Funny you should ask. That's one of the first questions I asked. I didn't
get a precise answer and no dates certain, but I did get some general
thinking. Here are the answers I think I got (hopefully I won't upset the
folks who gave me these answers):

-- Reactivation is **not** tied to the two year expiration of online
services. (I.e., if you replace a hard disk, say, and reinstall Money, it
will generate a very similar footprint to one that already got activated and
that similarity will enable it to get re-activated against that original
fingerprint/count on the license without further begging/pleading.)

-- There will probably come a day when new activation will be "unsupported".
(I.e., a product key that's never been activated on anything will not be
activated.) This day may be before the date that a reactivation will no
longer be honored.

-- There will probably come another day when the additional activation (say
you never used that second one up till a point years from not that you
install it on a laptop) and/or re-activation will no longer be honored. This
date is not certain but is probably somewhere around the time that the
product is declared obsolete per the Microsoft product lifecycle policies.
If I understand correctly, this is past the point of both expiration of
online services and past the published "end of support" date.

Note that management of the "expiration of online services" date is now
glued in with activation so it's a date certain and you can see that date
for the installation you are using somewhere in Help|About. Note also that
the M08 "online services policy" is now reworded to include the possibility
that Microsoft may offer some subscription or similar to "pay-for-extension"
of this date. Presumably the possibility of such a future offering is
another reason they glued managing the online services expiration date into
the DRM scheme and the DigitalRiver activation process. One might also
wonder if the inclusion of such a possibility in the published policy
amounts to surveying and grading the off ramp for development of the Money
stand-alone application. Only time will tell if they pave it and put up the
barriers directing us all to that off ramp.

All of this depends, at least when viewed from this point in time, on
survival and future operations of DigitalRiver which is handling the
MoneyPlus activation process for Microsoft.

As I understand it, MoneyPlus will be similar to other activated products
from Microsoft in that the begging and pleading option **will** be available
in the case of some kind of failed activation. Examples that come to mind
are a machine that has changed too much to pass the fingerprint test and
won't activate or if you replace your system(s) with new ones and want to
reinstall your original MoneyPlus.

One other tidbit about activation: For the first time the MoneyPlus trial,
download purchase, and retail purchase installs are all the same thing.
That's got to be a good thing for support and reliability and it should
reduce development/test/support costs. You'd like to think those savings
will get plowed back into developing a better product, but maybe they just
extend the day that Microsoft will continue to feed this beast before
abandoning the Money application for more profitable ventures.

"Marilyn & Bob" <Privacy[at]nospam.please> wrote in message
news:uOkcJHb3HHA.5424[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Does it also mean that after the two year download feature has expired, that
they also will not provide activation if it is necessary?
--
Peace,
BobJ

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:%23QjIsYa3HHA.5424[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
- quote -

No it doesn't mean that. It just means that once it's sent two different
hardware system "fingerprints" upstream it won't activate on a significantly
(how significantly we don't know) hardware system without begging and
pleading.

"John Simon" <darkavenger2000[at]pleaseremove.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:PKqdnVCq9rddUCLbnZ2dnUVZ_tOtnZ2d[at]comcast.com...
- quote -

So does this mean it cannot be installed on a desktop and a laptop? Money
2006 allows that in its License Terms... (See my previous thread "Installing
Money 2006 on Two Machines?" which Cal Learner replied to.)

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:OZhwsST3HHA.5316[at]TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Yup. Yup.

"Barry" <barry[at]none.no> wrote in message
news:1pytuincsevi5.1e363rcywoucg$.dlg[at]40tude.net...
- quote -

Currently on Money 2006 ... I usually buy the retail CD version every
couple years. Does Money Plus (retail) now require product activation? If
so, is it like Vista activation (system changes or upgrades may mean
re-activation)? Thanks.