My complaint is that the protections that software companies place on their software are destroying the legally-purchased copies and operating systems. Here's my story. I need help figuring out the rules and correct procedures about "Activation" and "De-Activation" and "Validation" "Certificates" and "Authentication." Not knowing the rules to play by can be disastrous, as outlined below.

I recently had to purchase a new Hewlett Packard Vista pc because of "Validation" problems with my legally purchased copy of XP (came installed on a Dell pc). XP wasn't being "validated" by Microsoft and it eventually resulted in killing the motherboard,--long story about tech support having me install XP on top of itself, locking up the cursor [=useless pc], and being directed to reboot many, many times until the motherboard died.

I had similar, but less fatal, problems with uninstalling Roxio (also legally owned) and reinstalling it and losing "Authentication" and "Certificate" and totally corrupting the Windows Installer 3.1 at the same time. I had not fully realized the consequences of not receiving Validation by Microsoft until I tried to download from Microsoft a replacement for Windows Installer 3.1 for XP that had been corrupted by the Roxio authentication process. No validation = No download from Microsoft to fix corrupted file.

So I contacted Microsoft tech support, who tried to fix the validation problem but could not,--they gave up when the cursor froze dead center in the screen after a full re-installation. Microsoft support transferred me over to Dell support who not only were unable to fix the problem, but with the endless repeated rebootings, destroyed the motherboard and told me to go buy and install another motherboard.

As if this were not enough, on my new Vista pc I had installed Acrobat 7 Professional successfully, but while using other software (by Microsoft,--Word, Outlook and Excel) I received an error message stating that they could not work with Acrobat Pro 7, and advised me to install version 8. So I purchased a copy of Acrobat Pro 8, uninstalled Acrobat 7, and proceeded to try to install Acrobat 8. It locked up at the point of "Activation" and disabled my new pc, even after typing in an Activation number that I obtained over the telephone. HP tech support was able to restore my new Vista pc with the "Recovery" procedure restoring my system to its state the day before. But it seems to me that none of this is "consumer friendly" and that I need to know what the rules are that they are playing by.

I don't understand the rules underlying all this activation, validation, authentication and certificate stuff. I have never stolen programs and I do not understand why I am being punished by these protections. What do I need to know in order to not destroy my pc?

Meryl Wieder