so what to do if you want to buy ebooks and you can't activate your computer.

for some reason i'm not able to activate my computer, i was able to activate my axim on another computer. but i'd like to be able to buy books on the pocket pc and download them on the pocket pc. i really thought this was possible until barnes and nobles wouldn't let me download the book i just purchased.

so i suppose my question is, which ebook websites let you purchase and download books on the pocket pc?

I use PalmReader for reading ebooks. You can get it at peanutpress.com. You can only read books that are enabled for the PalmReader but they have almost the same books that Barnes and Noble has. Downloads are at the time of the purchase, not through a confirming email. If you sign up for their weekly newsletter, they send a discount code at the bottom of each one. 10% off any book over $3 is better than full price at B&N.

Gentlemen! Start Your Engines!

To activate MS Reader, you need a "Passport" account (a Hotmail address counts as a Passport).

Activation is only required for ebooks that are DRM Level 5 (I think???) encoded, if I recall. Not sure about DRM3.

During the activation process, if there is any type of error do this: clear your browser's cache (Internet Explorer calls it "Temporary Internet Files") and also clear all the Cookies. If you're running any type of software 'personal firewall' it couldn't hurt to disable it during the activation process. I haven't read anything about it, but it just crossed my mind as I was typing this...

The first time I activated Reader, it went with no problem both on the desktop and the Axim. But after then ROM update on the Axim, I had to clear the cookies, etc. on IE before it would accept the activation the second time around.

Thank You! It worked, I cleared out my cookies and temp internet files and it worked. Now that I'm a little more awake I'll post more details to the problem I was facing for future reference.

When I went to the microsoft activation site http://das.microsoft.com/activate/ I would sign into my passport account and it would just return to the first screen without loading an applet.

If anyone else is having this problem then try clearing out your cookies and temp internet files. Thank so much!