Trouble With MS Genuine Office Validation

Julie188 writes "Here's another little gotcha with Microsoft license validation, discovered by security and PowerShell expert Tyson Kopczynski. The Microsoft Office 2007 add-on site refuses to download legitimate add-ons for Office 2007 when a legitimate — but not yet activated — additional Microsoft product is installed on the computer. In Kopczynski's case, the product was Visio. He writes: 'Let's back this license train up and look at why this picture is wrong: 1. I have a valid copy of Office 2007. 2. The Visio installation only failed the validation because I haven't activated it. 3. Microsoft has presented me with a page to buy Office, which I have a valid copy of... Dear Microsoft, When used incorrectly and in direct conflict of something that you are promoting, DRM sucks! By making the usage of your software a hassle, you risk further pushing more users of your applications to other solutions."

Comments

Technically -- Visio is an Office "component"

[the_skywise]

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/visio/default.aspx

I'm not defending activation here, far from it-

But Visio probably updates through the Office 2007 manager rather than stand alone and that's the reason Office 2007 won't update in general.

Which leads to some proper questions:

If Visio requires separate activation than shouldn't it require a separate update path?

If not, then shouldn't the updater be smart enough to update only the activated components?

And overall, what does this say about the concept of SEPARATE products requiring SEPARATE activation but morphing into a SINGULAR app. Does this not, in fact, affect my future upgradeability? (Oh sorry, you integrated Visio in 2007, for Office 2010 your only upgrade path is Office 2010 Ultimate)