(这条文章已经被阅读了 0 次) 时间：2001-10-26 13:12:50 来源：苍白女孩 (苍白女孩) 原创-IT
My travails with Office XP: Finally, the end of my tale
David Coursey,
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
You may remember back in June, during my flight to PC Expo in New York City, my copy of Microsoft Office XP suddenly stopped working. As you might imagine, this did not make me happy.
Specifically, Office XP’s activation wizard, one of the newer and certainly more notable features of Microsoft’s latest productivity suite, decided I was trying to pirate the software (or something), because it locked me out. That’s not such a big deal–frustrating as it may be–if you have the original software disc at hand. Put the disc into the CD drive, the software finds it–and reactivates automatically.
Of course, I was streaking through the stratosphere at the time–and didn’t have the original disk handy.
WORSE, I was at the outset of a transcontinental trip. For our coverage at PC Expo, I needed my laptop. I especially needed Microsoft Word to help me compose my reports from the Big Apple. But I was locked-out.
Still worse, I was using a corporate distribution disc, so my copy of Office wasn’t supposed to have to be activated in the first place!
I detailed this sad tale in a column, making the point that there shouldn’t be code in a program that can turn it off, unless that code is absolutely bullet-proof. And what code is? Anything Microsoft gains by stopping people like me from committing “casual copying” isn’t worth what we lose when Office just stops dead in its tracks, as my own experience so well illustrated. I still believe this.
Of course, Microsoft was interested in my problem, which they were at a loss to explain. (Microsoft is generally interested in all my problems, thanks to the soapbox this column provides.)
SO MICROSOFT WROTE a little application to grab some information from my computer, which they promised would help them figure out what happened.
They sent the app to me about two weeks after PC Expo. I lost it once, and then didn’t run it until a few weeks ago. This was not Microsoft’s fault. I didn’t need to use the machine, and fixing the software didn’t exactly top my to-do list. It was, however, on the minds of several of you out there in the AnchorDesk community, who pummeled me with charges I was “covering up” for Microsoft.
So I ran the utility. Here I present the log file that I sent to Microsoft for analysis:
— Begin OPATool Session
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Status: Docked
MsiProvideQualifiedComponentEx status (1603)
Missing Dpc “C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice101033ID_028.DPC”
C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeVisio101033ID_050.DPC
[b6003de901eb9983]:1
MsiEnumComponentQualifiers status (259)
Tolerance axes [32217475,-704627711]
— End OPATool Session
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AFTER RUNNING the utility, I gave Office what it wanted–access to the original CD. It reactivated itself and has worked fine since.
On Monday, however, I received an e-mail message from Aidan Hughes, my contact on this issue at Microsoft. It reads, in part:
“Thank you for taking the time to run the tool and send us the results. I’ve completed my analysis of the information contained in the file and found that your problem was caused by a known BIOS issue with hibernation. A fix for this issue is now available from http://officeupdate.microsoft.com, and this same fix will be rolled out with a forthcoming service pack to ensure that users of Office XP have a hassle-free experience.”
AS FOR THE CONTENTS of the log file, Aidan said, “it contains both the hardware data sent to Microsoft during product activation and some additional information about how your hardware configuration has changed over time.” He assured me Microsoft could do this without revealing details of your hardware configuration or any other personally identifiable information.
So there you have it: My problems with Office activation have ended. Microsoft has a bug report and a bug fix. The point that activation can be an unprovoked pain has been illustrated.
Has anything changed? Not really, except for one thing:
Now, I never take my computer anywhere without a Microsoft Office disk, just in case. And neither should you.
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serialportx
Member
Posts: 273
From: bmore, md, usa
Registered: Sep 2001
posted 10-10-2001 07:26 AM
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I just realized they’ve also been doing this with other products for a few years. The client licenses for some of their server products come on floppy disks and can only be used once. If you have to reload the server you have to call MS to get an unlock code, and here’s the REAL kicker, you also have to give them a credit card # and they charge you for the license and will only credit you after 30 days!
Obviously this only happened to me once, afterward I made floppy images before I installed the client licenses. Much to MS’s dismay I also discovered there’s nothing unique about those individual disks and you can install the same disk over and over using the image method!
I am hoping (cross my fingers) around service pack two they’ll discover that they’re losing money on this asinine copyright scheme and strip the code out of there.
My future morning routine running XP (detailed in the XP thread):
Go to work.
Grab some coffee.
Sit at my desk.
Ghost XP to my other machine.
Hit #1 on speed dial for MS’s product unlock dept.
“Microsoft Unlock, this is Carl, how may I help you?”
“Yeah, this is serial, I’ve just changed some hardware and I need to unlock XP.”
“Dude! You again? Man you’re killing our third quarter earnings!”
“Yes…..yes I am……”
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keithroby
Member
Posts: 2430
From: baltimore md
Registered: Apr 2000
posted 10-12-2001 12:53 PM
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ever heard of the program ‘oscar’???
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serialportx
Member
Posts: 273
From: bmore, md, usa
Registered: Sep 2001
posted 10-12-2001 01:31 PM
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No, is that a kids game?
I’ve never heard of SERIALS 2000 either.
just kidding
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boutwell
New Member
Posts: 30
From: Tulsa, OK
Registered: Sep 2001
posted 10-12-2001 02:32 PM
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*snickers softly*
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SquireSCA
Member
Posts: 355
From: GA
Registered: Aug 2001
posted 10-12-2001 03:48 PM
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Oscar is your special friend. Had not used him in awhile though, not sure if Phrozen Crew has updated it recently… Have not checked since Astlavista went members-only…
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ravenfan1
Member
Posts: 1869
From: PA
Registered:
posted 10-12-2001 07:12 PM
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Oscar? Oh yeah… He’s that little green dude in the trash can…
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serialportx
Member
Posts: 273
From: bmore, md, usa
Registered: Sep 2001
posted 10-12-2001 09:09 PM
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No, I think he and that guy Meyer have some kind of weenie business going on.
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SquireSCA
Member
Posts: 355
From: GA
Registered: Aug 2001
posted 10-14-2001 01:10 AM
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–>”No, I think he and that guy Meyer have some kind of weenie business going on.”
Hey! This is a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” type of family forum… ;-)
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SquireSCA
Member
Posts: 355
From: GA
Registered: Aug 2001
posted 10-23-2001 12:45 AM
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I have a corp version of WinXP that has no activation code in it. I like it alot so far…
I heard that they are gonna ease up the activation code thing, that there will be more ability to upgrade your machine periodically without it locking down on you, if so, I will purchase a retail copy…
I will probably still use the corp version, as the home version does not support dual processors, and I will soon be going to dual AMD Athlon XP 1800+ chips soon, with a GB of PC2400 DDR RAM…
Gonna be sweet!
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ravenfan1
Member
Posts: 1869
From: PA
Registered:
posted 10-23-2001 09:15 PM
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Glad to hear that you approve of XP, Squire LOL! Seriously though, I’m loving life with W2k Pro. It really is rock solid and fast. It’s so stable, it’ll make Mac guys green with envy. I appreciate your advice on getting it
And my “free” XP Pro upgrade is ordered and I’m looking forward to it as well(two stinkin’ days and counting).
Hmmm. That makes my MS-OS collection: MS-DOS (ha!), 3.11, 98, Me, 2000 Pro, and XP Pro. I’m a sucker for new OS’s
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ravenfan1
Member
Posts: 1869
From: PA
Registered:
posted 10-23-2001 09:27 PM
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Squire- I just thought of something. Have you ever done the SETI thing where you process data to help study space and search for ET life? Man… with that ‘puter your building, you could set records for speed and raw data processed. Yikes!! They might have to shut down the whole program.
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serialportx
Member
Posts: 273
From: bmore, md, usa
Registered: Sep 2001
posted 10-23-2001 10:46 PM
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No doubt! You gonna’ set that thing to work on the answer to “life, the universe and everything”?
….and don’t tell me it’s 43.