zemon@fritz.UUCP (Art Zemon) (01/28/86)
An Open Letter to Microsoft
---------------------------
CC: Everybody Who Owns Microsoft Word 2.0
Dear sirs,
I bought Word v1.10 along with my computer almost a year ago.
When v2.0 was announced, I decided that it was worth the money
and paid the upgrade fee. Given the quality of the program, and
the steep price compared to that of the Macintosh version, I
expected to be well supported by Microsoft. I did not expect a
program which was copy protected and which COULD NOT BE BACKED
UP USING THE STANDARD ZENITH BACKUP PROGRAM!
This is partly Zenith's problem but mostly yours. There is a
bug in the Zenith MS-DOS BACKUP program such that it does not
back up files with the hidden-bit set. The problem is that you
copy protected your software in the first place.
You have probably heard this before, but here it is again so you
cannot miss it: Copy protection is an obnoxious obstruction to
productive work for those of us who are your paying customers.
It does not significantly hamper thieves.
Word 2.0 is a valuable program. Your best copy protection is a
high quality manual and equally high quality telephone support.
As long as you continue to provide real value to your customers,
we will continue to buy your products. But when you copy
protect your products, you seriously degrade their value. I
have better things to do with my time than waste it trying
futily to back up my licensed software and better things to do
with my money that buy Copy II PC (or whatever it is called).
I want to thank your customer support people for being straight-
forward with the answers to my questions. Although I went
through a painfull weekend with a hard disk which would no
longer run Word, I finally have a fully copyable version of the
program.
I'm sure you know how I did it, but I feel that such knowledge
is best repeated often and to as many people as possible.
Therefore, attached to the end of this letter is a complete list
of instructions for removing the copy protection from a licensed
copy of Word 2.0.
I sincerely hope you have learned you lesson. By using a copy
protection scheme which allows backup/restore cycles to be
performed, you have only hindered and angered your licensed
customers (including me). You have not hindered the thieves.
Cordially,
Art Zemon
How to Remove the Copy Protection from Microsoft Word v2.0.
===========================================================
After installing Word on your hard disk, SETUP.EXE will have
created directory \MSTOOLS and put a bunch of files in it.
Using the COPY command will not work because Microsoft has
placed four files in that directory with the hidden-bit set.
The standard PC-DOS BACKUP program finds these files; COPY does
not. (Zenith MS-DOS users beware! The Zenith BACKUP program
does NOT back up these files. I was apparently the first one to
report the bug so it is definitely not fixed in MS-DOS v2.xx and
Zenith Software Consultation doubts that it is fixed in v3.xx.)
The files with the hidden-bit set are:
MW.COD MW.COM MW.DAT MWA.
The last file is particularly annoying. MWA contains the line
"Microsoft Freedom Fighters" and a list of names. Truely a waste
of disk space. Unfortunately, Word 2.0 will not run unless MWA
is present.
To remove the copy protection from Word 2.0, all you need to do
is turn off the hidden-bit for these four files. Once that is
done, COPY, ARC, LU, and any other program you choose will
duplicate them. When you have a hard disk crash and restore
your backup copy, do not give in to temptation and move \MSTOOLS
into something sensible like a \LIB\MSTOOLS so as to unclutter
your root directory. Word 2.0 insists on finding directory
\MSTOOLS.
Finally, now that I've flamed all over Microsoft, I want to
emphasize that I consider Word 2.0 to be the best word
processing program on the market. It is well worth the cost and
I highly recommend it to anyone who writes documents more than
one page long. If you have not personally used Word, go try it.
-- Art Z.
--
-- Art Zemon
FileNet Corp.
...! {decvax, ihnp4, ucbvax} !trwrb!felix!zemonhalff@utah-cs.UUCP (Henry M. Halff) (01/30/86)
In article <19@fritz.UUCP>, zemon@fritz.UUCP (Art Zemon) writes: > > Finally, now that I've flamed all over Microsoft, I want to > emphasize that I consider Word 2.0 to be the best word > processing program on the market. ... > ... If you have not personally used Word, go try it. I've tried Word and WordPerfect. The latter is much faster, easier to use, and better suited to typical MS-DOS configurations. And...it ain't copy protected. On the other hand, if you're working with a MacIntosh... -- Henry M. Halff Halff Resources, Inc. halff@utah-cs.ARPA 4918 33rd Road, N., Arlington, VA 22207
ruth@houxa.UUCP (R.LEWART) (02/08/86)
I just bought the new version of Microsoft Project. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Version 2.0, unlike Version 1.0, does NOT have copy protection. Maybe the message is getting across!