Originally printed in The Wall Street Journal (reprinted without permission
)
Microsoft Cracks Down On Sharing Windows XP
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
If you're one of the millions of consumers with multiple PCs in your household, and you plan on upgrading them to Microsoft's forthcoming Windows XP operating system, you're in for a rude surprise. For the first time, Microsoft plans to force families to buy a separate, full-price copy of Windows for each PC they upgrade. Each copy is expected to cost around $100.
Not only that, but the company's method for enforcing this rule, a system called "product activation," requires you to let Microsoft create and store a profile of the configuration of every PC on which you install Windows XP -- even if only a single machine is involved. This profile allows Microsoft to "lock" each copy of Windows XP to one specific PC.
If you don't allow Microsoft to collect this information, your copy of Windows XP will simply stop working in 30 days. And even if you comply, your copy of Windows XP might still stop working at some point if you make a lot of changes to your PC's hardware.
I am not making this up. A similar activation system already exists in the latest version of Microsoft Office, called Office XP, which went on sale in May, though it allows you to install Office on two computers, not just one.
Here's how windows activation will work. When you install Windows XP, the software will notify you that you must "activate" the product within 30 days. You can perform this activation almost instantly over the Internet, or call a toll-free number. In either case, the company will create a record of your machine and link it to the serial number of the copy of Windows you installed.
If you don't activate Windows within the specified period, it will cease functioning -- except to remind you to activate. (On a new PC, with Windows XP preinstalled, the PC maker may activate each machine at the factory.)
If you try to install the same copy of Windows on a different PC, you'll be asked to activate again -- only this time activation will fail, and you'll be advised that it's illegal to install one copy of Windows on multiple machines and told to buy another copy. The second installation of Windows will stop working.
What if your PC malfunctions, and you have to reinstall Windows XP? Well, you'll have to explain the situation to Microsoft, and beg the company to allow you to activate it again.
What's more, Windows will keep monitoring your setup to check that it's still running on the same machine. If you make major hardware changes, the system could disable Windows and force you to check in with Microsoft in the mistaken belief the program has been transferred to another computer. One journalist reported that his copy of Office XP suddenly went into "reduced functionality mode" and insisted he activate again while he was using it on an airplane.
Of course, Microsoft has a right to sell its software with whatever restrictions it likes. And the rule requiring a separate copy of Windows for each PC has long been buried in the product's license agreement -- that lengthy expanse of tiny type that appears during installation. So, in a sense, product activation is no big deal -- merely a new method to enforce a policy Microsoft has long asserted.
But there are three big problems with Microsoft's sudden decision to start enforcing this policy, especially in this draconian fashion.
First, the company has never really educated home users about the one-PC policy for Windows. Sure, it's in the fine print, but few people read that. Microsoft has extensive programs to educate corporations about the policy, but in 10 years of reviewing Windows, I can't remember a single major Microsoft consumer ad campaign devoted to the topic. As I write this, I'm holding in my hand a colorful cardboard sleeve containing a copy of Windows 98. Nowhere does it say "for use only on a single PC." Even now, Microsoft isn't preparing the public for the coming crackdown.
I'm sure that the majority of multiple-PC families have been buying a single copy of each version of Windows and installing it on all their PCs. I'm equally confident that few of them did so to cheat Microsoft. Microsoft calls this behavior "casual piracy," but I call it the natural practice of people who don't know better.
Second, Microsoft is discriminating against home users in favor of corporate customers, as it often does. The company offers large customers bulk purchases of Windows at volume prices. In many cases, these corporate bulk purchasers won't even be subjected to activation.
But Microsoft has no plans to offer home users a special two or three pack of Windows XP for, say, $50 or $75 more than the single-copy price. In fact, the company doesn't even plan to allow a person who mistakenly tries to activate a second PC to buy another license over the phone or Internet.
Finally, Microsoft has chosen a method of enforcing its policy that smacks of an invasion of privacy. The company says its database of PC configurations won't contain any personal information, and will be encrypted so that nobody can misuse it. But Microsoft's bully-boy behavior in the marketplace hardly inspires confidence that it won't somehow exploit this information.
So, bear all this in mind when you consider whether to upgrade your home PC to Windows XP, especially if you have more than one computer. The upgrade may cost more than you expected, both in dollars and in lost privacy.
If you have a question you want answered, or any other comment or suggestion about Walter S. Mossberg's column, please send e-mail to
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