Microsoft Corporation is launching a new Registration Wizard in Office 2000 that it hopes will combat software piracy. The new Registration Wizard makes software registration an integral part of the installation process so that illegal installations are cut back. Office 2000 can be used 50 times without registering, but then it will cease to operate. An automatically generated unique ID confirms the registration and no personal information is forwarded to Microsoft.
"Software piracy is a significant problem for the entire industry. We are launching this registration approach because no effective technology exists today to validate licensing," said Jon DeVaan, vice president of the desktop applications division at Microsoft. "We believe that to do it effectively, it's extremely important to provide a customer-friendly approach."
