More Reasons Why Windows Suck(s)


by dialupinternetuser Jul 28, 2007 fileunderFound in Software


This is a continuation of the article Why Windows Suck(s). I felt it was necessary to update this with some experiences I have had in the past week.

My mom recently acquired a laptop, which my Dad managed to get from his work. The laptop, although it was somewhat new and did have a 1.2 gigahertz processor, was running Windows 2000 Professional. The laptop that I have, and used to be my Mom's, was also running Windows 2000.

My Dad decided to get an upgrade to Windows XP for my Mom, and purchased it for about $85 from the MSU Computer Store, which was a relatively good deal (It is Windows after all). I installed the upgrade onto my Mom's computer for her, and then I discovered something known as Windows Product Activation.

Windows Activation is Microsoft's way of "preventing piracy." In other words, I send Microsoft my Product Key. They then check it against a  database of product keys and see if there has been a Windows activated under that product key. If you are the first one, you get to keep Windows. If not, you have 30 days until Windows stops working to get another Product Key.

This was not throughly explained in the activation process. I just thought that you sent Microsoft your key. I then installed XP onto my laptop, after activating my Mother's. And then when I attempted to activate my own copy, Microsoft informed me that the product key had reached it's maximum number of activations. I couldn't use my copy of Windows on more than one machine.

So then after looking at Microsoft's website, and learning I could get another Product Key for about $200, which was more than the XP Upgrade cost, I set out to find a way to get Windows activated. I did not want to install some copy of Windows on to my machine again. After about two days of searching the internet, I managed to find a crack that tricked Windows into thinking it was activated.

Why is this acceptable? Why should I be only able to install the software on one machine? If I buy a game for an Xbox, I could put it in my friends and it would still play. I could buy a can of corn at the store and other people can eat it. I can buy a book, and someone else could read it. Libraries aren't illegal. Why should putting Windows on twice be illegal?

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4 comments

1.  avatar GT-D  Jul 30, 2007 2:08pm

The XBox game/pc software comparison is a bad one. Obviously unless you have a fancy modded xbox you have to have the disc to play the game. It's pretty uncommon for any piece of commercial software to allow you to install it on however many machines you like all willy-nilly, so it's unreasonable to have an expectation of being able to install it on more then one computer, especially when we're talking about Microsoft (you really didn't expect that to happen?). I agree theres plently of things wrong with Windows, and if I didn't have to have it to play some videogames, I'd still be running linux (going to format the 1st PC and make it a linux server actually soon, now that we have 3). If you had downloaded and installed a cracked enterprise version in the 1st place you wouldn't have to worry about activating anyway. To some extent Microsoft doesn't care if you install it on a couple computers at home, cracking the others. Their main interest is making sure that big businesses and corporations actually shell out the cash for 100,000 copies instead of one or none. Think about it in terms of how much does having an OS on that many computers increase the profitability of a business? A heck of a lot, having windows, and office on those computers is pretty damn important, and the productivity carried out through the use of them makes the cost of that one license a drop in the bucket. Same sort of thing goes for photoshop, Adobe doesn't really care if you crack it and play around with it at home. They do care if you start a photo editing business though. Obviously businesses could use linux, but sadly the state of affairs is such that you have to retrain huge numbers of people who already know how to use windows, which is certainly a shame. As for servers, you generally want to buy an officially supported retail version like redhat or something else, otherwise you pick up the cost by having to hire people to constantly maintain your system (more so because its not officially supported, and is just a regular free distro). Don't mean to seem like im trying to rip on you, just that for all the reasons to rip on windows this is hardly the best, or in anyway uniquely applicable to windows. (ever tried cracking many apps that are specifically targeted at businesses? like several thousand dollar 3D graphics programs or data analysis things? Some of them pretty much can't be cracked, others come with unique hardware you have to have in your PC to run them.)
2.  avatar Omar  Jul 30, 2007 3:07pm

I agree with both of you guys. Microsoft wants to get paid, but at the same time WPA is a major pain in the arse. Often times copy protection technology such as WPA and StarForce end up hurting legit paying customers more than illegal ones since the pirates strip all that garbage anyway. Microsoft really should go with an Apple way of doing things with their OS and offer two versions: one for the home that can be installed on "linked" computers, and an enterprise version. I mean 6 different Vistas? that's just STUPID.
3.  avatar dialupinternetuser  Jul 31, 2007 1:45pm

Have you seen this video? It shows the differences between Apple and Microsoft very well.
4.  avatar mikeywebb  Dec 30, 2007 1:03pm

I have the same problem. So how did you get it activated?
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