Office 2007 to cripple itself if activation fails

dafloppyone

dafloppyone

dafloppyone

Associate
Joined
15 Jun 2006
Posts
2,178
Location
Amsterdam
Microsoft has made no secret of the fact that Windows Vista will have fairly draconian anti-piracy measures: if users fail to successfully activate the operating system within 30 days of installation, Vista will lock itself down in a "reduced functionality" mode where users will be able to use nothing but the web browser with an option to purchase a new product key. There is no start menu, no desktop icons, and the desktop background is changed to black. The Web browser will fully function and Internet connectivity will not be blocked. After one hour, the system will log the user out without warning. It will not shut down the machine, and the user can log back in.

Now, a ZDNet blogger has discovered that Microsoft also implemented a similar lock-down system in Office 2007. The new Office suite, which is scheduled to come out in January, will allow users to skip activation 25 times (each time an Office program is opened) before the reduced-functionality mode kicks in. In Office 2007's reduced-functionality mode, a Microsoft Knowledge Base article states, "2007 Office programs function more like viewers. In other words, you cannot save modifications to documents or create new documents. Additional functionality may be reduced."
 
:p Really all Microsoft can do is slow people down when it comes to things like this, its bound to happen with probably 99.9% of software. I wonder why they have never used things like security key fobs etc, im sure that would make life harder for a lot of people, but probably make things too complicated for inexperienced users :o
 
Wonder if they will ever beat Pirates :p

Already patches for Vista to be activated until June 2007 and by then another patch will be out, same will happen for Office 2007 and so forth.
 
toy_soldier said:
:p Really all Microsoft can do is slow people down when it comes to things like this, its bound to happen with probably 99.9% of software. I wonder why they have never used things like security key fobs etc, im sure that would make life harder for a lot of people, but probably make things too complicated for inexperienced users :o
Click to expand...
The reason they don't do something like that is because it's more hassle than it's worth for them, both in terms of effort and in terms of cost. Microsoft's goal isn't to eradicate piracy completely (they realise if there are people out there who want the software free, they'll figure out a way to do it) but to make it inconvenient for your casual pirate -- such as the person who buys a dodgy copy off the market, or borrows a copy from a friend.
 
Not surprising really... Software companies and pirates playing cat and mouse once again.

Bah, I've gone off MS office anyway. Bloated and clunky.

I prefer openoffice... Free, leightweight, and does everything I normally do in MS office. :)
 
Surely this is nothing new? If you don't activate Office 2003 then it goes into a viewer mode (you can't edit documents or save). And why is it a problem? Has anyone here seriously ever had a difficulty activating a legitimate copy of Office or Windows?
 
PinkPig said:
Surely this is nothing new? If you don't activate Office 2003 then it goes into a viewer mode (you can't edit documents or save). And why is it a problem? Has anyone here seriously ever had a difficulty activating a legitimate copy of Office or Windows?
Click to expand...
No it isn't. XP and 2003 both have the features meantioned in the article - well Office 2003 does, XP just locks you out entirely.

Office 2007 has already been beaten through VLK, and it won't be long before they fix Vista ;).
 
Those who use the copied version will no doubt be using the one supplied with a VLK anyway; thus that version does not need activating at all... :rolleyes:

I'll be buying Vista to be honest, the cat and mouse game is getting ridiculous :)
 
The companies will never win, as soon as they do something within a few days the patches/pirates are on top of it... it will never stop
 
Why would you need a new office anyway? I'm Still using office 2000, it does everything i want, whats new in newer offices, my school has 2003 and exept new icons and other version number under ''about'', i don't see any difference...
 
The versions that are floating around on the net (Office 2007 Enterprise) do not require activation, only a serial number.
 
Last edited:
snowdog said:
Why would you need a new office anyway? I'm Still using office 2000, it does everything i want, whats new in newer offices, my school has 2003 and exept new icons and other version number under ''about'', i don't see any difference...
Click to expand...

A lot of it wont seem different to the normal home user, but for office workers its a godsend
mailmerge is a lot better in 2003 if I remember correctly and the way it interacts with databases

I cant see a lot of different between Office 2003 and 2007 though apart from the new GUI (which is actually a lot more faster and it only takes a few minutes to get to grips with it), you can also save documents as a PDF file as well. It saves the document in some new format as well . xdoc xlsx whatever they mean, can someone explain it to me?

oh, and also the default font is a lot more nicer as well :)

There doesnt seem to be a great deal new with Outlook 2007, apart from the contact lists is a bit more snazzy (Outlook 2003 is a lot better than 2000 btw)

Publisher 2007 is just Publisher...... very basic, but gets the job done if you want to whip up a quick poster, I cant see Publisher lasting for much longer, I think it will be another Frontpage (which got canned)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom