Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In Windows 7 and later, significant hardware changes (e.g. motherboard) may require a re-activation. In Windows 10 and 11, a user can run the Activation Troubleshooter if the user has changed hardware on their device recently. If the hardware has changed again after activation, they must wait 30 days before running the troubleshooter again.
Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary software programs. Product activation prevents unlimited free use of copied or replicated software. Unactivated software refuses to fully function until it determines whether it is authorized to fully function. Activation allows the software to stop blocking its use.
Windows Process Activation Service (also known as WAS) is the process activation mechanism introduced within Internet Information Services v7.0. Windows Activation Service builds on the existing Internet Information Services v6.0 but is more powerful because it provides support for other protocols besides HTTP , such as TCP and Named Pipes .
Windows 1.0, the first independent version of Microsoft Windows, released on November 20, 1985, achieved little popularity. The project was briefly codenamed "Interface Manager" before the windowing system was implemented—contrary to popular belief that it was the original name for Windows and Rowland Hanson, the head of marketing at Microsoft, convinced the company that the name Windows ...
Once installed, the operating system can be reinstalled on that particular system via normal means without a product key, and the system's license will automatically be detected via online activation – in essence, the Microsoft Product Activation Server will remember the system's motherboard and give it the green light for product re-activation.
Microsoft has been engaged in volume licensing since its inception, as the enterprise sector is its primary market. With the release of Windows XP in 2001, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Product Activation, a digital rights management (DRM) scheme to curb software piracy among consumers by verifying the user's entitlement to the product license ...
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, [2] officially released to retail on February 17, 2000 for all versions, and on September 26, 2000 for Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.
A feud between the two companies beginning in 1990 led to Microsoft’s leaving development solely to IBM, which continued development on its own. OS/2 Warp 4 in 1996 was the last major upgrade, after which IBM slowly halted the product as it failed to compete against Microsoft's Windows; updated versions of OS/2 were released by IBM until 2001.