Product Activation
The new "feature" most people seem to hate the most is Product Activation. This process elaborates a hardware hash ("an eight byte value that is created by running 10 different pieces of information from the PC’s hardware components through a one-way mathematical transformation", as Microsoft explains in the Product Activation White Paper). This number, together with the CD-Key found in the envelope that holds the Windows XP CD which the user has to enter during installation, are sent to Microsoft during the activation process and Microsoft returns an activation code. With an Internet connection this is done in matter of seconds, and as most people may know by now, there’s no obligation to send the registration, which is different from product activation. According to Microsoft, no personal information is sent to them during this process, and even the code elaborated from the user’s hardware is just a number that can’t be decoded to know what hardware the user has.
Each CD-Key is unique, so once a copy of XP has been activated, it can only run on that machine, if you install it in others, you won’t be able to activate it and after 30 days you won’t be able to use it anymore.
In the case you change more than six components in less than 120 days, Windows XP doesn’t work anymore until you call Microsoft, explain to them what’s going on and they issue you a new activation code. Restricting the number of hardware changes the user can do over a period of time didn’t make all those hardcore hardware swappers very happy, and it’s totally understandable. The thought of many people on this is0 "Hey, it’s my computer, I do whatever I want with it. I don’t want to be calling Microsoft all the time". Besides, having to call Microsoft to explain to them why did you change many components is just nonsense, or is it that Microsoft is so naive they think everybody tells the truth in this world? But the thing is, the have the right to implement an anti-piracy procedure, and at least, they made this process as painless as possible. As long as the user doesn’t change more than six components, he or she can even reinstall the system from scratch at any time, and the re-activation is automatic without having to call Microsoft.
Balloons
Another very annoying new feature are the balloon reminders. As soon as you installed the system, they just drive you crazy. First, one that tells you to take the XP tour to learn about all the new features. I don’t mind it appearing once, but you close it and then it rears its ugly head again next time you boot the system and the next time again. Together with it, the balloon asking you to sign up for a .Net account, or enter the login and password for the one you already have (MSN accounts are now .Net accounts). That one also appears like three times. It’s a terribly annoying trend many software companies have these days, to push people around to do what they want. Take AOL for instance, when you install AOL Messenger it puts links to their "Free AOL & Unlimited Internet" in the links toolbar of Internet Explorer, in the favorites menu, on the Start Menu and on the desktop, so you have to waste time deleting those right after the installation. And don’t even get me started in Real Player, ICQ (which puts its own folder in the favorites menu that can be deleted but the program restores each time it’s launched) and many others. These days, if you don’t pay attention on the setup of a program, you will end up with more than a dozen useless icons on the tray, and annoyances everywhere. The problem with XP is that those balloon reminders are installed whether you want them or not, and you have to close them a few times until the system finally understands that you don’t want them. The most annoying one to me is the Automatic Update feature, since I had a very unpleasant eXPerience with it. I was playing back a video out to a tape in the VCR, and suddenly it dropped a few frames and went out of sync. I assumed the hard drive was very fragmented, but when I looked at the monitor, I noticed the culprit was the annoying balloon telling me to update the system, so that reminder made me waste an hour and a half of my time, since I had to start all over again, after turning automatic updating off of course. The funny thing is, I already had ran Windows Update and downloaded all the updates my system needed.
Microsoft (and most software companies) should know that people don’t like to be pushed around to do things, it’s like having a friend beside you all the time reminding you every five minutes of doing a certain task. All these automatic features do nothing more than piss off people instead of helping them.
But these balloons are not always annoying, a few times they are indeed useful, like when using the embedded CD burning, included ahead in this review.
The New Look
The next (minor) annoyance is cosmetic. I like the new look overall, but they should’ve paid more attention to details. The new icons look really good, plus they’re at a maximum size of 48x48 pixels, so they don’t look pixelated when you use the Large Icons mode. But they should’ve changed absolutely all the icons, not just most of them. For example, when you go to the Control Panel, you will see all the icons have the new style, but get into Administrative Tools and of six icons, only one has the new look (Data Sources). More annoying, the Internet Explorer icons are now in color and with the new look, which I like, but when you download a file and the Download box comes up you get the same ugly icons since the release of IE 4 in 1997. Not paying attention to details like that is very disappointing from a multi-million dollar corporation like Microsoft.
I’d also appreciate a bit more liberty of choice within the new interface. For example, the silver look has the close button at the top right in red, but I’d like it in blue, and perhaps other people would like it in green. The same goes for the rest, in the "blue" look I’d like to be able to change the blue to a dark gray and maybe the start button to a dark blue. Those things aren’t provided, to change the color of the taskbar you have to switch to the classic look, which is mid way between the old Windows look and the new one.
