Turning off Office's PID Checker

Last week (see previous coverage), Microsoft released its Network Security updater patch to address problems with Office's PID checker (which prevents two Macs on the same network from running a copy of Office with the same serial number).

Several weeks before this, we received a couple of emails describing how to defeat this network security checking altogether, via turning off the relevant port checking in Terminal. Even though it just makes use of a standard Unix command, we were reluctant to post this information, given its potential for misuse to defeat an anti-piracy measure. However, given the risks associated with this PID and given the hassles getting the updater to install, we decided to post this information:

{At Microsoft's request, we have removed this information. Microsoft admits that there is nothing illegal in what we described, that it has a legitimate value, and that information on their own site provided the key step for what needed to be done. Still, they asked that we remove it so as to prevent the dissemination of information that could be used to promote software piracy. We concurred.}

Two oddities While doing research for this posting, we noted two oddities:

Entourage icon glitch The Entourage icon occasionally changes to a crude-looking black outline of its usual filled and colored icon. Logging out and logging back in restores the icon to its original form. We have no idea what triggers this icon change.

Sudo command failure The sudo command (needed to get root access) occasionally fails to work in Terminal. For example, when used it (in the now removed command), it simply would not work. We never even got the prompt to enter our password. Instead, we got a brief listing of the proper usage of the sudo command. After logging out and logging back in from OS X, the sudo command worked correctly. We have seen this happen several times before. Again, we do not know what triggers this glitch.