I bought Xp OEM when it was first released. I've upgraded a couple of times, reinstalled a couple of other times, and I add new hardware often. Now, I have used up my five activations, and reactivating over the phone is a hassle.
Today, I upgraded my video driver. I have not changed any hardware since building this system (when I had to do a phone activation, too), and Xp started up and said, "Major hardware changes..blah, blah, blah...reactivate." I just changed my video driver!
So, I called and refused to type in the nearly 30 numbers into the phone. I have a big monitor, those numbers are tiny, and if you screw up one, you do the whole thing over again. So, I mumbled until the automated response gave up, and I got a real person. Now, it's not the lady's fault I'm reactivating. It's not her fault she can barely speak English. It's not her fault she works for a company that treats their customers like thieves.
But she heard about it.
She was nice, heard me out, but we had to go through the whole process. I told her it will be a couple of years until Longhorn is released. I will change plenty of hardware and update plenty of drivers until that happens. And I'm going to have to call every time to be allowed the privilege of using their OS that I paid for.
Since it's been a couple of years or so since Xp's release I wonder how many of you have used up your five lives? If you build systems, play around adding hardware, reinstall a couple of time, it's easy to use up your activations. I guess my point is writing to M$ is like pissing in the wind. So, I'll do non-violent protest every time I go through this. I'll get a real person, take as long as possible to work through the process, and hopefully if enough people do this it will start to cost major dollars since there must be there must be thousands who are hitting this "milestone."
Have a nice day and think twice about that new nVidia driver...
Today, I upgraded my video driver. I have not changed any hardware since building this system (when I had to do a phone activation, too), and Xp started up and said, "Major hardware changes..blah, blah, blah...reactivate." I just changed my video driver!
So, I called and refused to type in the nearly 30 numbers into the phone. I have a big monitor, those numbers are tiny, and if you screw up one, you do the whole thing over again. So, I mumbled until the automated response gave up, and I got a real person. Now, it's not the lady's fault I'm reactivating. It's not her fault she can barely speak English. It's not her fault she works for a company that treats their customers like thieves.
But she heard about it.
She was nice, heard me out, but we had to go through the whole process. I told her it will be a couple of years until Longhorn is released. I will change plenty of hardware and update plenty of drivers until that happens. And I'm going to have to call every time to be allowed the privilege of using their OS that I paid for.
Since it's been a couple of years or so since Xp's release I wonder how many of you have used up your five lives? If you build systems, play around adding hardware, reinstall a couple of time, it's easy to use up your activations. I guess my point is writing to M$ is like pissing in the wind. So, I'll do non-violent protest every time I go through this. I'll get a real person, take as long as possible to work through the process, and hopefully if enough people do this it will start to cost major dollars since there must be there must be thousands who are hitting this "milestone."
Have a nice day and think twice about that new nVidia driver...