Your Paperz, please!

[pop pop]

This may have been going on for quite a while, I don't know.

At the end of my last installation, there was an additional query along with the activation--validation. Better be sure you have that COA from now on. Uncle Bill wants to look under your hood, and in your closet, and sock drawer...

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1754864,00.asp

[jlreich]

Yeah, that has been going on for a while. It was frustrating me when it first started. I couldn't figure out why I could download the updates, but they would fail to install. Then I happened to see the validation thing, and everything was fine after that.

The interesting thing about the article, is it says it is not mandatory to validate yet. Even if you fail the validation process, you can get the updates through automatic updates. Well, it sure seemed to be mandatory to me, since I couldn't get the updates without it, and I have auto updates disabled. And it doesn't clearly state that you need to validate on the windows update site. I am sure it would be less frustrating for people trying to do routine updates , if they did.

[pop pop]

If you read any of my posts during that install, you saw that at first I didn't do the validation (the COA was on an old case and really inconvenient to get to). What happened was strange. The PC would connect to WindozeUpdate, start scanning for updates, and then just sit there--forever. Coincidence? Maybe.

According to reports, the validation thing will become mandatory sometime in the middle of this year. I understand M$'s concern with piracy. Like I've said before, Bill doesn't like it when someone tries to take the $ out of M$. Neither would I if I owned the business. I just think that with all the technological power, money, and brains at his disposal, he could come up with a simpler more convenient way--mre convenient for the customer, that is