Ed Bott’s Microsoft Challenge–2/22/01

By now you’ve probably heard that Microsoft plans to roll out a controversial “product activation” scheme with Windows XP. In the final version of the new operating system, end users will have 30 days to contact Microsoft–over the Internet, by phone, or by snail mail–to get an activation code that allows them to continue using the product. The activation process stores details about the user’s hardware configuration, to prevent installing a second copy on a second machine. Have you read aboutthis scheme? What do you think of it? Most importantly, will it affect your plans to buy and deploy Windows XP?