WastedTimes

[aiolos]

Last week, a correspondent on Dave Farber’s Interesting People list posted some comments about his experiences with Windows OneCare Live. In the middle of the post, he added this tidbit:

Quote:I like to review updates before they are installed. The only update that I have not installed is the latest WGA because of the security issues related to it.

I called micros0ft support to see if there is a hidden option to say, "yep, I've got updates turned to manual… it's okay." The rep said, "No and why wouldn't you want to get the latest updates to Windows."

I responded with the issues relating to WGA. He spent some time telling me that WGA was a good thing, etc. I reiterated that I have accepted all the updates except WGA and just want to review the updates before they're installed on my machine.

He told me that "in the fall, having the latest WGA will become mandatory and if its not installed, Windows will give a 30 day warning and when the 30 days is up and WGA isn't installed, Windows will stop working, so you might as well install WGA now."

I'm wondering if micros0ft has the right to disable Windows functionality or the OS as a whole (tantamount to revoking my legitimate Windows license) if I do not install every piece of software that they send it updates.


That can’t be true, can it? I’m always suspicious of any report that comes from a front-line tech support drone, so I sent a note to micros0ft asking for an official confirmation or, better yet, a denial. Instead, I got this terse response from a micros0ft spokesperson:

"As we have mentioned previously, as the WGA Notifications program expands in the future, customers may be required to participate. [emphasis added] micros0ft is gathering feedback in select markets to learn how it can best meet its customers' needs and will keep customers informed of any changes to the program."

That’s it. That’s the entire response.

[Guest]

LOL do you know how many threats and how many times micros0ft has implemented a new plan to stop pirating. millions. I remember back in the old forum days when we were worried about upgrading to SP2 and worried about mircrosoft shutting us all down.

But, In all honesty I can pretty much tell you what is going to happen. micros0ft is going to think they are smarter than us and implement this 30 day rule, and 4 days in there will be cracks and loopholes leaking everywhere on the net on how to bypass the 30 day rule, because lets face it micros0ft arent exactly geniuses at making software.... They always seem to forget something and always have to go back and either rollback an update or change a critical factor. Because we are smarter than them.


The foundations of this forum that go way back EXIST because of us being smarter than micros0ft. Microsft used to be so stupid theyd put Win XP Pro Corp on a 100 mbit server with unlimited bandwidth and we'd leech it all day and all night for weeks until someone who is actually smart, would realize what was happening and shut it down........

LOL this is for everyone listen to the words of a veteran ive been doing this a long time and JK can back me up in saying that No matter what happens, there will always be loopholes for us to find. Thats how i See Piracy..... LOOPHOLES

[Grim]

Its a widely known secret... that micros0ft allow people to use pirated windows because they arent using linux or any other O/S which isnt micros0ft made!

Corporate editions all round, long live VLK!!!!

[jkf]

The reality is that, the hacking/cracking force around the world, that is targeting
microshit is probablly 10,000 times larger than the entire microshit organization.
Its not a matter of who is smarter. When you have that many more people on the
outside, going through the code with a fine tooth comb everyday, they eventually
find every flaw in the code, and hidden hooks that were left in for maintenance and
debugging purposes that can be exploited from the outside.

In a few years XP will no longer be supported anyway, and become obsolete so this all
becomes a big waste of time. If microshit would just stop wasting all their energy in
trying to enforce the WGA and instead, offer huge discounts on their OS... like $20 for
full service for 5 years... People might think twice about installing bootleg copies. I
wouldn't mind having 5 legit machines that I won't have to keep worrying about updates
than having one legit and 4 that I have to make sure that the patches are working on...
life is too short to have to keep reinstalling Windows. We become obsessed by the fact
that we think we are screwing uncle Bill by not paying for a copy, but really, we are
paying for it out of our life span.

[aiolos]

Grim_2o0o @ Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:33 am wrote:

Its a widely known secret... that allow people to use pirated windows because they arent using linux or any other O/S which isnt made!

It's not a secret. Bill Gates has publicly said (although a few years back) that "If they're gonna copy something, they should copy our software". It makes sense, because pirated versions of Win and Office is what made them so popular.

The problem (if this story is true) is that there are lots of people who don't know about keys, cracks, patches etc that may one day find that their windows are not working. I've had to explain to friends many times why they should change the windows key before upgrading to SP1. Not everyone will know where to find a patch or what to do with it.

It seems MS is trying hard to reduce piracy in WinXP. Makes you think that they know Vista will be very late. We'll se how this plays out...

[Guest]

lol yeah, i personally dont really have the problem because myself, like grim, I use VLK corporate Editions and Student editions whenever i reformat so its got all new updates but is "legal"

[aiolos]

MS has been doing ...great with WGA. This guy found some 2-year old VLK keys on google and used them to go through all WGA checks.

Have no fear... google is here

h__p://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=110

[Guest]

Quote:

According to micros0ft, 80 percent of the 60 million people who have been nabbed by the WGA validation tool are running versions of Windows with stolen or pirated volume license keys. These versions of Windows are supposed to be available only to corporate customers and only as upgrades. Unlike retail versions, they don’t require activation, which makes them an ideal target of pirates and bootleggers.

ROFL i cant stop laughing. like i said ive been in this business a long time and since the first time i ever got a VLK edition Windows (Which was from Grim by the way, cuz me and grimmy go way way back, u remember that grim?) anyway it worked perfectly like it did for this guy. SINCE IVE STARTED I HAVE HAD THE SAME LIST OF 40 VLK KEYS, and when i install on my computers friends computers or for business i use them randomly and in the past few years i have never gotten one complaint or had to go back and reformat because the key was Bogus. There's unlimited keys on the net considering all you need is the ORIGINAL KEYGEN from years ago to generate a hash and you are done.

Ill tell you why this method never fauils and VLK editions will never shut down. Because if they start banning VLK keys (which even if they did the windows still doesnt have activation on it) Then they would be screwing thier customers who actually bought thier VLK editions and when a person has paid more than a grand for some software from a company they dont expect the company to go and fluck them over by banning thier key.