Pirated Vista may be useless, Microsoft says


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I see the main issue being: Running a cracked version is a pain, I used to run a pirated XP but purchased a legal one one WGA was introduced, it became too much hassle to keep up with it, MS only need to make small changes to make the current cracks obsolete.

WGA did the job on me and made me buy a legal copy as I'm sure it did many other people. As mentioned earlier in this thread, all of the ultimate extras and downloads from the MS site will be blocked (If not already)

I don't really agree with the prices, so I have bought another copy of XP OEM with a Vista upgrade voucher for ?100, I'm set and ready to go.

Every one is looking at the retail prices and forgetting there are upgrade options and OEMs and going straight for the Pirated version

Where can I get the OEM xp with vista upgrade voucher?

Don't lie. Legit copies activate just fine. And if for any reason you change hardware several times in a short period of time, and need to reactivate, you can call Support and they'll activate you over the phone in a couple of minutes.

Hardware in these boxes had been untouched for months. I'm getting sick of you people who go around claiming that WGA is failproof.

I support WGA/OGA....just to prove that crackers can crack that bull**** too...

I wonder what other pointless and never-coming-true things you hope for....

Noone, not Microsoft, not Steve Jobs, not Bush, not Einstein, not god, NOONE/NOTHING never, can, or will ever stop piracy. End of topic.

Because if you can make it, someone can break it...

Without WGA everybody would be a pirate because let's be honest nobody wants to pay for something they can get for free. Yes everybody and even you....And professional piracy is only part of the problem.

*sigh* That's not what I meant. I meant that if we lived in a world where piracy never existed in the first place then there would be no need for anti-piracy measures. Therefore, if no one ripped off Windows Microsoft would have no need to add in WGA or activation. This is, of course, not how it is. It's very easy to pirate Windows and people do it, whether they know its illegal or not. Therefore, Microsoft takes steps to limit it and boom, we have WGA and activation thanks to who? The pirates.

Legit customers such as myself (yeah I guess you got that wrong didn't ya?) aren't really affected though and hence don't hold much against Microsoft for protectign their property.

The VL versions will now require activation... either by MAK or KMS.

MAK is a Multiple Activation Key that a business can buy and it will have so many activations associated with it. Once the activations are used, the company will need to buy another.

The second form is KMS. Key Management Software will be available from Microsoft, and a company will install this on their domain server. Every 180 days, each machine will have to contact the server and locally reactivate. Plus, Microsoft set a constant minimum to 25 machines must need activation before the KMS will actually activate...

Once again, both methods are probably going to be cracked, but this does tighten the noose... I think the days of getting Windows from your company are over, unless you regularly can connect to their KMS / get your hands on the MAK.

I don't know why everyone assumes activation will be cracked - it never was for XP, right? Pirates just used the VL version. That won't be so easy with Vista, especially if you want Ultimate or any edition that doesn't have a VL version.

Not true my friend. Activation, as well as WGA, were in fact cracked for XP. It was some Russian group that did it... and it bypassed activation by "Activation by Phone."

*sigh* That's not what I meant. I meant that if we lived in a world where piracy never existed in the first place then there would be no need for anti-piracy measures. Therefore, if no one ripped off Windows Microsoft would have no need to add in WGA or activation. This is, of course, not how it is. It's very easy to pirate Windows and people do it, whether they know its illegal or not. Therefore, Microsoft takes steps to limit it and boom, we have WGA and activation thanks to who? The pirates.

You can **** in one hand, and wish in the other, which one fills up faster?

Yes, and if they add stuff to slow it down, you don't think people will find a way around? How naive are some of you? The crap like that is for your joe blow that barely knows how to use a pc. Your computer nerd, like a lot of people on here, are smart enough to find the information needed to work around things like that IF they want to.

Why do people keep saying "Vista will be cracked"...Vista is cracked. Its cracked and working fine. It works just like any other cracked version of windows in that you can't expect to install it and connect to microsoft and get updates as if it was a legit copy. But of course that will eventually be worked around as well, and even if its not they always release cracked versions of all the security patches and you can just download them manually

*sigh* That's not what I meant. I meant that if we lived in a world where piracy never existed in the first place then there would be no need for anti-piracy measures. Therefore, if no one ripped off Windows Microsoft would have no need to add in WGA or activation. This is, of course, not how it is. It's very easy to pirate Windows and people do it, whether they know its illegal or not. Therefore, Microsoft takes steps to limit it and boom, we have WGA and activation thanks to who? The pirates.

Legit customers such as myself (yeah I guess you got that wrong didn't ya?) aren't really affected though and hence don't hold much against Microsoft for protectign their property.

I just think you are forgetting that pirates are people and I assume you are one of them. That' the only thing I assumed about you. The only thing separating pirates from non-pirates is their willingness to bother with annoyances and hassle associated with using pirated software.

I just think you are forgetting that pirates are people and I assume you are one of them. That' the only thing I assumed about you. The only thing separating pirates from non-pirates is their willingness to bother with annoyances and hassle associated with using pirated software.

That's the only thing separating pirates from non-pirates? Really? Umm.. how about the fact that pirates are THIEFS, and non-pirates are not?

At work I had 20-odd boxes all with legit keys that refused to validate.

You should be using Volume License Keys, which dont need activating at least for XP... move on..

I dont understand why people complain about WGA, if you have a legit version of windows, you have nothing to worry about, and in the really odd case that it doesnt validate, you call and get it done over the phone, 10 mins at most..

And for those people who like to not pay for something they use everyday, stop bitching you're getting something for free, stop complaining because you have to spend an extra 3 minutes running some other patch.

Stop bloody complaining and get on with your life...

Remove crack pipe from mouth, kthx.

At work I had 20-odd boxes all with legit keys that refused to validate.

Then what does that tell you? Have you have any idea what WGA is designed to do? It tells if your product key is original and not used by someone else. Like someone else said, all those 20 copies of XP had their product keys leaked to the net where others have gotten and use them or either they are really running pirated versions oc XP which appear to be legit to you but under the hood - illegial.

yes they are, they are taking away (stealing) a part of microsofts profit by pirating their software. that my friend is still stealing. And don't give me the **** about how you wouldn't buy it anyway. Cause if that's case, then you don't have a need for it. and if you don't have a need for it, you wouldn't be running it on your pc

Ah yes...nexus speaks again. Please lets all get on our foot and kiss your shoes for you are always right.

:rolleyes: :sleep: When will you ever learn to just shut up?

Seriously I could care less about wga or oga or anything else. I have formatted my machine 3 times in the last 5 days and installed XP and Vista. All of them activated just fine...why because they are legit licenses.

If everyone just here got off there moral high horse about how pirates/crackers always win...maybe wga/oga would never have had to happen.

Well excuse me Mr. athletic jock supporter trainer. Your right, by not saying it, it never happens right.

I glad you could care less about WGA, so do I. It has never effected me. I'm still running on my original XP installation that I bought 3 years ago. So you take your anger out on me because you've formatted 3 times in 5 days?

It's not about pirates winning or losing. Its MS and the world being in denial that it wont be bypassed regardless of measures or statements that MS makes. There are laws that govern peoples behavior but people continue to defy those laws. So the simplistic of it is that it will happen, regardless of the morality of

it.

Who's ripping who off?

Microshaft makes there software affordable "Vista Home Basic" and rips out all the features that make it worth running Vista. Thats a rip-off

I would pay upto $200 for Vista Ultimate thats all I feel it's worth to me.

It's so funny to see people in this board get upset at Microsoft for protecting their property and rights. Here's a newsflash: If pirates didn't rip off what doens't belong to them we would never have heard of WGA or activation or any of the anti-piracy measures beyond maybe a keycode.

If you don't like it, that's fine. But don't blame Microsoft, blame the pirates; they're responsible for it all.

Correct. They are thieves. :laugh:

lol It's not in my nature my make spelling mistakes like that. But seriously pirates are not thieves. The act of pirating something is not the same as the act of stealing something. We had a long discussion about this in the previous vista thread. This thread I fear will suffer the same fate as the other one, being closed that is after flame war gets out of hand.

yes they are, they are taking away (stealing) a part of microsofts profit by pirating their software. that my friend is still stealing. And don't give me the **** about how you wouldn't buy it anyway. Cause if that's case, then you don't have a need for it. and if you don't have a need for it, you wouldn't be running it on your pc

I don't even understand what you're saying. It makes no sense to me. Just because you can't afford something does not mean you don't need it. Why don't you think before you type.

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