hi all, i really think that even this activation scheme wont protect the software really. in fact, its only one piece of of code that does some calculations on some values and compare it. so why not skipping this check ??? even better, if they include this check only in the os as a general function that is then used by other apps like office xp. so a potential cracker has to do the work only once. there are a lot of key generators outside (even for this challenge-response type of authentication) and even dongles are simulated now by a small piece of software. im pretty sure that it is only a matter of (short) time until someone has figured out how to crack this crap. and if you have 30 days to work without a activation key, this is enough time to start such a keygen app and produce your own key....... who the hell came up with the idea that software can be protected via software ??? (and even dongles can be considered a software-only protection scheme as they are used by special librarys.....) if they are comparing the input (response) they must somehow already computed a valid response internally (i.e. in the software itself). so the routines are there, or ?? a suggestion to all software producers out there selling software and protecting them : spend your time on fixing old bugs & enhance functionality. and not on crearting new protection schemes which all will fail sooner or later. does anyone know a product that hasnt been cracked (or at least where the used scheme was cracked in some other software [i.e. license managers like the one used in softimage]) ?? i dont...... i am really happy about linux, it allows me to do my work and my hobbys without spending loads of bucks to get the tools needed. no need for cracked software anyway. and if i can have a base system, which is really stable and performant, and also provides me a lot of software for free, it is no problem for me to spend money on applications a really want to use but are not available as free software. you buy a computer for a lot of bucks, so you should be at least able to do some basic stuff on it without paying more and more (i.e. writing letters, internet, etc....) or do you buy a tool like a drill and then pay an additional fee for every hole you make with it ?? (or to buy a cable to connect it to the power line, because its missing in the "as delivered" form ?) m$ should start and fix the loads of bugs in their *EXISTING* applications and then make these "bugfixed" releases available for free or little cost to the customers. and after this is done, and only then, they should consider making a new version. what they are doing actually is to fix few bugs, and resell that bugfixed version as a new version, giving the impression that all prior version had no bugs et all. some can come to the conclusion that some companys trying to set up defacto standards and after that only produce buggy software to have a reason to sell the next version (buggy also, of course !) what lousy programmers must they be when they are playing this game........ greets, chris -- visit me at http://mamalala.de