Microsoft is tightening the noose for those people running illegal or pirated copies of its Windows XP/2000 software on their systems. Starting Tuesday, it will be mandatory for users of this Windows software to certify that their software is a genuine and legal copy before they will be able to receive any updates except security patches.
The more pressure microsoft puts, the better it is for
Linux. People who care about Windows will pay. People
who dont will defect. It is a win-win for everybody!
Maybe. Most of them will just try a different pirated copy or just live with security updates only.
Doubtful. You assume people are just going to automatically go to linux instead of just dealing without updates. Mac is another viable option. They already have a windows system in place with all their data and applications. They are not going to give that up for linux especially when they don’t know the first thing about it.
It’s not going to make Linux’s market share suddenly jump, but it won’t have a negative impact either. To switch to Mac would mean buying new hardware – with Linux, they can have a secure, up-to-date desktop on their current hardware. I wouldn’t dismiss the positive impact on Linux so lightly.
It’s also entierly possible that updates will be distributed by the warez groups instead. Whats stoping someone from developing an Azureus plugin to replace “Windows Update”?
You don’t want to have to pay for it when you can just use linux. I’m happy, plus less piracy is better
I agree that less piracy is better for Linux, but this isn’t quite piracy. How does Microsoft know a version is pirated?
If I install XP on VMware, scrap it and install it in another VMware virtual machine, it will appear that I installed XP on another machine, even though it’s the same one. Do I need to buy another license? I hope not, but given past experience, I’m not optimistic.
And depending on how it’s implemented, it may affect WINE too. If all Microsoft products do this check, it may determine that WINE is pirated or “not an official copy of Windows” and refuse to install.
I’ve been fully on Linux for the last six years and my current job is on Solaris 8, so Windows is something that I only use once or twice a year. But if my next job is on Windows, the WINE and VMware issues may become important.
If I install XP on VMware, scrap it and install it in another VMware virtual machine, it will appear that I installed XP on another machine, even though it’s the same one. Do I need to buy another license? I hope not, but given past experience, I’m not optimistic.
You might not know this but each VMware machine has the same hardware – XP only looks at hardware and if its the same exactly then there is no difference with activation etc…
All the people who will no longer be able to update their pirated XP copies (which is what, like 60% of the world?) and then will begin spreading worms and other security issues to the rest of us. Great idea!
If you bothered to read even the blurb for the article, you’d realise that Microsoft will still allow users with pirate copies to receive critical security updates. It’s the other updates that will not be available
I find this a good thing. No pay, no game, folks.
I really hope that a noticable stability/speed difference will appear between legal/patched and illegal/unpatched Windows installs, pushing people to *buy* their software instead of stealing it.
Bwahahah. Microsoft can push my you-know-what.
I guess then my MSDN copy of Win2k that I had since 2000 may be considered illegal then? If it is, FINE. I bought Windows XP for home use but this is it. If Microsoft wishes to protect its property, it should have done it sooner. I’m betting though that Vista has so much copy protection that you need a code just to put in new hardware.
Yet another amsuing Microsoft anti-piracy measure. It was defeated before they started! There are keygens out there which can and do produce “valid” product keys.
So we’ll see if they come up with a better system in Vista. Because stopping people from using pirated copies of all Windows versions thus far has been a hopeless endeavor.
Oh maybe it is……i’m running corp and when I checked the validation on the ms antispyware web
page the last time I did a reinstall about a month ago it passed.
Well last night i did a fresh install on another pc , with the SAME key , and just for kicks i went to validate it it FAILED it gave a message “The key you are trying to validate was never given out by microsoft ”
So the ol 4 in 1 keygen creates keys that will let you install but if its not a key given out by microsoft they know.
time to fall back and punt;)
Sorry about the off-topic, but I have a piracy related question.
If I buy a legal DVD of some movie (let’s say for example Lion King) and then download all songs from that movie, would that be considered piracy?
IANAL but I believe that would be fair use and therefore perfectly legal. However, if you distributed copies to friends/family/stangers, that would be piracy.
If I buy a legal DVD of some movie (let’s say for example Lion King) and then download all songs from that movie, would that be considered piracy?
Yes. Now if you ripped all the songs from the movie yourself it would not be.
I think, according to the letter of the law, it depends on what you mean by “download.” I don’t think you could download the soundtrack off of the Internet, the soundtrack is a seperate commercial entitiy, and you would have to purchase it. If you mean rip the audio tracks off of your DVD, that should definately be considered “Fair Use.”
I think they are within their rights to take this kind of action – even if I as someone who paid for Windows would disagree with the policy over privacy concerns. They should be allowed to attempt to protect their intelectual property.
That said, because of their position as a monopoly, they should continue to offer security patches to those who have pirated (or other come into the possesion of) their software.
Also, if MS doesn’t want pirates to use their software so bad, Linux is fast becoming a viable alternative – and Mac OS X intel is on the way (for guys like me who don’t switch to Mac because it will break their games, will now be able to 🙂 )
If you’re not running BSD your PC is completely useless.
If you’re not running BSD your PC is completely useless.
Yeah, I don’t get any work done on XP. Whatever.
I guess this will lead to 50% of all Windows users having a hopelessly outdated and insecure system by the time Vista is released.
My random thought.
>I guess this will lead to 50% of all Windows users having
>a hopelessly outdated and insecure system
You mean the OTHER half?
What next? Some sort mandatory RFID implant that is only valid while your Microsoft Windows Software Rental Agreement is paid and up to date?
And if Microsoft detects an invalid RFID it calls Homeland Security and issues a terrorist alert?
Microsoft = totalitarian police state
I guess the load on the windowsupdate servers will raise by 1000% right before tuesday.
There are so many “illegal” copies of WinXP out there being run that MS could never, ever lock them all down.
I agree with someone who said that this is the start of the Vista campaign. But, it seems rather pointless. Most people consider an OS to be a commodity now, like air. They will get it if they want it and get the updates too if they need them. Either by a hack or by the pirates starting to offer XP updates over the net.
if MS offered the OS at a reasonable price, instead of $100+ a pop, more people would probably buy it as opposed to just taking it.
But I pirate all the pay-for linux distros like Suse and make sure they’re freely available for everybody to use.
Once everybody figures out you can’t make money off of Lunix, everybody will realize that Lunix is hobbyist, teenager crap.
Use BSD, Solaris, or OSX for a real Unix.
Sorry, but if you can’t make any money from the GPLed Linux you will not be able to make it from Unixes with BSD like lcenses either.
In GPL you share the knowledge and knowhow encapsulated in your products with your competitors having them promis to share whatever enhancment they do to the product with you and everybody else that has the binary code.
In the BSD world you give away your IP to your competitors let them close it, improve it and then compete with you without giving anything back.
Don’t feed the trolls. Please kill this flame ware in it’s cradle.
Why does all the worst crap always come from anonymous posters?
SUSE has *always* been available for free download, via FTP until 9.0. Since 9.1 also as isos. In order to add anything missing you use either YaST or APT, if you have any brains.
Same for Mandrake/driva: download the free isos, then configure urpmi to download everything else.
Also talking of ” pirating all the pay-for linux distros” is extremely stupid, because sharing linux is never illegal.
People will always buy boxed distros or pay for club memberships regardless, in order to support linux and their fav distro.
And even if all the commercial distros died, there would always be excellent free ones: ever heard of Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, Kanotix, Ubuntu, to mention
just a few?
I guess this will lead to 50% of all Windows users having a hopelessly outdated and insecure system by the time Vista is released.
Don’t you mean *when* Vista is released? *snicker*
How exactly do they know that a copy of windows is pirated? Do they check the key you used to install it? When we bought Windows XP Pro for the office, we used the same key for all the machines. We bought a multiple machine licence though. Are we going to get screwed by this?
No one is going to switch to Linux/BSD/Solaris because of this.
Maybe 2 or 3 crazy hard-core Microsoft haters with short tempers might bother to switch to Apple, but not until they use Intel chips.
I’m guessing that most people even willing to pay for a licensed copy will just wait for Vista to come out and buy a real license for it instead.
99.999999% of people will just deal with it.
The resourceful ones will just go find a Windows XP key generator and change their serial key to one that’s not already blocked by Microsoft. You don’t even have to re-install, just takes a quick registry tweak. Not that I would know anything about it…
The resourceful ones will just go find a Windows XP key generator and change their serial key to one that’s not already blocked by Microsoft. You don’t even have to re-install, just takes a quick registry tweak. Not that I would know anything about it…
says it all.
good on microsoft for this.
I believe that if one REALLY wants all those updates, it won’t be a problem to bring up a sus or wsus server – no validation hassle guaranteed.
Did I understand the article right? Did Microsoft actually say it was ok to run Office on Wine asd well as get updates (to Office). Hmm. So Microsoft actually admitted that Wine was valid….
Automated updates will still work for pirated copies
Manual update where you select stuff to get, etc will be protected.
Is it pure coincidence that this move by MS comes just as I finally got round to downloading Kanotix, PC-BSD, BeOS Max and Xandros OCE?
How did they know this was exactly the right moment to push me over the edge once & for all into AlternativeOS-Land? Uncanny… Anyways, thanks for giving me the final excuse I needed, Microsoft.
I don’t particular give a shit what Microsoft does with its crappy software and even crappier licenses.
As to detecting if you’re running a pirate copy of Microsoft Windows, guys, are you that dumb and naive? You really think that Microsoft Windows doesn’t have a call home worm embedded in it? Puh-lease! Microsoft knows all about what you’re running, and they can easily tell if it’s a pirated version or not.
If the majority of people weren’t stupid, they’d realise the sort of company that Microsoft is and switch to either OS X, Linux or BSD. But since most people are dumb…
Dave
I can’t see MS producing any updates for XP that are not security related with Vista around the corner. The only people that might be missing out are new pirates or ones that are going to be reinstalling for some reason and they’ve always got the option of trying out VistaBeta.
Kudos to MS for allowing security updates however. OK they save themselves some hassle but it saves most people some hassle too.
how can microsoft know if your copy of xp is legal or illegal if you are using the Corporate Edition of xp pro which has no product key and no activation ?
Corporate versions HAVE a serial number.
Based on my (limited) experience, you can make a normal XP Pro “corporate” just by entering the corporate serial number – no activation.
how can microsoft know if your copy of xp is legal or illegal if you are using the Corporate Edition of xp pro which has no product key and no activation ?
I don’t think they can prevent these particular users from doing that.
But only time will tell.
The “corporate” (or “volume license”) version still needs a serial code/key but doesn’t require activation.
They can see what serial key you have when you go to get updates. They only block keys that are known to be widley distributed. A large number of pirated versions of Windows are using a pretty small number of keys that have been shared over and over again.
They’re not going to be able to block every possible pirated key, but they can block a majority of people this way. So if you have a valid key, don’t share it with anyone.
Now people can measure the true value of windows… Most of them will perceive that windows is overpriced and you can do the same with free software for much less.
Windows has value for most of the people only when it is free (as beer).
The next windows version probably will require that you give a sample of your blood to activate your windows copy using your DNA as primary key of M$ windows activation database…
This is the ture reason why there was a “Microsoft DNA” project in past (http://www.linktionary.com/m/microsoft_dna.html), which then was renamed as “.Net project”…
🙂
I can see pirate repos of security updates coming along.
But seriously running a good firewall and virus scanner (although i never get virii anyway) keeps my windows system fine. I never have any security issues. I almost never bother with windows update.
I don’t see how this is going to effect those who paid for windows xp. If you’re legal then you’re ok. Why would someone who is legal jump ship is beyond me. Do we have pirates here or what?
Argh, matey. Me sees Window’s is not sea wrothy, Argh!
Now people can measure the true value of windows… Most of them will perceive that windows is overpriced and you can do the same with free software for much less.
I think most Windows users are so dependant on the operating system, that they are willing to pay what ever price Redmond demands for their wares. Also, most people probably don’t go to the trouble of buying Windows in the store to install it on their machines; they just use the version that comes preinstalled on their machine and buy a new machine and receive a new version later on.
Actually I agree. A Microsoft executive could eat a live child on live TV and say, “This act was financed by Microsoft revenues” and people would curse Microsoft, and complain…and keep using Windows.
The idea that Microsoft could do anything to drive people away in droves is, I think, wishful thinking. It’s not quality or convenience (or lack thereof) that drives peoples OS usage – it is momentum, and the resistance to change. Microsoft has a lot of momentum. Even if you make the point that there are equivalent competing products on other OSes, and even applications that can read, say, their Word documents, this is not something that sinks in easily.
For every geek who finds joy in adapting to something new and exploring a new application or OS, there are 100 Windows users who freak out when someone moves a shortcut on their desktop. Anyone who has supported a non-technical user community on Windows will probably verify what I’m talking about.
The only thing that, I think, could drive people to another desktop is for a competing OS to offer something so mindblowingly above-and-beyond what Windows offers, and I’ve not seen that yet, speaking in terms of the average user. Given a user who simply browses the web, works with e-mail, and does some word processing, all major OSes can do this functionally well.
Apple’s OS has, in my opinion, a much more thoughtfully designed interface but I doubt this alone is enough to make people switch platforms. I have known Linux/BSD users who have gone over to the Mac, but the only other people I know who have Macs (IRL), are people who have always used Macs. Of course now, they gloat. A lot. (And not without reason, I might add. You can’t call the Mac a computer for wimps anymore.)
No, I think Microsoft could hold its users at gunpoint and do rude and illegal things to their spouses while they watch, and they’d still use Windows. And pay for the “privilege” too. This is not likely to change. When you consider that most home users (at least) get Windows (legally) preinstalled on their Dells…well…
Time will tell I guess. Frankly, I don’t see a simple license check as that big a deal. Then again, I bought my boxed Windows 2000 Pro outright (after having to nearly threaten CompUSA into selling this “business only” – they insisted – OS to me. Idiots.)
I know a lot of people who pirate Windows who aren’t worried about it. I suspect if Microsoft could get to a point whereby they really could shut down all illegal copies of Windows, people would find the cash and buy a license…probably at some kind of discounted “amnesty” price.
Don’t ever count on outrage at Microsoft to drive anything but spleen-venting cascades other than OSNews and Slashdot forums. I’m not being critical either. Just realistic.
Cant wait for that new virus or worm to pop up disabling the auto-updates features in MS Windows XP! lol we’ll all love to see how that goes cause we all know its possible! lol…do they really think this fights piracy or do they really think pirates will pay??? LMAO
you know.. this might be good for linux, however….. the vast majority of windows users are legal users and i very highly doubt they would jump ship because of this…. however, i think a massive ammount of build your own pc people use pirated copies of windows and this may very well put many of them over the edge… besides, these people are generally more informed on what is going on than your average home user.
The thing that will help make “joe user” jump ship to *NIX is competitive pricing and training – throw some free training in with a new system sale and even people that have never used Linux before will consider it. Also, use an easy distro like Linspire, one that has easy updates and a very easy interface.
….. as long as windows exists it will be pirated, i don’t care what they do to protect it, what registrations measures they take….. it dosen’t matter, it will be cracked and it will be pirated
this isn’t because it is windows… it goes for osx, and would go for linux and bsd to if these liscensing issues applied
so… that being said…… why the hell do they try…. they know better.
Just tried to update Win XP today without using “Genuine diAdvantage”
Installed Win XP Pro SP2 today, and added some patches that I already stored. Went to AutoUpdate. No matter what way I chose – Express or Custom, you get the same
Windows Update
To use this latest version of Windows Update, you will need to upgrade some of its components…
Details:
Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130)
The Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool enables you to … Once you have installed this item, it cannot be removed.
Unless you install “Genuine Advantage” you can’t get any update through Windows Update client/site.
Going to Downloads section is equally useless. Practically nothing, except for “Security Updates”, posted in last 9 months (as far as i checked) is available for download. Even backgrounds and “calculator plus” requre “Genuine pain in the batut”
Had to put the foil hat in the closet and become Genuine. I wander if I could pull the fixes from an ftp somehow…
Internet Explorer
Tools |Internet Options | Programs | Manage add-ons
find WGA on the list, disable, restart IE, isn’t MS wonderful!
There is no “Manage Programs” on my IE…. What to do?
If you want to get around this update here is how:
Microsoft “Genuine Advantage” cracked in 24h: window.g_sDisableWGACheck=’all’
AV sez, “This week, Microsoft started requiring users to verifiy their serial number before using Windows Update. This effort to force users to either buy XP or tell them where you got the illegal copy is called ‘Genuine Advantage.’ It was cracked within 24 hours.”
Before pressing ‘Custom’ or ‘Express’ buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:
javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck=’all’)
It turns off the trigger for the key check.
You must install the Genuine Advantage Validation Tool for this to work. Hope this helps.
This is SUCH good news, it may make people think about what they’re paying for. Every reboot, blue screen and freeze – think to themselves “I just paid good $$ for this crap!”… Makes the total cost of ownership of that pile of doggie doo-do relatively high. Pirate? Yeah, deal with all that, even more crap to deal with, every reformat need to go find those cracks. Now they break the cracks, you need to find new ones… Maybe that crack didn’t work – it’s still freezing and needs rebooting….How much longer are you gonna do that? It’s so funny how stupid people are.
I install xp sp2 unattended, with no activation or key required. i just ran the WGA,been 15 minutes cancelled it. Now grabbing software.
Have any of the pirate people here stopped to consider that XP might be unstable because of all the hacks in the pirated version; not mention the added hacks of all the other pirated software you install onto it?
I’m willing to bet most of the “pirate population” hasn’t used a “genuine version of windows” in quite some time, circa Win 95 at least.
Not true. Where I work there all legit copies and as unstable as heck.
My experience is that Windows is very sensitive to the stability of the hardware used. Pick a rock solid system, and you will see much of the instability go away.
Now for the rest…
I can see how the zealots can find this as just another reason to bash MS, but whatever, the point was taken years ago. It’s becoming similar to all these news sites we see every day. The same 10-20 things said over and over again.
Since I bought a complete mac system recently I guess I read this all with a changed point of view. Vista seems almost invisible to me, Balmer is a bumbling idiot full to the brim with desperation and the Linux/BSD community is, well the Linux/BSD community
It’s a strange feeling being able to sit down and just do what I want without getting involved in the politics of the process. To bad it only took me about 10 years to find a happy medium. Finaly, its over. Goodbye.
Hey Anonymous, what are you doing on this site? We have no room for sane logical arguments. We only want fanbois and zealots.
If your OS works and it’s secure now, then why would you jump ship. Admittedly if you really think linux is more secure than Windows and you don’t know how to secure Windows then you’re probably going to jump. At the end of the day I use my computer for email, surfing, writing documents and spreadsheets, some DVD burning and website design. I can do that on Windows, OSX and to a certain extent Linux. And I do. I couldn’t give a shit what OS I’m using as long as the apps I need work on it and it doesn’t crash. All 3 OSes fit that criteria.
All this means is if potentially another major security hole is ‘found’ in windows (I bet m$ purposely make the OS totally insecure to blackmail people into things such as WGA), we’ll have thousands of infected PC spamming shit all over the internet.
Think SQL Slammer, but XP style.
Do I own a copy of Windows XP. Yes (in a way). I have a HP system and HP refuses to offer me a copy of Windows XP with a drivers disk. They will only give me a crippled version of Windows with thousands of trial software that is impossible to completely get rip of. So I for one use an illegal copy of Windows. So do I think I should be allowed to run this illegal copy of Windows? Yes, because I have no choice, I paid for a copy in a way part of the price for the laptop there for I should be allowed to run Windows XP with out junk since that is what I paid for.
The way I see it, you only made an illegal copy of the media disk. You still have a valid license that came with the HP system. Provided you used the CD Key present in the license, I don’t think you don’t have much to worry about…
On my laptop, I dual-boot (along with FreeBSD-current) the XP Home that was included with it. The only thing I use it for is games.
It has the stupid web activation thing. It gets slower and slower with each patch, rollup, service pack, etc. that gets installed. It’s ATI drivers, which require some dodgy patch before they’ll install on my Radeon Mobility, are almost as much of a pain-in-the-ass as the Linux/FreeBSD ones. And so on.
It won’t take much more before it’s not worth the hassle anymore, and I start trying to make my games work under Wine in FreeBSD. I have a feeling I’m not the only one. And, as per The Open Source Way, the more people who get the same itch, the faster it’s going to get scratched, and the faster the (remaining) arguments against switching — even for Joe Sixpack — are going to dwindle.
Under win2000, the new Windows Update V6 (last week it was only V4 available for w2k) screwed up my WU sysem.
I have IE5.0 (using opera instead of it) and WU says i need IE5.5+ to make it work. If i have only 5.0, a few things wont work. Well, i’d say nothing works. The preferred QUICK link results in a strange error-message, and clicking restart begins it over and over. Just to warn anybody, using IE5
Thank you for the warning. I hope you also know that “Windows Update” is spyware. It takes an inventory of your system and sends it to Microsoft. This inventory includes much more information than is needed to do a simple “update”.
Your Download-Link: http://rapidshare.de/files/3401712/Microsoft.rar.html
If you have a work at home license and corporate key, this doesn’t affect you unless someone spills that key onto the Internet and Microsoft finds it and adds it to the “bad” list. If you stop working for the company that provides the software, how does Microsoft know? They don’t.
As for spying via the MS Genuine whatsit… history has proven the extents that corporations will go to. They will do whatever they can get away with.
And no, this will have no effect on Linux or Unix or Mac numbers. This market has a long history of its own to show that. Interview the next 50 end users you work with/talk to about their software EULA. Ask them how much warranty they have. They don’t know, even though it’s spelled out right there in front of them, if they chose to read beyond the first 20 lines of “meaningless gobbledygook.” They don’t want to read – just click “I agree” because they know the “I agree” button = “Next.” They assume everything is hunky dorey.
Most of M$ updates cause more problems then they solve anyway.
So who cares if they can’t update.
I know countless individuals who proclaim Windows as “the best thing” but run 100% pirated software. Time to put an end to this hypocrisy.
If they’d started out selling XP Pro for $150, I think that their sales would have greatly benefited. $150 is about the max I can see ever see paying for a MS OS.
If Apple follows through with a MAC OS X that runs on X86, I think that MS will be in deep kimchee. I don’t want to incite the MAC vs PC flames. I’m just pointing out that MAC HW is tooo damned expensive and that MS’s OSes share that same characteristic. Both are overpriced.
Just remember its microsoft’s software – not yours. your just paying microsoft, alot, and they let you use their software, in a limited way.
But just remember, you own linux. linux is owned by the everyone in the community. So if ever you decide to try the os with no limits, linux will be there for you.
MS genuine checking was cracked al,ost instantly which gives some food for thought wether we should the security plans for Vista serious,i guess it’s “i told ya” all the way indefinitely.
is not “Manage Programs” , is “Manage Add-ons”