Quote:
Originally Posted by pl001
Not quite true. If you have to re-install Windows 7 or 8 you need to activate it.
From Microsoft's FAQ:
|
And from my own posts: I've resolved that by keeping an activated image on an external hard drive. Once in a while, that image gets updated. When I'd need to re-install, I'll just put that image onto the computer and it's activated already.
Microsoft should have been prohibited to employ this activation crap. Since they started it, basically every big software manufacturer does it, some even requiring a permanent internet connection or reactivation every X number of days.
The latter is what the "official" chess engine in my chess program requires. You need to put the original CD/DVD into the drive, and connect to the internet to reactivate the engine. I resolved that by removing the chess engine and replacing it with the open source Stockfish engine.
In the newer versions, the manufacturer has expanded this crap policy from engine-only throughout the entire program (basically, the user interface); now the program not only needs activation and reactivation, it also requires an account and to be logged in to the manufacturer's servers to receive updates.
Therefore I will never update this program ever again. I'd rather run it in a Virtual Machine, using my permanently activated Windows XP VLK license, or switch to something like the Arena GUI.
This company, and many others such as game publishers, have lost me as a customer by employing such crap schemes that make software dependent on their whims.
IMHO, to get back on topic, a Chromebook is the epic culmination of this dependence, and therefore I'll never ever buy one.