From: Bob Callaway (callaway@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 08 2002 - 16:34:44 PDT
Here is my understanding of the Microsoft product activation issues
raised by Marilyn Saarni on MAGnet. I am copying other lists as
these issues affect many people.
1. For some of its retail (shrinkwrapped) products, Microsoft is
using an anti-piracy technology known as Product Activation. Here is
a FAQ on this technology:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/piracy/productactivationfaq.asp
2. Product Activation is NOT required for licenses purchased through
Microsoft's volume licensing programs, Select and Open. For these
types of licenses, the Product Activation requirement is overridden
by the use of another anti-piracy method: Volume License Product
Keys. Here is a FAQ on this:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/piracy/volumelicensingfaq.asp
3. There is a tendency to use the word "activation" for both types
of access, which is confusing.
4. CDs from the retail (shrinkwrapped) products cannot be used with
the Volume License Product Keys. Use of these keys requires you to
order the Select or Open media. I believe this type of media,
ordered through the reseller of Select or Open licenses, is known in
Microsoft parlance as Worldwide Fulfillment (WWF) CD media.
5. For orders of Select licenses, UC's designated reseller, TRC, is
supposed to provide the appropriate Volume License Product Keys.
Starting several months ago, the necessary keys were supposed to be
provided via email as part of the Microsoft Select order
acknowledgement from TRC. If this is not happening, please let me
know.
Let me know if you have questions about any of the above points.
Side note to Marilyn: please let me know privately who you were
dealing with at TRC. I am trying to track the quality of their
customer support.
Thanks.
At 1:58 PM -0700 8/8/02, Marilyn Saarni wrote:
>So I've been pulling my hair out...I've been a good girl and
>purchased my licenses/SA for MS Office for my group and am now in
>the process of upgrading all my folks to MS Office v. X --
>
>TRC kept insisting that I can install this dratted beast without a
>key code. Using media from shrink-box (after all, the academic
>licensing for MS was still being worked out when Office v.X came
>out), this is IMPOSSIBLE! And two users on the same router cannot
>use an Office v. X running with the same product key.
>
>Mystery solved (after 2 hours of back and forth phone calls): Turns
>you that you MUST buy license-specific CD installers to go with your
>licenses. The special CD comes with (!surprise!) its own product
>key which will allow for multiple users. Your licenses are useless
>without it.
>
>TRC didn't know this; this was resolved only by ramping up within
>Microsoft's Customer Support phone lines. It seems that it was
>misrepresented to TRC reps by the Microsoft people, as far as we can
>tell. I've asked TRC to immediately change their website to add this
>info, as well as their auto-reply when selling licenses to say that
>you must use the special license media to install MS Office v.X.
>
>So those of you who also were pulling your hair out--you can relax,
>spend the bucks, and strip all of your past installations off (don't
>forget the Microsoft Preferences inside the User's Library folder),
>and reinstall all over again. (And if someone knows an easier way to
>do it, please TELL me!)
>
>And I hope this email will help others from a bad-hair day.
>
>- Marilyn
>
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-- ______________________________________Bob Callaway
Information Systems and Technology University of California, Berkeley Voice: (510) 643-8262 Email: callaway@socrates.berkeley.edu _______________________________________
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