Tech Without Wires

Microsoft is getting really heavy handed these days. This week Microsoft sent emails to a Windows Vista distributor indicating that Microsoft has now turned on worldwide a system that identifies pirated codes, or pirated Vista installations and reduces the computer to working in "reduced functionality" mode.

Now that might be a good thing to locate and reduce a pirated copy to being able to do nothing, but what happened to me is the reason why I will not use Windows Vista again.

Three months ago I bought a new Hewlett Packard desktop computer complete with Windows Vista Home Basic already installed. A week ago, my computer stopped working except for allowing me to use a browser to go to a Microsoft site where I was told I could buy a genuine Microsoft product key for my installation.

Having already paid for the software in my hardware purchase I was hardly going to buy another key. So I called Microsoft and their response was initially that I needed to buy a key. I told the service agent the story of where and when I purchased the computer.

An hour and twenty minutes later, eventually the microsoft help desk worked with me to get my computer going with a new code.

The problem was that my copy of Vista is genuine. AND Microsoft took nearly an hour and a half to get me going again. How many innocent people are going to get netted in this time wasting exercise? This broke into my productivity for one morning. How many more times is this going to happen?

It's OK to net the pirates, and I hold no grudge against Microsoft for trying to wipe out piracy, but I am totally against Microsoft wasting my time like that. They are going to have to do better than that. This is the last computer on which I will run Vista.

Pictures with thanks from maxasia.net.

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