Microsoft Is Taking WGA To The Next Level

[Rahul]

I say we all club together with a paypal account to buy a corporate copy :laugh:

im in too , accept my donation of 5$

:D :whistle: :yes: :woot: :bounce:

[+Warwagon MVC]

If I could buy 1 copy of xp and nstall it on every computer in my house i'd by XP in a heartbeat

[MrCobra]

The fact is, Microsoft is losing potential sales to piracy. They are putting in steps to curb that number. No more. No less.

EDIT: Yuck! I hate being in a position where I defend Microsoft. :rofl:

Potential sales isn't the same as selling it. If someone is thinking about pirating any software then chances are they weren't going to purchase to begin with. As old as XP is there is no need for it to remain at the same price it has been since day one. Pricing for some is THE reason to pirate.

Yeah, in prison along with all the other serious offences like public nudity and speeding; you might as well free all the wife beaters to make room. :rolleyes:

You forgot the music downloaders. :D

[kak]

I guess this means that I will have to use my legit key when I format.

I refuse to pay $200 for an OS that is several years old. Even on student discount, the price is still ridiculous given how long it has been out. I got my key for free (friend who works in an office w/hundreds of xp pro-loaded pcs (pre-activated) that get formatted to 2000 for consistency.. :)) and thats the only way I'll take a key with these prices. I'll move to an alternate OS before I am forced to pay $200+ for an operating system that has depreciated in value (given Vista's approaching release date).

[nekrosoft13]

Yeah, in prison along with all the other serious offences like public nudity and speeding; you might as well free all the wife beaters to make room. :rolleyes:

i got a better idea, why not just a build a fence around the country and call it United Prisons of America

[mattmatik]

I guess this means that I will have to use my legit key when I format.

I refuse to pay $200 for an OS that is several years old. Even on student discount, the price is still ridiculous given how long it has been out. I got my key for free (friend who works in an office w/hundreds of xp pro-loaded pcs (pre-activated) that get formatted to 2000 for consistency.. :)) and thats the only way I'll take a key with these prices. I'll move to an alternate OS before I am forced to pay $200+ for an operating system that has depreciated in value (given Vista's approaching release date).

That's what I find wierd as well. Why not just save and implement this on the Vista release?

I hope this means that Microsoft will supporting XP for a long, long time and not force Vista down everybody's throat. :rolleyes:

[mrelusive978]

Oh, you don't know my fellow students and lecturers at the university I go to. There are a lot of girls who can put a lot of guys to shame :yes: . One of my lecturers is a master at Maya 7.0 and I can't believe she can even develop a complicated animation using a few simple steps :cry: .

PSG22

What Uni do you go to? It wouldn't happen to be Full Sail Real World Education (Winter Park, FL), would it?

[:: Lyon ::]

They should take an example of Oblivion, which doesn't have a copy protection, but still sellable like hotcakes!

People who want to pirate Windows will pirate Windows no matter protection they put in

If they make the OS reasonably affordable to everyone/students, etc, then they should get even much more money out of it

[Titanium_NX]

Microsoft really needs to stop trying so hard, they are either going to make people so mad that they will download more, or we are just going to need to find other solutions. One, their protection sucks, two their " we can lock you out of the website" won't stop crackers which won't stop people, and three how hard do they think it is to get rid of a taskbar popup? I mean comeon. If they want to do business as said before make Windows stable, make Windows cheaper, and don't ask me to put up with 80 updates.

:shiftyninja:

[Farquaon]

Are there any screenshots of how this looks on an illegal windows?

[Dessimat0r]

I'll pay ?5 towards a VLK version too.

[DarkSim905]

I guess this means that I will have to use my legit key when I format.

I refuse to pay $200 for an OS that is several years old. Even on student discount, the price is still ridiculous given how long it has been out. ...

and thats the only way I'll take a key with these prices. I'll move to an alternate OS before I am forced to pay $200+ for an operating system that has depreciated in value (given Vista's approaching release date).

You kidding? Academic Alliance can go down as far as $15 for XP Pro....

In addition, there are already enough add-ons, hacks, custom GUIs, programs, and such that make XP an invaluable OS to have to those who know how to use it well, and are comfortable on that platform.

I think one thing this is for is for the people who are lazy, that when they reformat their PC,

they use a VLK, or some other key rather than taking the time to strip the key from the original install.

On the flipside, sometimes you are forced to doing that, especially if either A) Your PC didn't come with System Restore CDs, You don't want to deal with the crap on those System Restore CDs B) Computer totally crashes and you can't get the key as is, if A is true...

:unsure:

[cybermind]

Next level? Well, it took a whole of 15 mins or so to totally eradicate the new WGA nag stuff from 2 test systems (MCE2005 and WinXP Pro SP2)...

Not impressed with the new WGA. I was hoping it would totally eliminate the possibility of warezing microsoft products... and finally make the world a better place as a direct result... we all know that if microsoft manages to sell all the remaining copies of WinXP... then we can all have ice cream. :)

Billy? Why are you retarded...? Billy.....? Stop drooling on your sister.

[greg098]

Just read that Office is soon going to be getting this too. So people who have illegal versions of Office will not be able to recieve updates!!!

[Inertia]

is it possible that WGA could ge tmore extreme and do away with activation alltogether ? I hope so, activation is a pain in the ass for legitimate users, but WGA is only making life difficult for the pirates and not legitimate users.

[L3thal Veteran]

Its incredible the amount of whining that's going on here because of this. People, just activate your copy of Windows and it will never bother you again. Now, its another thing if these people whining can't activate it because its pirated, which is most likely why they are bitching and moaning.

What do you expect? Microsoft to sit around and allow everyone to use their OS for free? :no:

[The2]

Ok. I understand why they did this...

but I hate activation process (can only activate from 8-15h which is ridicolous...)

and i'm using pirated version - my original key is unused...

Microsoft to sit around and allow everyone to use their OS for free?

[fishrman]

I laugh at all of the people bitching. Its Microsoft's software -- take it or leave it, its all up to you. And that's all there is to it. You can bitch as much as you want, but unless your a shareholder with substantial clout; who has a voice in these things, or you are actually employed by Microsoft (and I don't mean just a contractor), you just have to realize that Microsoft is trying to protect its property -- nothing wrong there. And for those of you who are pirating, my god, if you can pony up the cash to pick up Athlon X2s and Quad-SLI systems, please, oh please, don't tell me you're not willing to spend, at most, ~200 USD on your operating system; the core of which your software will depend on, not to mention a core that recognizes a vast array of hardware and what not.

[Unimatrix Xero]

for god sake, why is this such a big issue, ok Microsoft want to protect their work, personally i dont give a damm what protection they but on, i have a ligit O/S (unlike a few members on these boards)

The way i look at it the only people complaining are the people with a dodgy O/S of course within time someone will find a way around it, but itsnt that the same with everything these days? nothing is safe from the hackers/modders nothing is 100% safe so why dont the people who are moaning STOP moaning and purchase a legit Operating system!!!!

there thats my 2p

[dart1s]

Not going to engage in the debate on the legalities/pro's/con's of Microsoft using this method, but I will say:

"System Restore"

The 'notifications' update is instantly removable, and then the re-'update' of it can be refused very easily. Those people who truly want to get around this new Microsoft method will, and I suspect these aren't going to be the people who perhaps are most entitled to (i.e. innocent consumers with valid software who just caught up with Micro$ofts heavy-handed authentication attempt).

I guess it may have an impact where people have truly been duped (the widespread counterfeiting in the east perhaps), but even then it's going to hit the valid end user and not the dodgy middle-man who's already made the sale and moved on.

....oops, I did comment on the pro's/con's didn't I? :whistle:

[Cob]

They must have a few too many copies of XP in stock if they're going all out with this just a few months before Vista hits the shops. I can't see too many pirate XP users agreeing to buy a legit copy of XP now and then going on to buy a copy of Vista just after Xmas :blink:

[nx01]

In my country xp costs around 1/3 of montly salary (to some persons even 1/2)...

Why the heck would I give that amount of money for a buggy and old piece of software, especialy now because I am a student, and when only some colledges in our country have special contracts with m$?

[DeusProto]

Excellent news. I think even this is too weak. It should render the install unbootable if it detects a bad product ID IMO. I am tired of communist/terrorist software pirates ripping off honest corporations. It's been going on for too long and it's high time a stop is put to it.

I hope Microsoft will strengthen the Windows Genuine Advantage program even further in the coming months. Nag screens? Not enough, try disabling the install and displaying a screen making them call a 1-800 number to buy a VALID license to continue booting.

Support the corporations that have worked hard to give you, the consumer, the things you want. I hear people complain of having multiple PCs.. well then purchase a VLK if you find activation to be trouble. Sure it is expensive but it is well worth it for this solid product.

Kudos to Microsoft.

[boogerjones]

They must have a few too many copies of XP in stock if they're going all out with this just a few months before Vista hits the shops. I can't see too many pirate XP users agreeing to buy a legit copy of XP now and then going on to buy a copy of Vista just after Xmas :blink:

I don't think MS is targeting individual users who pirate XP. Those users will be able to bypass WGA. I think MS is targeting resellers and computer retailers who install XP on systems that they sell. These people are profiting from piracy (whereas individual users aren't making a profit when they pirate XP). So I think it's more about reducing lost revenue from system resellers and piracy shops that prompted the late implementation of WGA.

Excellent news. I think even this is too weak. It should render the install unbootable if it detects a bad product ID IMO.

But there might be false-positives. And there might be users who are unaware that their product is not genuine (i.e. they paid for XP not realizing that it was illegitimate). It's far too intrusive to just shut down the OS.

[Phalesafe]

Oh genuine advantage, how i hate you so. Sad thing is, all of the computers in my house (there are 8) are using the same windows volume license key. They all have a license for XP, but I just cant stand the bloody activation every time i need to do a reformat. Sadly its gotten to the point where someone who owns licenses just pirates anyways to get around all this crap.

:laugh: You have a VLK and you have to activate :rofl: Dunno but my 20 License VLK requires no activation.