So what kind of voodoo would you use such that the indexing service would magically know what files to index? Indexing all drives would be very slow and impractical for most users.

Voodoo? You go into the indexing service options and tell it what to index. How is that voodoo?

Indexing all of my drives took maybe a total of 8 hours (over the course of one night). It was DEFINATELY worth it just to have the instant searches.

Not to mention that indexing the entire drive is a one-shot thing. Unless you plan on constantly changing what it should index, it's only going to add new files.

Software activation is against my religion, be it online, over the phone, or with telepathy.

It would be for a crap machine if it didn't take FOREVER and lots of help that nobody here would have the time / patience to give imsoshort.

That said I'm still forever grateful for the help CM gave me when I tried to do just that...

(and to Shintock )

Exactly, you tell it what to index. You were *****ing that you had to tell it what to index. I was pointing out the incredibly obvious that there was no way for it to know what you want to index.

A. I wasn't "*****ing" about it. I was just stating fact.
B. They could have it index all the drives regardless, or ask you upon installation of windows.

Frankly, I don't care. I only mentioned it to justify why I said it took me 2 hours.

Must be. PS--the "activation" happens automatically.


A. Yes, you were.
B. Yeah, they could have it index all the drives regardless. That'd only take what...6-24 hours? I'm sure most users wouldn't mind

For the performance improvement in searching? I would think so. :p

oh no CM, it took TWO HOURS of your precious time

What is it with you people? I'm not complaining. That's like the second time I've had to say it.

What do you mean with "automatically"?

Last time I installed XP I had to phone them (though I suspected I'd have to do that anyway, as it was an OEM key), answer a big bunch of questions which reminded me of an adventure where you have to give the right answers to solve the puzzle, give them a whole bunch of digits, enter a whole bunch of digits, thus activating Windows. And after I had installed my motherboard-drivers it told me I had to activate it again because my hardware had changed. Then I decided I didn't want to play games that badly and gave up.

Well if you're using an OEM copy expect that. A NORMAL copy of windows--you put in the key, it "activates".

For future reference: skip activation until you have all your drivers installed.

Could you please explain, in your own words and without searching or using any external resources exactly what software activation is?

I'm not a dictionary. I don't want to do business with any company that automatically assumes I'm a criminal. From my understanding, when you install Windows XP, you are required to either activate over the internet (which sends a bunch of information to Microsoft that the customer doesn't have the opportunity to scrutinize or prevent being sent), or over the phone, at which time you are required to read to them some long sequence of digits and characters which just happen to encode the same information as activating over the internet. Further, when you change your hardware (as I have a history of doing), you are at random times required to reactivate and yet again "prove" that you aren't a pirate and you have in fact purchased the software.

I don't care how easy (or even hidden) it is. I was an enormous supporter of MS and Windows when Win95 came out, and I continued to support them through the release of Win2k, despite their increasing system requirements and bold claims of each release being the "best" windows yet. I happily forked over the hundred or so dollars on each release, and in fact even purchased multiple copies so each of my systems would have a valid license, even though back then, licenses were never checked. I happily put up with the bugs, crashes, insecurities, etc. I happily learned to use Windows in such a way that said bugs, crashes, and insecurities didn't affect me all that much, and I was happy because I was able to browse the internet, play games, and generally get what I wanted out of my computer.

Product activation comes along and I'm no longer a microsoft customer. I don't plan on buying any more of their software for myself (although my kids want a mac with MS Office on it, so I guess they will get some of my money). If they want to treat me like a criminal, I won't do business with them, plain and simple. Especially not when there are superior products out there that don't require me to put up with all the problems I mentioned earlier.

Woo my thread turned into a nerd flamewar!
And i abandoned my hopes of linux when the old comp fell below the min,specs for ubuntu.

Plan B- Dosbox!

The irony of this--MS makes almost all their revenue from Office, and business licenses for their software. Your petty, rather silly boycott doesn't affect them at all, and you breaking it to get Office only strengthens them if anything.

Not to mention tons of programs are moving to online/phone activation now. Microsoft isn't the only beast.

Adobe has done it with their software, as does Maya. I think 3dsmax and AutoCAD do also, but I don't have those to find out. Those are just big name products, I have others that do it too.

I also find it very funny that you believe some sort of secret information is contained within a 35 character string. It's just the equivalent of an MD5 sum for your entire PC to differentiate it from others.

Hahaha! Brian is definitely a middle aged man using PCs. Tables for layout, fear of product registration, secret data hidden in MD5 hashes. Haha.

I'm not trying to "affect" microsoft by not buying their products. I'm trying to affect myself. It's not about boycotting or making a statement (which you would realize if you read my post). I laid out many of the reasons why I don't use any software which requires activation (not just MS software). You can disagree if you want, it doesn't affect me. I'll continue to happily use Linux and not worry about product activation. I'll play games that run on win2k, but when they require XP or Vista, I simply won't play them.

I really like having ultimate control over my PC. I don't like the idea that some company can lock me out of my operating system, or prevent me from playing games (in the case of Steam, for example), or even make my life inconvenient by forcing me to waste my cell minutes activating some software.

As far as Office on Mac goes, I don't think it has product activation. Regardless, it's not going to be on my computer. I've explained it to the kids and to my wife and they don't have a problem with it. *shrug*

Kirby: I think your assumption that my actions are based on "fear" rather than "inconvience" and "control" is a bit telling.

Theoretically, this stuff's been possible for years. Could whoever goes through Steam lock you out of playing their game? Yeah, if they really wanted to. Question is, though, why in god's name WOULD they? That'd be like saying "Lol, we don't need you as a customer.", not to mention you did them a huge favor by buying their game without there being any distributor.

And despite your statements, your actions still scream "**** THE SYSTEM **** BIG BROTHER BLAH BLAH" radicalist bull****, and actions speak louder than words.

I TOO WISH TO PICK A FIGHT WITH BRIAN!

I CHALLENGE YOU TO INTERNET DUEL, SIR

He can just drop the B-Bomb.

That made me chuckle.

I'd like Brian to show me a superior program to Photoshop and Illustrator so that I may not use online activation. Seriously.

Paint.

Gimp. Duh.

I sure do hate it when companies try to protect their products

It's not about that. It's about the increasing numbers of hoops you need to go through before you're allowed to use something you paid for. To run windows you used to be able to pay your money and be done with it. Then, you needed to pay your money and activate it. Now, you need to pay, activate and run WGA. By themselves these are fairly harmless, but it's the precedent they set that is a concern.



Why? He wasn't talking about the software you use, he was talking about what he uses, which I'm guessing is probably different.



Why? Once again he's referring to software he uses. Maybe Brian's more interested in comparing Apache and IIS than MS office and Open office.

Wrong. WGA is only needed for updates.

Exactly?

:saddowns:

You could try Paint.NET it's free, and it's pretty dang good.

/manseckses

That's the point. For someone who buys windows and wants to use it normally (i.e. start it up and get updates), there are now two checks involved. Activation and WGA. I agree that this isn't that bad, but my concern is that this sets a precedent and we'll end up with more checks e.g. Trusted Computing

I have never gotten updates. They're really (usually) not THAT important.

Except I would never install Steam either, for the same reasons I outlined above.



In fact, I just stated a fact, that the product activation bugs me enough to stop using their products. I'm not on some rampage to get people to stop using MS products, although you in fact seem to be on a rampage to get me to change my mind for some reason.

Run pretty much answered the rest of the comments just how I would have - I don't care if Paint or Maya or whatever is better on windows w/activation on windows itself and the products, I don't use them. I am not a graphics artist and I'm not a 3d modeller. I program software that manages and analyzes data generated by DNA sequencing machines. Our software runs on Linux, Solaris, and OSX (*cough*). As far as I know, none of our customers have expressed an interest in having our server-based software run on Windows servers.

This whole argument is silly anyway. I made a comment that was my opinion a bit funny and a bit true at the same time. I then responsed to others questions about my reasons for not using products w/product activation. Then I get jumped on by a bunch of people who seem to really enjoy the product activation experience. I'm all for you continuing to use it, unfortunately, you don't seem to want to let me make my own choice.

Microsoft et al. with their product activation and WGA is more so geared towards the rat-******* computer shops who decide to save a few bucks by installing Windows.Vista.Enterprise.32-bit.rar they got off their bittorrents.

I'll add more to this when I wake up a bit. I had a nice argument laid out but it was destroyed by seratonin.

Edit:

Of course not, I'm Republican remember. NOW GO PAY HOMAGE TO JEEBUS OR I SLIT YOUR THROAT!

w00t!

I missed you, mantrain!

I find product activation so freakin' hilarious. There is no such thing with OSX.

Not only that, it's also half the price of Windows.

Not only that, but it's also twice the OS that Windows is.

DUN DUN DUN