I have an idea for Windows future Activation

It would be better if MS allowed us a certain limit of activations and deactivation's per product key before MS required a phone call. It would allow for drastic hardware changes such as upgrades that the Windows Activation Server could keep track of the changes before the product will no longer activate.

I bought a flight sim DCS: Black Shark that does just this, it allows for a certain number of activations (8) and deactivation's (10) before you have to call in for another product key. The system works really well.

Anyway just a thought

 

Depends on the license. OEM licenses are fixed to the hardware. If it's a drastic hardware change, especially to the mobo/cpu, the license *technically* isn't good anymore. If you're installing back to the same machine, I've never really hit a limit unless you're doing it really frequently. More often than not, if you're installing on an OEM machine with an OEM mobo (as is the case with notebooks), the SLIC read minimizes the activation nonsense and you'll never really hit a activation problem. I've been able to reinstall copies of XP Home and Pro, Corp, OEM, and Single User licenses multiple times each, sometimes between machines (thereby changing hardware) without ever having to call in to MS. Haven't had that issue yet with Win7, but I imagine it's not going to be a big problem for 7 either.

Personally, I'd actually rather have the activation tied to hardware than number of times used. Substantial hardware changes don't occur all that often with notebooks, but reformatting can, depending on the user. If I was limited to 8 or even 10 activations, I probably couldn't last 4 years between wipes, dualboot/linux experimentation, and hard drive upgrades.

 

"I have an idea for Windows future Activation" <- Microsoft Fingerprint Reader

 

I would rather be able to revoke activations so I can use them again on a new setup/upgrade, so I'd agree. Although this would defeat the purpose of OEM licensing, I suppose.....

 

How about Microsoft, and everyone, just stop using product activation all together? Much less troublesome for the honest paying customers. (note to self: will never happen I know).

 

Sweet