Microsoft Activation Burning Its Customers
There’s been a lot of buzz regarding Microsoft’s stepped up Windows Activation scheme. An Infoworld article noted headaches some customers have been experiencing around the activation. This includes Dell customers who had issues, contacted Microsoft, who told them to contact Dell, who foisted them back on Microsoft, with no real resolution. There’s nothing more frustrating than having your office network shut down, especially when you’re a legitimate corporate customer. I had previously thought that there was no way Microsoft would tinker with burning their corporate customers, but apparently, I was wrong. This just seems like playing with fire — but then again, if you have a monopolistic hold on the business world, you can burn a few folks.Microsoft claims this problem is overblown, and that it affects a very small percentage. Did they ever consider that a small percentage of a large number of users is still a rather significant number? Or that any false positives might be considered unacceptable? Businesses rely on their computers, and shutting them down creates a huge burden, especially for the small business. (Although, large business would arguably have an even greater problem.) The reason I can’t quite accept their reasoning is that I’ve actually experienced the false positive problem.One of the users at my office noted that his machine was asking to be re-activated, which I found odd. I checked, and lo and behold, he was right. I ended up having to call Microsoft to work through the re-activation, which did not work. After putting in a bit of time trying to get things re-activated in this “proper” method, I ended up just re-ghosting the machine. Lost time trying to get the activation going, reghosting the machine, and user setup, all for something that has added no value. Thanks, Microsoft.Now, of course, I have the joy of waiting in suspense for the machines to start having activation issues, one by one throughout the office. Isn’t it great being a Microsoft customer? That Linux stuff is looking better every day. At least there customers aren’t treated like criminals.
