Grrrr! Windows Genuine Dis-Advantage……
I own two licences of MS Windows XP. Yup, bought and paid for, twice.
I do web development, and also want to properly compensate the programmers who make some of the great programs I use. Even the people at MS. Regardless of how their Co. treat me.
Today, I was doing some web dev on my Virtual Machine when I ran out of memory. No problem you say, just exit the VM and increase the memory. Which is exactly what I did, when I relaunched the VM of Windows XP, I got the Windows Genuine Advantage Product Activation windows. Saying my computer changed so much, I had to re-activate.
No prob, you say. Just re-enter your key. I did, and it was not recognized. Calls to MS were equally dis-appointing. Their answer, your key should work, otherwise buy a legit copy of Windows XP. Grrrr!, It is a legit Copy!!!!
2 hours on the phone later, re-issued a new key. One un-happy customer.
Arnold
January 11th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I can relate, a little bit. I’ve never had to go so far as dealing with support about it, but the Genuine Product Activation stuff has annoyed me as well.
I could understand requiring it once at install (or first boot on pre-installed systems), if an internet connection is present, but from my observations they bring it up every time a Microsoft product is installed (even free ones, like Windows Media Player). That seems excessive to me.