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I Fell Through A Microsoft Trap Door


NoelC

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Today I decided to add Media Center capabilities to my WIn 8.1 Pro system so I could watch some DVDs (yes, I know there are other ways).  Seems simple enough - go to the Add Features section, put in a Media Center key, and voila.

 

I decided to go this route because it was all going to be free - I happened to have such a key I had received from Microsoft as a promotion a couple of years ago during the first release of Windows 8.  I'd just never used it before now.

 

I entered the key where shown to do so, and the system accepted it, claiming it was "good".  The system then went through its processes to install and reboot.  Everything was smooth.  After the restart, with all "success" messages, the system came up and showed Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center. 

 

This is where the problem started... 

 

Windows claimed it was no longer activated, and there was a watermark on my desktop.

 

I figured I'd better contact Microsoft on this, so I called them.  I spoke with Nathalie in India.  Other than having a bit of an accent and the fairly long delay in the line making things awkward several times, she was nice enough.

 

After much reading of keys and codes, Nathalie stated that my Media Center product code was "blocked".  Apparently it has simply been too long since I had received that product code for it to be valid any longer. 

 

I allowed them to connect to my desktop to check things out for themselves, re-verifying the above.

 

They verified my Windows 8.1 Pro license several times and I showed them the eMail with the Media Center product code that I had received from them 2 years ago.  I asked for escalation, but the only answer I was able to get from every level was that this promotion was expired and not within the purview of the service department to honor.

 

"Fine", I said, "let's put my system back the way it was".

 

No can do.

 

This was a one-way ticket.  Can't get there from here. No dice.  There are no System Restore points.  There is no way to uninstall this "feature".

 

Nathalie informed me that for only $99 US I could have my very own brand spanking new Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center Pro Pack upgrade license.  This is one and the same license that upgrades Windows 8.1 non-pro to Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center.  Overkill in my case.  I explained that I need only the Media Center upgrade part of that, which is supposed to sell for something like $9.99, but apparently it's no longer possible to buy such a thing from the Microsoft Store.

 

Faced with a decision to just quit and restore my last night's System Image backup, which would take my system out of service for the rest of the day, or move forward, I elected to throw money at the problem, and now I'm back up and running for "only" $99.

 

Perhaps I shouldn't have decided to pay the $99, perhaps I should have wasted the rest of the day and restored my System Image backup.  But I do need to get some work done today.

 

But wow, from free to $99 just to play DVDs.  :crazy:

 

Perhaps I should have researched the process more, and asked a few questions here.  I was blindsided by two things: 

 

1.  That my key should be accepted yet turn out to be invalid, and

2.  That I could not easily "undo" this upgrade with a Restore Point or something.

 

Live and learn.

 

Who says a service organization can't be a money-maker?

 

-Noel

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That's life... Yet you could just restore your system from your system backups and pay no money. Anyway I don't believe that Microsoft is waiting to make money from people who haven't used it's activation keys for two years, it just happened. :whistle: At least we know now that these keys expire sooner or later if they are not used (it would be good to know the exact time needed for this to happen).

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restore my last night's System Image backup, which would take my system out of service for the rest of the day

Why rest of the day?

 

And you definitely shouldn't have paid. After that kinda BS you should just use a crack.

Edited by shae
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Rest of the day because I have a large system volume.  It's possible an in place upgrade of the original disc might have gotten it back to where I was licensed with my original product code, I don't know.  Worst case would have been a full restoral of about a terabyte of info.

 

Sorry, I don't believe in illegal activity when it comes to licensing software.

 

-Noel

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Yes. With all due respect, I wish to offer you some considerations. Please do bear with me, as no offense is intended.

 

If, instead, you used the set-up model I consider best, you'd have a 60 - 80 GB (not more) system partition (not more) for Win 8.1 Upd 1.

If having the hybernation file and pagefile in the system disk and partition is unavoidable (as it may well be on 8+, for all I know), then the size must be bigger, but those files may and ought to be deleted and zeroed-out before acquiring the dd-like image (see below).

Then you'd have created a blind, dumb, byte-by-byte image (dd-like) of just the system partition, right before falling into the trapdoor.

Then, after finding out what happened, you'd deploy back the image and be back where you started.

I'd've cost you ca. 2 h or less to create the image and less than 1h to redeploy it. And US$ 0. And you'd be back exactly where you started.

Of course for added safety, the system partition could be instead a single partitioned smallish (even perhaps 64 GB) fast-as-lightning SSD, and then the image would be full-disk, which even safer.

 

So, even if MS set a trap-door for you, you were unable to recover (fast enough to be viable) mainly because of the achitecture you consider best for system deployment (which is also what MS imagines everybody is using, BTW). Think about that. Here is one of the rare instances where security-through-obscurity (viz. using a simple but uncommon system deployment architecture) works beautifully.

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You make some good points.  Thanks for your input, dencorso.

 

For what it's worth, I just don't optimize for quick system restoral.  It's not something I need to do very often.  But I optimize for a lot of other things...

 

My 2TB system volume (about half full) is a 4 drive SSD array that accelerates everything my system does.  It's even faster than a small "lightning fast" dedicated SSD for drive C: would be.

 

This setup works well save for being a bit slow in a "need a restoral" situation (this is the first such situation I've faced in a VERY long time).  I'm fond of the simplicity of backing up one big volume to know that I have fully protected myself.  My last backup restoral was 2-1/2 years ago when I opted to restore a System Image backup from my HDDs to my new SSD array after having just built it.  The restoral was done overnight (started at 9pm, ready to use before 8am some time).  That saved me the time to reinstall everything.

 

My decision today was purely because I'd rather spend the $$ than wait the hours to restore the drive, which I'm confident would be successful.

 

Mostly I posted here because I feel Microsoft is being predatory by creating such a situation, where the software initially accepts the Product Code that they know is bad, even going so far as to call it "good" at the point where I had to make the final decision to go ahead with the upgrade - then leave the user in a situation not easily recovered-from.  The phone support person was only too happy to take my credit card to "solve" the problem.

 

-Noel

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Ah well, it's done now.

 

The part I'm a bit ticked off about is the business where Microsoft decided they couldn't sell me a Media Center upgrade to Win 8.1 Pro for just $9.99, which IS still available - regardless of what they told me directly (and I made very sure we were clear). 

 

I'm wondering whether they misjudged my setup as being not properly licensed before applying the outdated Media Center product code.  They DID verify it, and said it was a valid Windows 8.1 Pro installation.

 

-Noel.

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Why haven't you made a compete backup?

He does have a known-good complete backup. But due to his preference for using a single-partitioned ginormous RAID as the system disk, he ended up preferring to pay again, rather than to redeploy the backup, as discussed in Posts #5 and #6, above...

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Sorry, I don't believe in illegal activity when it comes to licensing software.

 

I don't think there's anything illegal about it. Right now what happened is, more or less, that Microsoft gave you a choice between being robbed of $100 or spending hours, at least, on getting back to where you were.

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Well now that you KNOW all this Noel, I would go ahead and make a BACKUP of your Windows Activation Files and Also Office if you have that as well, You have products out there that will easily do this for you for that "rainy day" when you have to restore again and also to avoid having to call MS and pay out more $$ to them. I have been using this free utility to do my backups and restore for some time for Mak restores and works every time without a hitch.http://joshcellsoftwares.com/products/advancedtokensmanager/

 

~DP :whistle:

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Thank you, DosProbie, I will look into that.  It sounds like a very good addition to a backup strategy.  I take it you've had no trouble with any malware being secretly included in the package.

 

Edit:  This looks ominous, possibly making the tool useless in my case...

 

 

From the ReadMe in the Advanced Tokens Manager application:

 

*** Windows 8.1 is * NOT * fully supported. All the activation data can be saved, but only those that were activated by * Phone * will be restored properly.
In other words, the Online activated backups can not be restored until now, * ONLY * if your OS is the Windows 8.1 - Other OS(es) are NOT affected ! We are working to discover why.

 

 

Andre, dencorso has it right, I make nightly system image backups, so I was fully up to date and would have lost nothing but time.  I had to make the decision on the spur of the moment, and didn't want to be without my computer for 8 to 10 hours while the backup was being restored.

 

What I can't quite nail down is why they forced me down the $99 path rather than the $9.99 path.  My best guess is probably because they've done it before and found it to work.

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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Have had no problem with any malware, I read that also about phone activation only, but maybe I am not the rule because in my case I have done over 25 reinstalls on the same machine with same product key of a clean install of WMCPro with Update 1 and have had no activation issues whatsoever.

P.S. Josh offers support and feedback of any questions or concerns @ http://joshcellsoftwares.com/contact/

 

~DP :yes:

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Thanks.  I've downloaded it and run it, so if I have another activation snafu, I will first try a restore with this product.

 

One thing I'd have liked better, and I do understand  why it's the way it is, is to have had the option to directly specify where to store its backup data.

 

-Noel

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