Microsoft will take a big step into online retailing Tuesday when for the first time it will sell a program both as a download and in shrink-wrapped boxes in stores.
The new, $19.95 Plus Digital Media Edition for Windows XP (www.microsoft.com/plus) will also mark the first time Microsoft has required "product activation" in a downloadable program. Activation, first introduced to most consumers in Windows XP itself, is an anti-piracy system that ties a purchased copy of a program to a single machine.
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