Microsoft knows all

I’ve been having intermittent network problems for the last couple of weeks. In the middle of writing a post or reading the news, my internet would suddenly drop dead for me while still working to the other computers in the house. When I checked, I wasn’t able to even ping the router or anything else on the network. Rebooting sometimes worked, but not always.

So I swapped out my old network card to fix the problem. While I had the box open, I also replaced my aged cd-rw which had stopped burning a few months ago.

Everything was working just fine after that. Until the next time I tried to open Microsoft Office.

WARNING! Your system configuration has significantly changed – you must reregister your product. It may only be installed on one computer at a time.

So I hauled out my disk and stuck it in the now-functional cd drive and allowed it to phone home.

We are unable to verify your registration online. You must register your product by phone.

Grrrr. So I called up the Microsoft phone number. They’ve got this “wonderful” new technology that prevents you from talking to a live person in India. Instead, you talk to a computer, probably also in India. I was directed to read the umpteen digit long string of numbers in to the phone for verification. Of course, they “couldn’t verify me” and placed me on hold. For half an hour. When I was finally forwarded to a human, I was told that since I’d changed components in my computer, it was no longer the same computer to which Office had been licensed. I protested that it was indeed the same computer, merely with a new network card and cd drive. I was told, in a very thick accent, that it was a new computer, and I could only run the software on one computer.

ARGH!

So I told them I would only run it on this “new computer” and would remove it from the “old computer.” That got him to give me the verificiation number I needed to reactivate Word.

Assinine, yes. But scary, too. Microsoft is tracking information that I can no longer identify. After I bit the bullet the other day and wrote something positive about them, this happens.

I suspect part of it is the threat from us old geeks who rebuild equipment instead of buying the latest offerings. We’re undercutting profits. In their paranoia about piracy, they’ve started alienating their own customers.

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