Product activation
From Free net encyclopedia
Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some computer software programs. Specifically, product activation refers to a method where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers and an ID number specific to the product's license (a product key) to generate a unique Installation ID. Installation ID is sent to the manufacturer to verify the authenticity of the product key and determine that the product key is not being used for multiple installations.
As a trial, Microsoft first used product activation in some versions of Microsoft Office 2000. Some copies sold in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States required the user to activate the product via the internet. After its success, the product activation system was extended worldwide and incorporated into all subsequent versions of Windows and Office. This practice has become a subject of debate, primarily because it was one of the first widespread uses of a product activation system in a general consumer product.
An 'unactivated' product usually acts as a time-limited trial until a product key is purchased and used to activate the software. Some products allow licenses to be transferred from one machine to another using online tools, without having to call technical support to deactivate the copy on the old machine before reactivating it on the new machine.
Software that requires users to activate online or by phone includes:
- Microsoft Windows XP and later
- Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1 (SR-1) and later
- Adobe Photoshop CS and later
- Adobe Acrobat 7 and later
- Norton Antivirus 2004 and later
- Norton Ghost 9.0 and later
- Norton Internet Security 2004 and later
- Intuit TurboTax (product activation was subsequently discontinued after complaints over its activation process)
- Quicken (depending on country/edition)
- DivX Pro
- Half-Life 2
- Earth 2160
- ERain Swift3D 4
- Macromedia MX 2004 series (includes Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks) and later
- Various TMPGEnc programs
- Final Draft (a software application designed for writing screenplays)
- All current Spectrasonics synthesiser packages
- All current Native Instruments packages
OEMs can use SLP to tie the product activation to the BIOS so that Product Activation of Windows in those computers will be skipped if an unique serial number matches the number in the BIOS.
A product activation scheme introduced by PACE Anti-Piracy in 2003, called iLok, uses a flash-memory equipped USB dongle, capable of downloading product keys off the Internet, or uploading from a smart card packaged with the software. Software that uses this new system includes:
- Digidesign Pro Tools, and its many plugins.
- LightWave
- Steinberg Cubase
Although many product activation schemes are anonymous, some are accompanied by mandatory product registration which require providing user's address, phone number, and other personal information before the product is activated.