Win 2K: Register or Else!

[Jingle]

Now that Windows 2000 has a few miles on it, I am starting to seriously consider upgrading from Win 98SE. One of the stories now circulating is that Microsoft has applied a registration requirement that, if you don?t register the installation by the 50th bootup, the computer refuses to launch. The story was reported in October PC World Magazine, among others.

This leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The first is has anyone actually tried this (boot 50 times without registering)? I?ll probably do it myself eventually if I don?t find confirmation.

The second question is in regard to the claim that this doesn?t prevent you from reinstalling Win2K if you get a new hard drive ? OK, how about a new motherboard and CPU? I would consider it to be the same computer, but would this algorithm? All sounds pretty sketchy and could end up losing users a lot of files and money.

Can anyone fill in the blanks, or are we the guinea pigs?

Jingles

 

[thirdkind]

I would say that without a warning message prior to that final available boot, MS would be in some deep doodoo. I'd be pretty pissed off if I were a user who paid for the software (which I did) who suddenly couldn't get into his PC one day because he simply forgot to register.

Office 2000 does this, however, so who knows.

 

[BigToque]

Windows 2000 will not stop running after 50 boots. This is only part of Office 2000.

 

[AndyHui]

There is no registration requirement with Win2K. This only applies to Office 2000 SR1 Retail.

 

[BoNeZ]

Well there if you're somewhat heasitant about sending M$ any information about yourself there is a registry key which can be changed so that Win2K (or any version) think that it's been registered. Also I've never seen the problem with registering O2K, maybe it deals with this key as well.

Anyway the key is

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion

The RegDone key needs to be set to 1

This is also where you can manually change who the OS is registered to or where you have your install files located.

 

[Shudder]

Does that work for any program that annoys the heck out of you and wants to be registered?

I had a zoom modem that would not leave me alone, no matter what I tried, until I "registered" with them, er, their marketers.

 

[AndyHui]

No...that's a program specific setting. Works with Windows 98 and after...

Usually that registration for 3rd party programs is either dealt with in a key or a flag in an ini file.

 

[Blieb]

I think this is all just speculation. I have installed Office 2000 at least 5 times on 2 different computers ... I have never had a *halt* problem due to lack of registration.

I have entered the code, which is required to install anyways ... but registration is a one time thing ... if you format your machine and then reinstall the software, MUST YOU REGISTER AGAIN!?!?! No. Registration is a one time thing, and it's optional for the support that comes with the software.

End of story.

 

[Nitsuj]

Billy7777: Office 2000 (not just SP1, all SP1 added is a check for fake/bad/hacked PID KEYs) requires registration. They only way you can install on five computers and not ever be promted is if you warez'd O2K and have the version with registration disabled. On a non warez'd version of Office 2000 you will be prompted to register the first time you boot any Office 2000 application, after the 50th time you cancel this registration dialog the Office apps will not boot till you register.

Jingle: Win2K does not require registration, all though you should register to get security bullitens and such.

Nitsuj

 

[laper]

Hmmm, I've got legit office 2k software, and after canceling the opportunity to register, have never been reminded to register again.

 

[thirdkind]

Only the latest retail version of Office 2000 (which already has SP1 added) has the registration limitation. The original edition, the one that requires the SP1 download, has no registration requirement.