All Office products are suddenly demanding re-activation?

On Sat, 30 Jul 2016 23:23:53 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Paul
writes:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Paul
writes:
[]
There is a tool here, which can generate a URL
for some of the software that is still downloadable.
[]
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techno.../67-microsoft-
windows-iso-download-tool

Paul
Looks a useful tool.
Who are heidoc, how on earth do they manage to keep something like
that up to date (or don't they), do Microsoft get on well with them,
other similar questions ...

Microsoft 'gets on well" with people that do not host
the files themselves.

If a site makes up URLs that point at www.microsoft.com/somefile.iso
then Microsoft doesn't mind as such.

However, if I downloaded a file and then offered www.paul.com/somefile.iso,
the lawyers would come after me. There would be a DMCA takedown
notice or whatever.

(Not to mention your hosting costs, too.)

The same goes for WSUSOffline. It uses readily available information,
to generate a list of download URLs. All the installed materials
come from Microsoft.

I don't think Microsoft particularly likes these sites, but
on the other hand, the lawyers have fewer weapons to use on
them. And that's what counts.

Paul

Though, presumably, if MS wanted to kill off such sites, they'd only
need to move their files around a bit, and/or rename them - so that the
links didn't work. (Obviously changing any of their _own_ sites that
link to the files, but they should be able to do that easily enough.)

So, given that it looks like they _don't_ mind them enough to kill them
in this way, one wonders why they don't do them themselves. At least
where the files need a key purchase to activate.

I run a few web sites and I have never had a problem linking to anyone
else's site, even a hidden link but Paul is right, I have been spanked
for posting the most innocent thing on my site, even with attribution.

Failing hdd, corrupted hdd, bad hdd cables, virus.

Given that I still have the installation CD and key, I think this response might be on the right track. I am getting an inordinate number of spinning beach balls all the time and I don't think proper disc checking tools exist yet. (DU does the half second SMART test for bad sectors, never seems to detect any or replace anything with spare sectors, and that's it)

This XP is running in a VM and I have scrubbed it and copied an old known-working VM back onto my hard drive and the situation persists, pretending that Office has detected some massive hardware change, demanding the install CD instead of going through activation and then not being able to find PRORET.MSI on it.