Activate Keys - programpsychic5’s diary

A shortcut key is a combination of keyboard keys that will open a program or start a function on the computer. To activate shortcut keys, or HotKeys, on the HP.

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Step 1: Click on Start Menu Control Panel Programs and Features or Add/Remove Programs, depending on your operating system. Click on your product, e.g. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, then click Change on the top menu.

Step 2: Select the option to Enter a Product Key.

Step 3: Enter the appropriate product key from the top of this page and click Continue. On the next dialog, click Install Now to install your key. You will see a progress bar page and then a dialog box saying configuration has been successful. Click Close.

Step 4: Close and restart the application and follow the on-screen instructions to complete activation an internet connection is required. After restarting your Office application once more, click File tab Help to see your activated status.

Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary computer software programs. In one form, product activation refers to a method invented by Ric Richardson and patented US 5,490,216 by Uniloc 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. This installation ID is sent to the manufacturer to verify the authenticity of the product key and to ensure that the product key is not being used for multiple installations.

Alternatively, the software vendor sends the user a unique product serial number. When the user installs the application it requests that the user enter their product serial number, and checks it with the vendor s systems over the Internet. The application obtains the license limits that apply to that user s license, such as a time limit or enabling of product features, from the vendor s system and optionally also locks the license to the user s system. Once activated the license continues working on the user s machine with no further communication required with the vendor s systems. Some activation systems also support activation on user systems without Internet connections; a common approach is to exchange encrypted files at an Internet terminal.

Microsoft Product Activation was introduced in the Brazilian version of Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition 1 and Microsoft Word 97 sold in the Hungarian market. It broadened that successful pilot with the release of Microsoft Publisher 98 in the Brazilian market. 1 Microsoft then rolled out product activation in its flagship Microsoft Office 2000 product. All retail copies sold in Australia, Brazil, China, France, and New Zealand, as well as some sold in Canada and the United States, required the user to activate the product via the Internet. 1 2 However, all copies of Office 2000 do not require activation after April 15, 2003. 3 After its success, the product activation system was extended worldwide and incorporated into Windows XP and Office XP and all subsequent versions of Windows and Office. Despite independently developing its own technology, in April 2009 a jury found Microsoft to have willfully infringed Uniloc s patent. However, in September 2009, US District Judge William Smith vacated the jury s verdict and ruled in favour of Microsoft. 4 This ruling was subsequently overturned in 2011.

An unactivated product usually acts as a time-limited trial until a product key a number encoded as a sequence of alphanumeric characters 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.

An early example of product activation was in the MS-DOS program D Bridge Email System written by Chris Irwin, a commercial network system for BBS users and Fidonet. The program generated a unique serial number which then called the author s BBS via a dialup modem connection. Upon connection, the serial number was validated. A unique key was returned which allowed the program to continue for a trial period. If two D Bridge systems communicated using the same key, the software deliberately crashed. The software has long since had the entire activation system removed and is now freeware by Nick J. Andre, Ltd.

Some companies such as Adobe require users to transfer activation when moving a product from one computer to another, when replacing hardware in an existing computer, or when reformatting a system hard drive. Transfer may involve deactivating a product on the old system before activating it on the new system. Users may be required to be online and to transmit the deactivation to the software provider. citation needed

Criticisms

If a computer is stolen or destroyed, the activation records on it may be completely lost. It is only by the goodwill of the company that products can be re-activated. This makes backing up to guarantee prevention of substantial loss impossible. citation needed

It can cause inconvenience for the end-user, particularly if phone calls are necessary to complete activation or technical problems, such as firewall blocks or activation server downtime, prevent the activation process from completing. citation needed

It can enforce software license agreement restrictions that may be legally invalid. For example, a company may refuse to reactivate software on an upgraded or new PC, even if the user may have a legal right to use the product under such circumstances. 5

If the company ceases to support a specific product or declares bankruptcy, its purchased product may become unusable or incapable of being re installed unless an activation-free copy or final patch that removes or bypasses activation is released. 5

Although many activation schemes are anonymous, some are accompanied by mandatory registration which require providing the user s address, phone number, and other personal information before the product is activated. citation needed

Pirates often find a way to circumvent product activation. 6

Product activation has also resulted in many software vendors treating their customers with much more hostility than they did before they introduced it into their products. This can mean that all users, including those with no intention to illegally distribute their products or knowingly acquire or use bootleg copies, are suspected of being involved in activities related to piracy. citation needed

Product activation where there is no straightforward way to transfer the license to another person to activate on their computer has been widely criticised as making second-hand sales of products, particularly games, very difficult. Some suspect companies such as EA to be using product activation to reduce second-hand sales of their games in order to increase sales of new copies. 5

List of known application software utilizing product activation

ACDSee

Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe eLearning Suite

Adobe Technical Communication Suite

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Adobe Premiere Elements

Alcohol 120

AutoCollage 2008 7

CATIA

Daemon Tools Professional

ESET NOD32

ESET Smart Security

Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Kaspersky Internet Security

Mathematica

MATLAB R2008a and later

McAfee Personal Firewall Plus

McAfee VirusScan

Microsoft Expression Studio 3 and later 8

Microsoft MapPoint 2009 and later 9

Microsoft Math 3.0

Microsoft Office 2003

Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft Office XP

Microsoft Songsmith 10

Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 9

Nero Burning ROM

Nero Multimedia Suite

Norton 360

Norton AntiVirus

Norton Ghost

Norton Internet Security

Norton SystemWorks

Pianoteq

Windows 7

Windows Essential Business Server

Windows Live OneCare

Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008

Windows Small Business Server

Windows Vista

Windows XP

All Autodesk software products citation needed

All Corel software products citation needed

All Cyberlink software products citation needed

All Native Instruments software products released after 2005 citation needed

Almost every commercial video game for PC

List of known products providing product activation for developers 11

Agilis Software s Orion

CrypKey

ElecKey

EnigmaProtector

Flexera Software FlexNet Manager

ICE Licence Protection

OriginKeyring

PELock

Protection. Licensing Toolkit

Serial Sense 12

SolidLicense

Wibu-Systems Code Meter