RSSFree Vista promotions may not be free after all
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published January 26, 2009, 10:30 AM
It's hard to complain when someone offers you his top-of-the-line operating system for free. But it's hard not to complain when you're all ready to install it and you discover, surprise, it may not be free after all. That's the situation facing perhaps hundreds of recent recipients of Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, as gifts for attending the company's MSDN seminar tours.
To ensure that recipients register their copies and only use them once, Microsoft printed a promotional code inside the jacket, which is not the usual product key. By visiting the Web site www.registerwindowsvistasp1.com and entering the promotional code, recipients are given the full product key, and that way they will also be registered with Microsoft. Perhaps as part of a plan instituted months earlier, Microsoft set the Web site to discontinue operations after December 31, 2008.
As a result, folks who received their promotional copies just days earlier, or even since that time, have been unable to receive product keys. That doesn't mean they can't install Vista, however -- it merely installs as a promotional version that times out the system after 30 days of not being activated...and purchased.
One independent British developer, John Baker, has been driving Microsoft to re-institute the Web site. Three weeks ago, a Microsoft representative told him the company had indeed relented, and would be extending its promotional deadline until February. But as of last Saturday, he was informed Microsoft's own efforts at re-launching its own Web site had experienced "logistical delays."
The confusion has already compelled some developers, miffed by having realized they don't have valid product keys after already launching setup, to use a third-party brute-force cracking tool to extract one from the timed-out version.
hmm cracks to the rescue
Score: 0
|So it is indeed free...MS either just underestimated the deployment time or people put off using it since there was (we assume) no advertised expiration date.
Score: 1
|Exactly.
Apparently the title is just there to see if anyone actually reads the article (because we all know the BN writers would never knowingly put a LIE as the headline to generate more hits)...
Score: 0
|Heavens forbid that. [rollseyes]
Score: -1
|Considering you are a; "it's the libertopians(sic)/corporations/capitalists fault" broken record, I have to ask:
Who the hell cares what you think...about anything?
Go jump in a lake. In Minnesota. Today. [smiles]
Score: -1
|Brutal... that's metal! ;-)
Score: 0
|lol pc_tool
Score: 0
|I got a copy of Vista Ultimate, Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 pro and other Microsoft software for free via MSDN AA organized in our country :)
Score: 0
|MSDN isn't free. There is no "free" in publicly traded companies. Someone, somewhere, is paying for something else to make your product free.
Score: 0
|Free to the user, as in; no additional charges for the product. In other words, included in the price of the subscription to MSDN/technet.
Please don't get started on the meaning of the word, 'Free".
Poor foxfyre will have himself an aneurysm. (as witnessed in an earlier comic interlude with the user "madmartigan")
Score: 0
|I must have missed that one. Care to explain?
No, that would take too long...
Care to sum up? *smiles*
EDIT: Never mind. "Free" Broadband. Apparently that member-measuring contest was Google-worthy.
No dust shall gather on HIS thesaurus! ;-)
Score: 0
|lmao..
I seriously considered pasting that one to my blog...just for my own future amusement.
Nice Princess Bride reference, btw. ;) One of my all-time fave movies. (I don't know what's scarier, that I like the movie that much, or that I'm actually willing to admit it...)
Score: 0
|Indeed, a fantastic movie. Nothing wrong with admitting that.
I knew I should have picked a more obscure quote... that one was too easy for you (even though I butchered it).
Score: 0
|I have 5 copies of the movie versions of Princess Bride and 2 copies of the book (as well as the Buttercup version). No shame in liking it. The first movie I ever got on DVD and perhaps my all-time favorite, even though I'm more of a sci-fi person.
Score: 0
|Guys read carefully, I said MSDN AA (academic alliance). It's been organized in many Asian countries by Microsoft for students. Unlike DreamSpark, via MSDN AA I have access to almost all the Microsoft software for free excluding office 2007 suite for FREE :)
Score: 0
|Heh... 2 on VHS (one severely worn out but refuse to throw it away), one Laserdisc, and just one special edition DVD.
The only movie I have more copies of in different formats is Dune (favorite movie, right above Serenity).
Well, back to another episode of The IT Crowd. =D
Score: 0
|So what part of this is NOT FREE?
Score: 0
|The OS.
EDIT: ;) (in memory of PC_Tool)
Score: -3
|You got *that* from the article?
Try reading it next time...
Hint: The headline is complete BS. (Thanks, Scott, I'd hate to think our criticism of the flamebait or flat-out false headlines would make you stop doing it or anything...)
Score: 0
|MS doesn't sell you the Vista DVD, they sell you the product key. They've been doing this for Windows since the beginning (or at least 3.1), but its further reinforced in Vista by the fact that all Vista DVDs are able to install ANY Vista edition... IE that Home Premium copy you bought can easily install Ultimate... but the product key is what determines which edition is installed. The Vista DVD is the same with every edition shipped, all that's different with each edition is the packaging and the edition the key installs from the DVD.
Score: 0
|"By visiting the Web site www.registerwindowsvistasp1.com and entering the promotional code, recipients are given the full product key"
Sell? Nuh-uh. Give.
Score: 0
|"Microsoft set the Web site to discontinue operations after December 31, 2008."
Was free... not anymore though, as the product keys are no longer being "given".
It may not be free after all. ;-)
Score: 0
|"a Microsoft representative told him the company had indeed relented, and would be extending its promotional deadline until February"
RTFA, man....RTFA. :D
Score: 0
|I did.
"But as of last Saturday, he was informed Microsoft's own efforts at re-launching its own Web site had experienced 'logistical delays'."
So, until it's officially re-launched and giving out "free" keys again... (we're going to end up reprinting the entire article at this rate) ;-)
I'm guessing "logistical delays" means "we really don't want to do it, and hope that everyone will forget about it eventually".
Score: 0
|Bah. You think they did this intentionally.
They'll get it back up.
Besides, who wants Vista anymore anyway. ;)
Score: 0
|Tsk tsk. You should have some idea of my sense of humor by now. :)
Score: 0
|Bah.
You don't post enough,a nd there are more trolls than I can count. :p
Notify your sarcasm with a ";)" Gawd...everyone knows that... ;)
Score: 0
|"Besides, who wants Vista anymore anyway. ;)"
Right there with you on that one, bud. I've been equally impressed as you with Windows 7 Beta. Primary OS on 2 different PCs at home, and not a single issue. Though I wasn't expecting to be, I've even been scanning a bunch of old pictures and 35mm slides as a gift for my dad on x64 with a fairly old CanoScan scanner. Not a single hitch so far with anything I've tried yet. I've never been this pleased with a beta release from Microsoft.
Score: 0
|No issues?
Wow.
I am having trouble with suspend/hibernate on both of the laptops. Apparently it isn't re-initializing the GPU, so...blank screen. Set it to not suspend or hibernate, set it to "do nothing" when I close the lid...still blank screen when opening it back up.
That's really the only *major* issue I've seen and reported so far to get your explorer window to open with a different default location than libraries, but the problem with that one is that it's a static window. Clicking on any other location opens it in a new window. Not a major issue, just a minor annoyance (of my own doing).
Still...Beta. We'll see.
Score: 0
|So MSFT will extend the date and the problem will be solved.
"The confusion has already compelled some developers, miffed by having realized they don't have valid product keys after already launching setup, to use a third-party brute-force cracking tool to extract one from the timed-out version."
Lord knows, waiting a few days is simply too much to ask, eh?
/plays worlds smallest violin
Meh... Vista bashing is so old-school. They should just wait for Win7 anyway. (Oh, wait, they don't have to wait... they can still snag legitimate (no hacks needed) copies!)
Score: 2
|Speaking of "old school". You can't stop w.h.o.r.i.n.g. yourself to anything corporate. [smiles]
As to your ""reply" to this. STFU.
Score: -3
|"to use a third-party brute-force cracking tool to extract one from the timed-out version"
Whatnow? Extract one what?
Score: 0
|*LAUGHING MY a** OFF*
Take thine own advice, troll-boy.
Or better yet, get a clue. (as if such a thing were even possible)
Score: 0
|"Whatnow? Extract one what?"
Let me repost the relevant bits:
"miffed by having realized they don't have valid product keys after already launching setup, to use a third-party brute-force cracking tool to extract one"
Score: 0
|FREE (as in totally free, even for commercial use(rs) SOLUTIONS to "extract what from what":
a. @ PC_Crap: Extract your zits and get a life. Oh, wait, the (w)hole you is nothing but a big and ugly ZIT...
b. @ BetaNews: Extract the PC_Crap zit from this forum's face. It's one of the few things you still have to do after the site's facelift. I'm getting really, really tired of his retarted not-even-original ideas and his "contribution" to the forum. I never ever saw someone so commited to written imbecility.
Score: -3
|Awww....I've got a new puppy dog. How cute.
When your done wiping the drool from the floor at your feet, get a clue.
If you are going to complain about someone's posting habits, it might help to not come across as a mentally challenged 4 year-old. :)
Score: 1
|