> When users boot up the Office 2000 software for the first time on a
> machine, the registration wizard will require them to contact
> Microsoft -- via the Internet, email, phone, fax, or snail mail -- and
> get the second half of a registration key that matches their software
> certificate. If this registration process isn't completed, the
> software will stop working after it's been launched 50 times.
This particular "feature" has been trialled in Australia (and New
Zealand?) for the last several months.
Microsoft Australia suddenly ceased supplying Office 97 on 30 June 1999
- much to the annoyance of computer services people like myself - and
thereafter would supply _only_ Office 2000. The hardware requirements
for the latter make it an expensive "software update" for many of my
customers and a lot of them decided not to bother.
I've grown to despise this Office 2000 registration process. Doing it
via the Net is generally impossible, because the registration server is
located at Microsoft HQ and (surprise, surprise...) is frequently
offline. Doing it by phone involves the typical
we'll-put-you-on-hold-for-30-minutes Microsoft routine.
If I have to install lots of Office 2000s I try to get them all to the
point where they ask for the rego key, then I visit the toilet, then the
coffee maker, then make the phone call. However, doing this can cause
major disruption to my customer's usual business activity because all of
their computers are unavailable until I complete the installs. And of
course you can only phone Microsoft Australia during _their_ business
hours and I'm in a different timezone....
The actual registration key is requested near the end of the Office 2000
install; a process that can take anywhere from 40 minutes to 3 hours
depending on the speed of the CD-ROM being used. You _can_ skip the
rego and use Office 50 times - but this count of 50 includes all
attempts to use _any_ of the Office programs. Including those attempts
where the Office program crashes as soon as it tries to do some work!
However, the _really_ annoying aspect of this registration "feature" is
that it is extremely machine-specific. If I ever need to reinstall
Office 2000 for a customer (which has happened on several occasions
already) I need to use the _specific_ Office CD and rego key that were
used for the original install. This can be a significant timewaster if
it's a large customer with lots of CD's. Nowadays I write the
individual computer's "name" and rego key on each of the Office CDs to
save subsequent aggravation.
Any later changes to the hardware of a specific machine may also cause
their Office 2000 to think it's "unregistered" even when given the rego
key previously supplied. So far I've had this problem on machines
fitted with new hard drives, a different motherboard, when upgrading
from Win95 to Win98SE, and even when changing the registered username in
Win98. In my more paranoid moments I'm sure Microsoft are using the
Office 2000 rego only as an information-gathering tool.
Nowadays I'm encouraging my customers to consider Lotus Smartsuite or
StarOffice for their new computers. Not only are they cheaper and less
demanding of hardware, there's none of this Microsoft bullshit increasing
the tech support costs unnecessarily.
And I'm certain that an Office 2000 registration cracker/generator will
be widely available before June 2000 - if it isn't already....
cheers,
Fraser Farrell
http://www.dove.net.au/~fraserf/
To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message.
Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
More info can be found at;
http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
