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Vista Family Discount Keys Found Not Compatible
acousticiris writes "Many (if not all) users who took advantage of Microsoft's Vista Family Discount have been issued invalid installation keys and cannot install Windows Vista Home Premium. Microsoft says, 'There is no expected time period for a fix at this time.' According to the article, the keys are valid for something, just not Windows Vista. Perhaps it's just too simple to issue these folks new keys and send them on their way."
This was in beta and development for HOW long before it spawned a whirlwind of chaos on release? Looks like the MS priority of "Avoiding bad publicity" isn't working out for them.
I have to ask myself what sort of people would subject themselves to this sort of abuse. It has just been getting worse since the days of Windows 95. Every new release of Windows comes with some new anti-piracy hassle, and every time it seems to cause major problems.
I'd image such people at least somewhat competent when using a computer. Many non-technical computer users don't even know what Vista is, let alone that it has been released, and thus wouldn't be updating their systems so quickly. I'd expect such people would also be aware of how this sort of bullshit gets worse and worse with each release of Windows. Why do they accept being treated like criminals? Why do they accept being treated like nothing more than shit?
for not installing something as critical as an OS as soon as it comes out.
Your really have to be stupid to do that.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
thats sorta depressing. If I pay for something, and it requires a key to activate it, and you fail to give me that key, you're ripping me off.
Known issue or not, get them working keys!
Not when the intall of said products isn't reversable.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
When the aircraft designer puts the flap lever right next to the gear lever and makes them look and feel exactly the same, who is to blame when the pilot accidentally retracts the gear while on the ground after landing?
When you build something as incredibly convoluted and confusing as the fourteen different versions of Vista, you must accept at least partial blame when people get them mixed up. Most of these people probably don't even know what Windows Vista Ultimate is or whether they have it. Sure, this is partly their fault, but mostly MS's fault for building a confusing system and making strange requirements based on it.
"They offered to refund people's money. Is that not an acceptable response for a product that doesn't work?
That depends. How far into the installation are these users before they discovered this? Is the former OS no longer bootable? IF that is the case a simple refund does nothing for the customer that was just left high and dry. As I recall, "upgrade" versions of Vista invalidate the key used for previously installed version of Windows (thus making a reinstall a moot point).
Seriously. Vista seems to be shaping up as the gift that keeps on giving, if you're in the market for schadenfreude. My guess is that they're actually keys for "Club Clippy," a special secret online video vault full of Ballmer-Goes-Wild scat porn. Ooogaooga!
Sent from the iPad I found in your car.
Thankfully for those of us with several Macs, Apple doesn't require activation or serialization of the Mac OS X family pack.
Just sayin'.
I'm not saying Microsoft hasn't screwed up here, but the author of this little 'blurb' put a very anti-microsoft spin on it. The representative they spoke to had said Microsoft was taking care of the issue and offered the only possible solution that could be offered - refund or waiting for a new key.
This wouldn't be unacceptable if you had a problem _installing_ vista and the sales guy at the store said, "I don't know why you're having a problem, we'll have to have a technical rep. get back to you". It just sounds horrible because it's something simple like a 'product key'. Well guess what - not everybody can make those.
They are probably under the tightest lock & key system microsoft has because you _don't_ want anybody, even most of your own employees, to be able to create valid keys.
I think the article's overzealous hatred of microsoft is apparent when the author says, " If Microsoft does not have this issue fixed very soon, they are going to have a lot of unhappy customers ". I'm sorry but I think Microsoft actually knows that, and so do I.
Don't insult our intelligence.
That whole anti-ms rant was written based on 1 phone call to a rep that sounded, surprise! reasonable.
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surprise!
Ace
People buy a mac for the operating system more than the hardware.
and the OS works so well because it is tailor made for a know set of hardware. They could lose their wonderful reputation if people started trying to stick it on unknown boxes.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
They do, however, require that your hardware have a shiny Apple logo on the outside, so let's not get too excited.
This site is supposed to be about news and technical scoops not about personal opinion or flame wars
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I can understand making a mistake in key generation. Mistakes happen. But what makes me wary is the Vista enhanced authentication/validation process. We know Vista is designed to validate that key not just when it's installed but periodically thereafter. Microsoft knows they need to make a good impression right at product launch, and they still manage to stuff up the keys so they won't validate. My thought is this: if they can blow it now, what about 6 months or a year down the road when it isn't so blatantly critical for them to look good? Are they going to upgrade a server somewhere, blow it again and suddenly my key isn't on the valid list anymore? What confidence does this incident give me that this won't in fact happen?
Stop the nonsense.
'Hacker' always involved mischief. Show me a "hacker" who never did anything "blackhat", and I'll show you a bad hacker. As far as I'm concerned, crackers are things you eat with some cottage cheese.
Before I go - there is one more thing I want to get off my chest here. One might hope and pray that it will be stopped by anti-trust laws before it goes too far, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Why did the courts not press for a breakup of Microsoft? I think they were leaned on by the US government - for a reason I have not seen articulated before. The fact is that Microsoft is a US corporation, one of America's finest. It brings in big bucks to the good ol' US of A. So from a local perspective, among fellow Americans, Microsoft's monopolistic practices are scandalous, but if an American - especially a Congressman - looks at it from a nationalistic perspective, it's good for America. In fact, the worse it becomes (the monopolistic practices) the better it is for USA. Bill Gates' age old dream of world domination happens to coincide with America's dream of world domination. That's why we can't count on the US courts to put a stop to this.
I think you hit the nail on the head. But you need to look beyond Microsoft. The U.S. Government is -- or fancies itself, anyway -- much bigger than even the largest corporations. They're going to protect Microsoft, because they see MS as a modern U.S. Steel or General Motors; it's a huge part of the national industry.
Moreover, DRM in general is going to be pushed heavily by the USG, for the "national interest." Even though it will punish consumers here, it's a way of protecting one of the only things that the U.S. exports anymore: "intellectual property." We don't make stuff anymore; we "manufacture" IP. DRM is a way, in the minds of some folks in DC, of protecting that whole category of exports, and maintaining our dominance in one area, at least. Without DRM, the whole idea of commoditizing and selling "IP" on a retail-like market doesn't work; if you can't tie down information to physical artifacts, or make it behave conservatively (even though information is naturally nonconservative), then it's devilishly hard to sell multiple times. And if you can't take one Hollywood blockbuster and sell it 100 million times over, like it's some sort of aspirin tablet that you're turning out, how do you keep the economy going, when nobody wants to buy anything else we make here anymore?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
"There is no expected time period for a fix at this time."
:)
I guess that would depend on the speed of your connection and the quality of your usenet provider.
For instance, on my rather slow connection I could have the 32- and 64-bit combo RTM DVD in about 6 hours if I actually wanted it, and about another 20-30 seconds for the Vista final activation crack.
So really, MS doesn't have to worry about a thing. The market will fix itself.
Microsoft does not offer refunds for purchases made through their web site and they are sticking to that policy, leaving users like me who already paid them hundreds of dollars with no recourse and unable to affect the remedy to this horrible situation.
Does the US really have no laws protecting consumers from this sort of crap? You were sold a product that is defective, and the supplier has no acceptable substitute to replace it with. If you paid with a credit card, the credit card company should at least come down on them even if the law won't.
So Microsoft can't even distribute their own keys properly, and they go about telling evryone that WGA can be trusted and is accurate detecting pirate copies. yeah right...