don't care since you already have these preconceived notions about me, so why should I waste any more time on you?