Oddly enough, the United States and a few others have "Not Available" listed. I wonder what that's about. With the release of the demo, I'd forgotten all about this. What a downer. I'd rather they used Starforce, to be completely honest. Yeah, Starforce has a bad habit of screwing up hardware and all, but at least I don't have to call someone and ask permission to use software I've paid for. Ah well...

>FSX won't have a disc 4, it comes on 2 DVDs. :)they were speaking metaphorically.Rhett

I thought everyone already knew that FSX would use Activation, it was revealed a while ago.Anyway, being the power user that I am (haha), I am not the biggest fan of MS's activation scheme. It becomes a hassle when re-installing and testing hardware setups and so forth. But what else can be done? Keys get cracked right away. Starforce...well, I won't even go there. I think ultimately I will prefer Product Activation to having a disc in the drive all the time. I'd rather put in a music CD while I fly, or something like that anyway.Rhett

>Oddly enough, the United States and a few others have "Not>Available" listed. I wonder what that's about. >>With the release of the demo, I'd forgotten all about this.>What a downer. I'd rather they used Starforce, to be>completely honest. Yeah, Starforce has a bad habit of screwing>up hardware and all, but at least I don't have to call someone>and ask permission to use software I've paid for. >>Ah well...>Inclusion of that file was an oversight since you don't need to activate the demo. In the final product you'll do it over the internet just like with Windows and Office.

>>Oddly enough, the United States and a few others have "Not>>Available" listed. I wonder what that's about. >>>>With the release of the demo, I'd forgotten all about this.>>What a downer. I'd rather they used Starforce, to be>>completely honest. Yeah, Starforce has a bad habit of>screwing>>up hardware and all, but at least I don't have to call>someone>>and ask permission to use software I've paid for. >>>>Ah well...>>>>Inclusion of that file was an oversight since you don't need>to activate the demo. In the final product you'll do it over>the internet just like with Windows and Office. I'm 100% for it. I assume you have thought about those people who might not have an internet connection? Perhaps an activation by telephone?...............Randy J. Smith................CAUTION! My views represent no one but my own. While I do help companies test products - this in no way means I represent them in ANY fashion.[h4]Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations[/h4]

As usual copy protection is only a pain in the #### for those who actually pay for the legitimate software. Ironic isn't it...

What will happen (with the FSX product activation) (ie how does it work, are we licensed to that older machine or?) when I bet 90% of us upgrade to Vista and DX10 hardware?

I am a frequent FREQUENT Windows "re-installer" - I often reload XP when major drivers change, or when major programs I use change. I've been told that it's far less necessary than in previous Windows versions, and maybe I *am* a victim to old habits, but it keeps my computer running clean as a whistle - and I like that. :) My plan for FSX? Same as the one I use with Windows itself.I installed Windows XP to my machine months ago, activated via phone, and took an immediate Acronis TrueImage snapshot. Any time I need to reload, I just dump the image back to the drive, and voila! Clean, activated Windows. (Obviously can't do this if major hardware changes are made).Anyway, with FSX, all I'll do is install the sim to my clean build, activate via phone, and take one more image snapshot. Any subsequent reloads will have Windows and FSX already loaded and activated... I'll keep any sim customizations to an absolute minimum, in case a patch is ever released that wants as clean of an install as possible. -Greg(Funny this topic came up, as I just reloaded my PC this evening!)

I'm sure you can 're-activate' as many times as you wish, but only the most recent will be valid/legal, the prior installation becomes void.

Never caused any problems for me. My disk 4 along with 1, 2, and 3 is safely stored on my cd/dvd rack and I haven't even looked at it since I installed onto my latest rig several months ago. I love the no cd patch. It both protects your cd 4 from damage and is soooo much more convenient.Regards, Carlos

If thats true and we won't need to insert the disk then thank you Microsoft for being sensible and puting your legitimate software custumers interests. Activation is no big deal if you only have to do it once upon reinstall but if you have to reactivate all the softwares every time you change your hardware configuration it becomes a royal pain in the a.. Cloud 9 products come to mind (which is why they arent getting any of my money despite having nice product). Also the 1 computer one copy thing is really a tactic used to extort money from custumers Even though it is legal doesn't mean its right. It is understandable when they are selling to a megacorporation with thousands of computers that they can't just buy one copy but shouldn't apply to regular custumers who have 2 or 3 computers.Regards, Carlos

The only thing you cannot move from one machine to another normally is the operating system. Almost always it is licensed to a specific OEM. Though some folks have purchased the full OS who build their own computers from scratch.But Office and any other MS product can be moved to a new machine.The majority of the time - the internet reactivation works just fine. Occasionally someone will have to call MS where it is almost always handled very quickly and easily.Many of you may have notices that now when you download security updates, program updates, patches from Microsoft - it verifies that you have a legal license for Windows XP and that SP2 is installed and working.It's the way things will be done in the future - and a heck of a lot better then keeping a DVD in the drive.

I'm doing about the same thing. I also use Acronis TrueImage and keep several images available. One is just a baseline, plain-vanilla, WinXP with nothing added which can be used for a really clean OS refresh. The others are the current and prior drive images for both the "C" drive and the FS drive. I can restore the C drive in about nine minutes and the larger FS drive in less that 30 minutes. I have 1.5TB spread across eight drives and as it's never (except for a hardware change) necessary to format any of the drives, activation is really sort of a non-issue.Doug

If a code can be written by a human being it can be broken by another human being!! Its simple as that. Most of MS mainline products require activation but you'll find all these products in pirate markets/p2p and what have you. Most payware add-ons are also found in p2p, including how to crack one of the best anti piracy program i've seen-the flight1 wrapper!!The fact is if you don't have the money and/or dont want to spend the money but are motivated enough to get the product you'll get it-there is enough number of morons who'll help you out! Its sad really, no other industry loses more money to cheating than the software industry and I think MS products are the most copied. Like goverments coming out with tax amnesty schemes MS should also come out with amnesty scheme-pay $2 and get a license for your pirated copy. I am sure they'll rake in a billion $ just like that!!

>Oddly enough, the United States and a few others have "Not>Available" listed. I wonder what that's about. The USA line reads: I think you were just looking at the toll part.