Comments on: New computer? Forget Microsoft Reader

By: Kay

Kay — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:50:00 +0000

Gogo,

thanks for this hint. If this works out – MS Reader truly will be the perfect solution for many people out there :)

ignore this, just some keywords so google users can find this trick:

ms reader activation backup
backup ms reader
ms reader backup
microsoft reader backup

By: Gogo

Gogo — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 11:48:37 +0000

Hi, here is the solution for your problem – when you activate your copy of MS Reader go to C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedDRM directory and copy the three files – these files contain your activation info!!!

By: Kay

Kay — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 10:16:18 +0000

What I’m still wondering though is, how does Fictionwise know the book should only open for a@b.com and not for d@e.net ?

When you download it, it’s tagged so that you can read it, but does the server also save it so it’s limited to a@b.com ?

Would be interesting to know, sharing Fictionwise accounts :-)

By: jk

jk — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:25:26 +0000

Kathy, at the time I wrote the article I followed it all the way through the process. I filled out the form for the support people to use to decide if I deserved another activation. I never heard back from anyone. What MS has to realize is that as a consumer I don’t have to “try to activate again in a few days”. Once I’ve been told that my request for additional activations has been denied that’s the end of the road. As an end user I’m not going to go out of my way to insure I can use any company’s DRM. If it is not painless I’ll use someone else’s. Which is what I did. MS really needs to rethink this and come up with a better scheme.

By: Kay

Kay — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 07:48:33 +0000

Now thats good news – so in total you have 6+1 which just made it much more interesting for some. Thinking that I have it permanent on my Pocket PC (thru backups) I can still activate something like 5 more PCs…

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:59:28 +0000

I think you gave up to soon. I’ve gone through the same thing. You request a new activation, it comes back and says request denied, but it has a link to appeal the decision. You give the reason for the new activation (new computer, reformated drive, etc.) and they allow you another activation. Note that they don’t tell you they’re doing it. Try to activate again in a few days and it works.

By: Kay

Kay — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 11:09:09 +0000

Victor, yes I believe that was the name.

Thanks!

By: VictorE

VictorE — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:43:00 +0000

Kay,

Perhaps you were thinking of SysInternal’s RegMon (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.shtml). It’s good as it will give you a real-time look of what’s accessing the registry and save it to a file. However, the amount of data that it collects can be a little mind numbing. I prefer a program that will take a snap shot of your registry before, then you can install your app, then it will take another snap shot of your registry after. Like RegShot (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download965.html).

By: Kay

Kay — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:13:29 +0000

jk, I believe that you needed to enter the number at least once on their website to unlock the books…

With Fictionwise, you can just use PayPal to transfer funds to your account – which is the perfect solution for me.

Nonetheless, I agree that MS should rework their DRM system (yet again) and release an updated version of MS Reader.

On a slightly different note, I wonder if you ever came across software other than MS Reader which is able to display / read DRM protected eBooks

By: jk

jk — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 09:08:02 +0000

Kay, thanks for your insights. The simplest thing for MS to do is to allow you to deactivate devices to free up slots. This has been shown to work with other DRM schemes and would totally solve this problem. As for the eReader activation, since the credit card # used for the activation resides only on the owner’s computer it is very safe and secure.