It’s not my intention to bash Microsoft with this post, but what I just experienced is so ridiculous I have to blog about it.
I recently downloaded Microsoft’s free version of Visual C# 2005 and a few days later, began being harassed by a tiny balloon which would pop up every half-hour or so reminding me that I needed to register within 30 days or I wouldn’t be able to use the software anymore. Okay, fine, I bit the bullet and decided to register.
The first page I encountered required me to sign up for Microsoft Passport. But wait, I thought Passport was dead? And why force me to sign up just to register my software?
Continuing on, I received a confirmation e-mail for my Passport registration. I also received an e-mail requesting that I verify my e-mail address by clicking on a link, which I did.
In the meantime, I had finally gotten to the Visual C# registration page and had entered in my information. Clicking save resulted in another e-mail in my box, asking me to confirm that my e-mail address is correct. But wait, didn’t I do this already? Oh yeah, that was just for Passport. Don’t bother sharing information between applications, guys. Sheesh.
After receiving confirmation for my Visual C# registration, I had received a total of four… yes four… e-mails after registering a single product.
Does it really have to be this way?