We’ve all been buying audio and video files wrapped in DRMs from Microsoft, Apple, and others. What happens to that content when you upgrade to Vista? If you’ve bought digital media from stores running Windows Media Player 10, you’ll be asked to reauthorize the content. If you are installing Vista on another computer, and then copy the content, you will have to de-authorize and then re-authorize that content as well.

WHAT IS AUTHORIZATION?
Up to 5 computers can share one MSN Music account. Authorizing a computer allows it to play music that you have purchased from MSN Music. During sign up the computer you use is automatically authorized. The only time you’ll need to manually authorize a computer is if you want to play your music on a second, third, fourth, or fifth computer.

AUTHORIZING ADDITIONAL COMPUTERS
There are two ways to authorize additional computers. The simplest way is to copy your music to the other computer and attempt to play it. When you attempt to play songs you’ll see the following dialog. Just click "I already own this song", enter your sign in information, and the PC will be automatically authorized. Licenses for all songs you’ve purchased will be synched to this computer so you only need to see this dialog for the first song you attempt to play.

The second way to authorize additional computers is to go to the My Account page and choose Manage My Computers. You can then click Authorize to enable that computer to use MSN Music.

WHAT IS DE-AUTHORIZATION
De-authorization is your way to manage whether your music will be playable on a computer. You are able to authorize up to five computers at once to play your music collection.  De-authorization takes that privilege away from the computer. You should de-authorize a computer when you are replacing it or when you no longer want to purchase or play your music on it.

HOW DO I DE-AUTHORIZE A COMPUTER
De-authorization must be done from the computer being de-authorized. If that computer is no longer accessible to you you will need to contact MSN Music Technical Support to have them de-authorize that computer for you. If you use shared profiles with Windows XP de-authorizing will disable MSN Music from all profiles. To de-authorize go to the My Account page and choose Manage My Computers. On that page click the de-authorize button.

Note:
Windows Media Player 10 only:
You can re-authorize and de-authorize the computer as many times as you choose.

With stuff from Apple’s iTunes, deauthorize your PC before upgrading to Vista. Simply sign in to the iTunes store, and, from the Store menu, select Deauthorize Computer. After upgrading, reverse the process to re-enable access to your files. If you’ve authorized the maximum five PCs, select View My Account from that same menu, where you can "Clear all authorizations" once a year.

Tags | General, Windows Vista