[Janak Parekh]

http://channels.lockergnome.com/mob...ctivation.phtml

"If you read ebooks on your Pocket PC which have Digital Rights Management protection on them, you have to activate the MS Reader application from the Microsoft Reader web site. Don’t get me started about the MS Reader DRM but this tip is for those users who use the Reader ebooks. Every time you do a hard reset on your Pocket PC, the activation is lost and you have to go through the whole process of activation again. You also run the risk of exceeding your allowed number of activations (6) and losing access to your ebooks forever. There is a way to save your activation and carry it back to your Pocket PC after a hard reset which prevents the need to reactivate the Reader online."

I've seen this tip recur in the forums over and over, but this article does a nice job of summarizing it up. Note that you shouldn't have to do this; multiple activations on the same device shouldn't count as separate activations. Nevertheless, it's a useful trick to have.

[Janak Parekh]

http://channels.lockergnome.com/mob...ctivation.phtml

"If you read ebooks on your Pocket PC which have Digital Rights Management protection on them, you have to activate the MS Reader application from the Microsoft Reader web site. Don’t get me started about the MS Reader DRM but this tip is for those users who use the Reader ebooks. Every time you do a hard reset on your Pocket PC, the activation is lost and you have to go through the whole process of activation again. You also run the risk of exceeding your allowed number of activations (6) and losing access to your ebooks forever. There is a way to save your activation and carry it back to your Pocket PC after a hard reset which prevents the need to reactivate the Reader online."

I've seen this tip recur in the forums over and over, but this article does a nice job of summarizing it up. Note that you shouldn't have to do this; multiple activations on the same device shouldn't count as separate activations. Nevertheless, it's a useful trick to have.

[webagogue]

Or you could just bypass the whole scheme altogether, rip the DRM out of your LIT files, convert them to simple text, and never have to worry about activation again.

It may be tough to find, but there is a program called Convert LIT (clit.exe - ya gotta love hacker's imaginations). It converts your LIT files to plain text.

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/10/12...tid=153&tid=99

Microsoft Reader on the PPC doesn't work all that well for me - I hate waiting five minutes just to have my file paginate.

A very good reader program, but with a somewhat funky interface, is uBook http://www.gowerpoint.com/

[ctmagnus]

I back up the activation and rip out the DRM . But the only two books I've acquired that anybody expected any kind of compensation for weren't DRMed in the first place.

[Jonathan1]

Hmm 6 steps in the precess. Not bad. I have one step

Step 1... http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/

[bleeman]

I've been using MS Reader now since my first iPAQ back in 2001 as well as on my laptop. I've re-activated it at least 3 dozen times in the past 3+ years as I've rebuilt my laptop or hard reset my iPAQ's. In each case, I've never had a problem. A quick trip to the MS Reader activation site and I'm back up and running. Even though I've replaced my laptop once and I'm on my fourth iPAQ I've always used the same E-mail account and my laptop and iPAQ have kept the same device names.

In addition, I'm still able to access/read all 260+ ebooks I've purchased in that timeframe as well.

Yes, it would be nice to not have to deal with activation but overall it's been a relatively painless process for me.

[Marc Zimmermann]

I've re-activated my devices many times and have yet to see any problems or exceeding the limit. Unlike the PC version, where a hard disk reformat and Windows reinstall invalidate the activation, a Pocket PC can be reactivated without eating up an activation. The device ID remains the same over the course of time so that you re-use the previous activation.

[cyp]

As for me, I can't open some of my DRM protected books on my activated PPC although I can open it on my notebook. I can't be bothered to figure out why. Converted the books and am now happily reading them in uBook.

[gorkon280]

I long gotten tired of the DRM on MS Reader books I have gotten but I ended up ripping it. The main reason is even if I was activated and all, I would be reading a book and hen it would spit out a error message that I wasn't authorized and then I had to kill MSReader and restat it. Removing the DRM resolved the issue. I did not pirate them because I removed the DRM either....I still bought these books.

[DaleReeck]

I go through a lot of devices and always have problems with MS Reader activation limits. MS gives you an option to request more activations (actually, one more) but it takes them two-three days to respond.

It would be nice if the web site had an "un-activate" feature so that you can move the activation to another device. That wouldn't help in unexpected hard resets, but if you are like me and upgrade devices a lot, it would be helpful. But when has MS ever made anything easy?

[Raphael Salgado]

I've got an old GHOST image of my old hard drive that has an activated Microsoft Reader, but I started fresh with a new OS install and configuration that can't get activated since I've "run out."

Anyone know how I can extract the activation files or registry entries from that image?