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April 2007 |
To: Microsoft Partners
From: Allison Watson
Subject: Important activation changes to Windows Vista
Date: April 27, 2007
As a valued partner and trusted advisor to our customers, I wanted to re-iterate Microsoft’s commitment to helping protect consumers and software resellers from the risks associated with pirated software. Millions of PCs that ship each year end up with non-genuine Windows® software, which puts you at a competitive disadvantage, and your customers at risk of a sub-optimal experience.
The significant anti-piracy technologies built into Windows Vista™ software are designed to make the widespread pirating of Windows Vista more difficult. Now, all customers who deploy Windows Vista must successfully activate their product using a genuine product key. If a non-genuine product key is used in activation, customers will experience reduced functionality and lose certain features, such as Microsoft Aero and ReadyBoost.
To avoid potential business disruptions and maintain the highest level of satisfaction with Windows Vista deployments, the most important activation changes for you to be aware of and to inform your customers about are:
- Activation: In the first 30 days of use, all new installations of Windows Vista must be activated by the OEM, through Windows Vista volume licensing technologies, or by the end customer. If Windows Vista is not activated in the first 30 days, the system will operate in a reduced functionality mode.
- Validation: In order to protect users from being victimized by counterfeit software, and to protect Microsoft’s intellectual property, Windows Vista includes ongoing validation. Through validation, if non-genuine Windows Vista is detected (including non-genuine product keys, cracked or tampered code) the system enters a 30-day grace period. During this time Windows Aero and ReadyBoost features are disabled, and Windows Defender and Windows Update will have limited capabilities (optional updates will not be available through Windows Update, and Windows Defender will only remove critical and severe threats). In addition, during this grace period, a message will appear repeatedly, encouraging the user to take the steps necessary to activate with a genuine product key in order to regain the full value of Windows Vista and to prevent the system from going into a reduced functionality mode.
- Reduced Functionality: After the repeated prompts above, and if Windows Vista is not activated in the 30-day grace period, the system will operate in a reduced functionality state until a genuine product key is used for activation. In this reduced state, the user will have access to their files and applications, and access to the Internet. However, the desktop will be simplified with only a browser (no Start Menu or Task Bar) and Windows Vista usage will be limited to one hour sessions, at which time the user is forced to log off. Additionally, users may boot the system in Safe Mode in order to access or back-up personal data and applications.
I encourage you to communicate early with customers about the activation changes. For customers that experience reduced functionality, you can help them resolve this by providing them information about how to activate their Windows Vista properly or enable them to purchase a genuine copy.
Learn more to help you discuss this with your customers.
If you serve customers in multiple ways, you may receive a similar communication from the Microsoft OEM team about these new anti-piracy changes. Together, we are working to deliver a great Windows Vista experience for you and for our customers.
Thank you for your business,
Allison Watson
Corporate Vice President
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
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April 2007 |
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Continuous Professional Development Program
26 April 2007
3:30pm IPMI Remote Management demonstration by Edmond Chan.
4:10pm Open VPN peer experience sharing by John Luckstedt from ITCL/CNZ
5:00pm Microsoft Forefront Security Technologies by Sean Dring from Microsoft NZ.
6:30pm Wine and Cheese.
Attendance of CPD events is free of charge to Compucon channel members but pre-registration is strictly necessary.
Powerpoint slides:
CPD Open VPN.pdf (Compucon Channel Members only)
CPD Microsoft Forefront.pdf (Compucon Channel Members only)
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April 2007 |
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Compucon Authorised Service Technicians Sharpening the Axe...
The one day training course held on 28 March was well attended and received. There were 22 participants including 2 course advisers, 3 presenters, 2 school network administrators and 15 members of the Compucon channel. The course took 8 hours as planned to cover 6 topics. The topics are diverse but focussed and integrated. In a nutshell we covered 2 things: (a) what member technicians should know in terms of the work done in the background by Compucon in terms of engineering and quality assurance methodologies and (b) how member technicians can improve their support capabilities. Feedback from the audience is overwhelmingly positive with the majority rating the course at 5 out of 5 for being the best course. Only 1 participant rated the event at 3 as "of some use" and a few rated the topics individually between 4 and 5 but forgot to provide an overall score. There is a comment given by a couple of people that we spent too much time on background or historical information. We appreciate that hands-on people may not be as interested as design desk people on what and why. We will slightly amend our course in September accordingly. Another repeated feedback is that the room is too cold. We will set the room temperature at 23C next time. Actions that have arised include the posting of all course materials for CAST members (now completed), BIOS set up documentation for channel members on the website, and demonstrating IPMI remote management in April's CPD.
Compucon Thunderbird Roaring Up & Down
nVidia has released a new integrated graphics processor called NVS210S to replace the GeForce 6150 that has been the Thunderbird platform since August 2006 for the Socket AM2 CPU. At that time, nVidia claimed that GF6150 is a stable corporate chipset with 12 months of minimum production lifespan. With 8 months lapsed, we have found that GF6150 is no longer wearing the stable label but the NVS210S is - this is not a responsible manner! Nevertheless, what makes the NVS210S more wanted by nVidia? A hardware specification comparison exercise on MSI and Asustek motherboards has given us a surprising result. Both chipsets are based on the GeForce 6 GPU and everything else is also identical. What did nVidia say? Nothing, because NVS210S was not yet on the nVidia website! Irrespectively, we proceeded to test the new motherboard and have found no new features such as HDMI, HDCP or higher performance. We are not motivated to change but will have to change to NVS210S due to the supply conditions. The supply of GF6150 motherboards is not really stable. As of today, we are working hard in the background to ensure supply and consistency. If anything happens that you should know immediately, we will advise you with a web headline release.
CPD Seminar for 26/4/07 Thursday
CPD seminars are free for Compucon channel members and we are now taking registrations for up to 20 persons. Attending CPD seminars is a must for maintaining the competency of providing advice to customers.
- 3:30pm IPMI remote management demonstration (Edmond Chan)
- 4:10pm Open VPN peer experience sharing (John Luckstedt from ITCL/CNZ)
- 5:00pm Microsoft Forefront Security Technologies (Sean Dring from Microsoft)
- 6:00pm Wine & Cheese
Compucon House is Office out of Office
The traffic conditions in Auckland have gotten worse before it will get better. Many channel members have lost hundreds of hours that could be better used. In view of this, we offer our office as a temporary haven for you whenever you need during the week from 9am to 6pm. You can stay in our seminar room to do some work or to simply enjoy a cuppa in the kitchen. Just tell our front office people when you come in and you can start to work in our office! You can also ask to own your private cup too (as Dave does). No obligations!
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April 2007 |
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This seminar provides an insight into how Compucon New Zealand handles the system design, model verification and the made-to-order production processes. The stories cover many aspects of engineering, algorithms and their real life applications. It explains five design targets including the concept of TCO and environmental concerns. It demonstrates that zero system workmanship error can be obtained by a set of coordinated activities.
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April 2007 |
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This seminar points out that Wireless is in its second spring having been in practical use for over a century by now. US based IEEE has taken a proactive role in the standardisation of specifications of the technologies. It has ratified a standard on security and this has removed the obstacle for further development. This seminar provides examples of real life use of wireless technologies, how Wi-Fi works as an extension of LAN, the differences between WiMax and 3G, and what we can expect to see in the near future.
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