[Am-info] January's XP Surprise: The Giant Paperweight

[Mitch Stone]

Langa Letter: January's XP Surprise: The Giant Paperweight

Fred Langa warns new Windows XP users of the consequences of failing to 
"activate" the operating system with Microsoft. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

By Fred Langa, InformationWeek
Jan 21, 2002 (12:00 AM)
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020117S0002

Bill Gates says that some 17 million copies of XP have shipped since the 
operating system was launched late in October. It's a safe bet that a 
high percentage of these sales and shipments were bunched at the very end 
of last year, and the very beginning of this one. Between end-of-year 
budget purchases, holiday promotions, and Christmas gifts of 
small-business PCs preloaded with Windows XP, millions of people are 
right now experiencing their first few weeks' with the new operating 
system.

That means many users are heading for a surprise, as the internal counter 
inside every copy of Windows XP gets ready to enforce the mandatory 
"product activation" after one month of use.

[more]

 Mitch Stone  
 mitch@accidentalexpert.com