What genius came up with the idea of a *SIXTY FOUR DIGIT* alphanumeric key?

I just received my copy of Acronis (cheaper to buy from NewEgg.com with free shipping than from Acronis directly for some reason). On the back of the CD is a key that is (I'm not kidding) sixty-four alphanumeric digits long. That's absurd.

 

Actually the serial number is seventy one characters long when you consider the hyphens which you also need to include. I don't have a problem with it in that I store it in a text file (something.txt) using notepad and then copy and paste it from there to the installation. If using an upgrade version I also keep the serial number from the previous version in that same text file and save the *.txt file to a protected location, perhaps a second drive or a CD.

 

I guess that is another advantage of buying the download - just cut and paste the serial number including pasting it into a text file for future reference.

 

Hello jrmoore,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image Home 2009!

A sixty-four digit serial number was introduced with Acronis True Image Home 2009 release. The main reason isn't security or hack protection. The point is to embed into the serial number some additional information (Country, distributor, support program, generation date, etc.) that helps us in different business tasks.

You can save your time if you go the page Quick on-line registration where you can type in the 16 digits of your activation key and get the whole 64-digit serial number registered. After that you can copy it from your account:
https://www.acronis.com/my/products/

Thank you.
Daniel Pustovoy