A strange surprise awaited me when I booted up my Vista PC this morning; something had apparently tripped Microsoft's infamous Windows Genuine Advantage either during the previous shutdown or startup. An alert window appeared on my login display demanding that unless I activate (actually re activate) my copy of Vista immediately, WGA would henceforth hold my PC hostage. In Lehman's terms Vista would operate in "reduced function mode" until reactivation would allow me back into full user-rights mode. Great way to start off a morning, especially since this workstation contains much of my work for paying clients!

What better way to spend an hour by speaking to a barely comprehensible Indian tech repeat a cryptic 200-digit Activation key back to me, than having to retype the whole sequence over again after misinterpreting his broken english. Remind me again what the advantage is to Windows Genuine Advantage, and who benefits? Certainly not I.

The really comical part to all of this is that Microsoft's product activation is designed to combat software piracy, but in the end it does more to lock out legitimate users like myself rather than pirates who easily find ways to circumvent the system. Thanks for killing an hour of my productivity, Microsoft.