Are you going to register your copy of Visual Studio?

Dear Customers,

I have a question for all of you: why do you register Visual Studio?

We are currently crafting the registration experience for you in Whidbey. In the past, you were asked to register the product at the end of setup for one time only. If you skip registration at that point, you really don't have access to register anymore unless you hunt for the registration website on MSDN or mail in the registration card.

We are going to make registration more accessible from the IDE and the experience more seamless. We are not going to ask you your pet's name or your car's color. We are going to minimize the number of questions asked to reduce the overhead of registration.

The reason why we ask want to gather your information is because we want to serve you better. Our Product Management Group will intelligently contact you with relevant events in your local area, send you offers and news that is of interest to you. The goal here is absolutely not to annoy you, our customers. We just want to serve you better.

I am not sure what thoughts come to your mind when you hear the word registration. Please send me some feedback on whether you would register your copy of Visual Studio and why.

James

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  Won't limiting the questions as little as possible result in a lot of questions...
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  I will register software if I have to, but I really don't like to.
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  I won't register unless the software is nonfunctional without registration. And then I will look for alternatives.
  
  Microsoft's ability to find news of interest to me has always been far inferior to my own ability to find news of interest to me. I prefer to choose when and how to use my own bandwidth.
  
  I don't object to other people getting marketing stuff if they want, though. Just make sure that those of us who aren't interested can turn off all reminders and other nuisances.
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  does registering help me get any better tech support? if yes then I'll be Happy to register.
  
  other wise it's a waste of time and info.
  
  " We are going to limit the number of questions as little as possible "
  
  I think you meant:
  
  " We are going to limit the number of questions as much as possible "
  
  
  the first means lots of questions whith few limits, the second means very few questions.
  Got that?
  :-)
  
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  I have a sub to MSDN Universal, why on earth would I want to register? It buys me nada.
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  Perhaps if you explain what exactly the benefits of registration are for the customer and for Microsoft at the moment, it'll be easier for people to articlate what they want from it.
  
  If I'm asked "do you want to register" for just about anything, my immediate reaction is "why do I need to do this - what's in it for them, and what's in it for me?".
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  I'd need to know what benefits registration provides. If I can get tech support and service packs without registering, I am highly unlikely to register.
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  > contact you with relevant events in your local area, send you offers and news that is of interest to you.
  
  a) VS uses IE to serve web pages from MS network
  
  b) IE tends to send information which establishes users local area to the MS server
  
  c) Possible "shortcut" registration for those who have passport or MSDN subsc. so that they can do something like "one click registration" if they so want. Maybe it already works like that - never tried.
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  So will the final VS.NET 2005 include Product Activation like Office or Windows XP/2003?
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  (it seems my first attempt at posting this went wrong; sorry if it shows up twice)
  
  I can't even remember having seen a registration form with VS 2003, but I suspect that is because it might not even be shown at all for the version that comes on the MSDN subscription CDs (we have a MSDN Professional subscription). After all, the MSDN subscription is implicitly 'registered', otherwise you wouldn't have had a clue where to send those CDs to :)
  
  Given the things that software companies have done in the past with 'registrations' and given the heightened alertness in these spam-filled days of people when they are asked for their e-mail address, a registration form tends to set of alarm bells for many people, and they will try to find out how to get around them "without selling their soul". Maybe at some later stage they would be prepared to fill in such a registration form, if they would see some advantage to it, and if they remembered they didn't fill it in yet. Also, don't forget that registration forms are usually shown at the worst possible moment: when the user is eager to get started with his new toy ASAP.
  
  Many people view registration as a service they provide to the company whose product they just bought. If you want a response, make sure you do the following things:
  - Tell the user precisely what the benefits of registration are for him/her.
  - Tell the user what you are going to do with the registration information. Be sure to allow an opt-out for any e-mail that might be perceived as spam.
  - Tell the user what your benefits are if the user registers (I have never seen this in practice). This might cause some users to register, even if they don't see any immediate benefits to themselves. Openness is a good way of improving your karma...
  
• Anonymous
  June 04, 2004
  Personally I would love to have that option in the IDE (Help, near About, for example) of any product, simply because when I install that product I may not be connected to the Internet and therefore skip Registration until later. It would be great to be able to register at any time without pain.
  
  Sorin Dolha [MCAD, MCSD .NET]
• Anonymous
  June 05, 2004
  I will register only in case if it provide me any benefits from been unregistered.
  
  But I would like to describe you one problem with current registration in my region.
  In case if user in Russia register his valid and legal copy of Windows 2000 using build-in Registration wizard - he get no benefits from this and his registration data simply ignored.
  If he need to get any support from Russian Microsoft office - he need to register once more using fax or post-mailing registration card.
  
  This problem exists even in Russian localized version of Registration Wizard. During localization it was simply translated - but not connected to Moscow support office :o((
  
  This is an example how to NOT do registration.
  
• Anonymous
  June 05, 2004
  If I give you something (my time in registering, information about me and my company) what will the return on that be?
  
  Event Info? My RSS sub's work for that.
  Spam? Have enough, thank you...
  
  Give me some free stuff, VS books, CD's, geek toys, even shirts (I know I can always use more geekshirts)... Something tangible.
  
  Maybe "membership" into a VS feedback community? I'm thinking that if we take the time to reg, then we might also take the time to help you build a better VS...
  
  Sure, these things will cost MS a little, but our reg gives MS hard numbers for which they can use in the marketing (2 million VS users Served...etc), demographic information, etc. Information that has value.
  
  Give the VS user a strong, compelling reason to give you their information and they will. (well enough will)
  
  Just 'cause it's easy isn't good enough anymore in my book.
  
  Show us, the customer, that you value the time and information by giving us something of value in return.
• Anonymous
  June 05, 2004
  I never registered a single software, for the same reason that I never registered my car, my TV set, my PS2, neither my PS2 game discs: I never felt the need.
  Why should a supplier need that the customer "register" its products?
  The whole "experience" buys me nothing, so, why should I register?
• Anonymous
  June 05, 2004
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• Anonymous
  June 05, 2004
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• Anonymous
  June 05, 2004
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• Anonymous
  June 06, 2004
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• Anonymous
  June 06, 2004
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• Anonymous
  June 10, 2004
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• Anonymous
  June 29, 2004
  I started with Framework 1.0 download 2 years ago and using Notepad as my C# editor. Then I got my first copy of VS.NET 2002 and now use VS.NET 2003.
  <p>
  I have no problem registering if told of the benefits of registering. So, what are they if any, or what do you propose they'll be for WHIDBEY?
  <p>
  Ken