But sometimes — sometimes — the wizard would say: “The product key you entered is already in use on another computer. Please enter a different product key.” And there, in that moment, you felt the full weight of Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage initiative. You weren’t just activating software. You were proving your digital morality.
There’s a certain kind of dread that only early-2000s software activation could create. Not the cloud-subscription apathy of today, where you just log in and forget. No — this was personal. This was the . Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Activation Wizard
You felt licensed .