Windows 7 upgrade insanity

after 12 months using the Windows 7 Release Candidate on the kid's laptop, It was time to purchase and install the full version. So off I popped to the local Comet and paid my money.

Popped the disc in…selected clean install ( as I have done with every single Microsoft OS install in the past ).

Operating system installed. Applications now installed, documents trasnferred over.

All good so far.

Now for the 'activation'. pop the key in..it doesn't work. Apparently its an 'upgrade only' key. yes, but it was an upgrade…? so why doesn't it work? why does it allow me to select clean install on installation? why doesn't it ask me for my old key or installation disc like every other MS operating system in the past? 

not to worry, ill call up support and sort it out.

Ah..its the weekend..so I can't ( apparently one of the biggest companies in the world , assumes all its customers only install stuff monday to friday, 9 to 5 ). fine..so Ill try the phone activation. no, that didn't work either. Please stay on the line to be connected to a 'Customer' representative. 6 minutes later, call drops.

One has to wonder how this improves Microsoft's image? If its actually less hassle to get a pirated/cracked on your machine, how does this help anyone in the software industry?

Windows 7.. good operating system, incompetent and frustrating licensing model.. ( thank god, im typing this on my macbook pro! )

Update on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 8:49PM by Rab Boyce

ok. so after an hour on the phone to Microsoft while being bounced from department to department ( and one particularly aggressive CSR ) I finally got the activation resolved.

This is clearly not the way to win hearts and minds. As a Software Professional I understand the need to protect one's IPR and income stream, but the mind numbingly draconian and ill thought through MS licensing model is just infuriating.

Don't people realise that if its easier to get a cracked copy than use a legit copy…thats what people will do? Its like the media industry. A lot of people I know download movies/TV shows from newsgroups etc..becuase its just easier than going through the ridiculous hoops required on the commercial versions.

Time to wake up.