AllcottDitto what you say, and it's funny because I printed it off too.Bob (Las Cruces, NM)

Okay - actualy had to do a little work for a while.And one part of it was a two hour conference call / training session on activation of Windows Vista in enterprise environments.A pretty important conversation since we will start installing it in less than a month.Right now my company has about 5,500 installs of Windows XP SP2 in the US and over four times that world wide - on above store systems.Currently only five people in the company have access to the license key numbers.Unfortunately the Vista policy is going to require that almost 300 people around the world have access to those numbers.But during the call/ conversation I asked some questions of our full-time MS Technical Account Manager, and the licensing specialists focused on your issue.Everyone needs to remember that the activation scheme involves two databases which record information about your computer and the install of the activated software - one on the computer and one at the MS activation center.When you cloned your drive, rather than a reinstall - the next time you started FSX - it said "Whoa, this is not the hard drive I was running on a few hours ago."It's logic says to ask for the license key to be reentered and to "Phone Home" in this instance.And an fresh install on a new hard drive should also ask the same thing.When the activation center is contacted - the program checks things in the activation center database - a lot of WMI information - including processor and hard drive serial numbers.The master database says - "This is the same computer - just a new hard drive" and authorized the activation.You have not use up another instance of activation, not recorded it as being on another computer.This would also occur upon your complete reformat and install - and the FSX activation would know that you have just reinstalled the PS and reactivated that.None of this is a strike against you.The master database information is purged after a period of time with no updates. I've heard it is "retained at least six months" Yes there are automated thresholds which can trigger a requirement to call in and speak to a human.And they are not, and never will be prefect and cover all situations.But remember this - every phone call the software requires cost Microsoft a couple dollars - even if they deny the activation.I have not seen one thing on this, or the many other threads, which was not said about the activation of Windows XP.For those very concerned, FSX is going to be less picky about hardware changes as an application than is Windows XP.If you are not having activation problems with XP when you change hardware - then FSX will be less of a worry.The OS is a greater concern - and there are some real potential issues with Windows Vista.

People are still getting the wrong end of the stick.FSX activation works the same as XP activation as far as I can see.If you system changes to the extent that FSX needs reactivation then, almost certainly, XP will also require reactivation. Do you have problems with that?If you go past the automatic reactivation, i.e. the link through, and require the phone call method then it's a simple 30 second call. You explain the reason, i.e. I've rebuilt my machine, they cancel the old activation details and give you a new key. There is no 2 activations per lifetime thing going on here where you need to put the product on a shelf in order to somehow save those activations for the future.You will be able to reactivate it as many times as you want. In addition, you are getting a second PC licence to install it on too.Please, read the instructions...

People are still getting the wrong end of the stick.FSX activation works the same as XP activation as far as I can see.If you system changes to the extent that FSX needs reactivation then, almost certainly, XP will also require reactivation. Do you have problems with that?If you go past the automatic reactivation, i.e. the link through, and require the phone call method then it's a simple 30 second call. You explain the reason, i.e. I've rebuilt my machine, they cancel the old activation details and give you a new key. There is no 2 activations per lifetime thing going on here where you need to put the product on a shelf in order to somehow save those activations for the future.You will be able to reactivate it as many times as you want. In addition, you are getting a second PC licence to install it on too.Please, read the instructions...

Point taken, Joe.All I was trying to point out was that FSX is not Vista, the Activation/Validation of FSX and Vista are two separate animals. At least until we are forced to go to Vista for any DX10 benefits.I usually take it one day at a time, so I am not going to preoccupy myself with what will happen, things change.Meanwhile I am enjoying the latest iteration of FS. FSX is really good, at least for me, and that's all that matters to me here and now! ;-)Pete S.

Now we're talking! That's the kind of re-assurance I was hoping the public would hear. No one wants to diable your plans to defeat piracy, but the words being officially stated in the Eula aren't sufficient to assure people that their product should be useful for 3 or 4 years at least under normal operation, which is a fair expectation. (I say that because normal operation includes system rebuilds on the order of 3 or 4 times during that period.)I would love to have the eula reworked to reassure honest people, I know my world view is different than many other people but I favor protecting the rights of the honest people over stopping dishonest activity if a tradeoff is required.Best,Bob Bernstein

Holy Sh$t!I can't believe this... another post about this activation business.Folks, what the heck are you worried about. If you have a "legal" copy of FS10, XP, Office, and "probabaly" Vista, you are not going to have ANY problem reinstalling these programs. I have done it 7 times with XP and 3 times with Office and 1 time (so far) with FS10.It is a bit inconvenient, I will grant you that, but you WILL NOT be refused. I have NO special privilage... I don't know Bill personally. I am JUST like all of you. A guy who upgrades, plays around with, and swaps out components all the darn time.Stop worrying! The "sky is not falling"! Honest!Now stop wasting all this bandwidth and server space and go have some fun... take a pill if need be, but just relax!phew! :D