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Black Screens For Unauthorized Copies of Windows
Posted by
timothy
on Thu Aug 28, 2008 05:10 PM
from the black-is-the-new-black dept.
from the black-is-the-new-black dept.
arcticstoat writes "In a bid to deter people from using pirate versions of Windows XP, Microsoft is now updating its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tool to introduce a few uncomfortable niggles for users of pirated versions of Windows. These include replacing the desktop wallpaper with a black screen every 60 minutes, although you can still replace it with your wallpaper of choice in the intervening period. As well as this, copies of Windows deemed to not be genuine will also have a translucent watermark above the system tray, which Microsoft calls a 'persistent desktop notification.'"
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Black? Niggles? (Score:5, Funny)
Too close for comfort.
colors (Score:5, Funny)
now microsoft has officially left it's users black and blue [wikipedia.org]
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Re:colors (Score:5, Interesting)
What's funny is my desktop is intentionally black. Has been for years - through Windows 2000, Windows XP, and now Vista. I just like it that way.
Active desktop? Puh-leeze.
Pictures of cats? Why?!
Patterns? Too distracting.
Other colors? Meh.
I once tried BGInfo but even that was a black background with green text. It lasted a week before I took it out and went back to basic black.
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It's like, how much more black could this be? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:colors (Score:5, Funny)
1: Take screenshot of desktop with dozens of files and icons.
2: Replace wallpaper with screenshot
3: Empty Desktop
4: ???
5: Tell user to reboot to fix problem, preferably 10 times.
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Re:colors (Score:5, Funny)
I did that to somebody at work when she forgot to lock her desktop for a meeting.... she almost had IT reimage her desktop to fix it before noticing that the rest of us were sitting around snickering at her.
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Re:colors (Score:5, Funny)
"I once tried BGInfo but even that was a black background with green text."
Black text would have been much less obtrusive.
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Re:colors (Score:5, Funny)
How about the standard #008080
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Re:colors (Score:5, Funny)
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Answer: Naggers (Score:5, Funny)
Question: People who annoy you?
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Notifications (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd hate to give them just a cent for all the MS-related problems I had during the last years, but the good news is that many people switching to Vista can now sell their OEM licenses for XP (depending on what country they live in) and there is also a very huge chance to obtain a volume-license-key in my area. I'll legalize my copy in the near future, but not because I have to, but it has become so cheap. So the one time in a month I really want to play a decent computer game I don't have to worry about such things anymore.
*Market share usually means turnover, but in this case I'd argue that % of people using it is a far better number. Major competitors offer their OS for free or sell it along their hardware for a price which is rather abritrary. Software is a very special industry. It's not like the car industry, where fixed and variable costs have a relation...
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Re:Notifications (Score:5, Informative)
This is actually pretty easy to defeat. Just boot into safe mode (XP Home) or regular mode (XP Pro or Media Center). Find the files in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 called 'wgalogon.dll' and 'wgatray.exe'. Bring up the file properties, go to the security tab and remove the inherited permissions from the files (don't copy them, strip them completely). Answer yes when it asks if you're sure about this. Reboot and WGA will never bother you again. I've done this on dozens of machines and it just skips the update because its too stupid to fix permissions. The only exception to this is the Service Packs or repair installs. YMMV
Of course nobody should have to do it in the first place but this is an example of corporate-think at it's best from our fiends in Redmond. If XP is so dead why should they be developing new WGA tricks for it anyways? Sounds to me like its them getting a bit nervous about how many people are jumping ship from Vista and pointing at 'hackers' as the problem. Again. =)
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Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
Same here. I've got probably 3-4 proper, honest Windows XP licenses, but I keep on having to find new ones because the key either gets lost or decides it doesn't want to work anymore because Microsoft thinks I'm a thief.
XP is the end of the line for me, because of these shenanegans. I've got an ubuntu CD ready for the day I just give up on Microsoft and their customer hating practices.
Seriously, consider this. When I pirate, I've never been kept out of a product I steal. Never. Not once. However, I've lost thousands of dollars in software to stupid copy protection schemes as a legitimate customer. They are disincentivizing ownership. I'm acually better off stealing than paying for it.
These idiots need a clue, and fast.
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Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, consider this. When I pirate, I've never been kept out of a product I steal. Never. Not once. However, I've lost thousands of dollars in software to stupid copy protection schemes as a legitimate customer. They are disincentivizing ownership. I'm acually better off stealing than paying for it.
I'm honestly do not mean to troll or flamebait, but it seems there's some Ayn Randian lesson there about the trouble with ruling honest people.
Some regimes require criminals. If there aren't enough, they keep making laws until there are.
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Re:Notifications (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is, the net effect of this crap is to treat paying customers WORSE than pirates.
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Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
If you've already joined those sailing under the Jolly Roger, why would you care?
If the company goes out of business because it annoyed legitimate customers so much that they became pirates, then I'll count that as the market working (albeit in a perverse sense).
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Re:Can you bypass using WGA at all? (Score:5, Informative)
You can always run your own WSUS [microsoft.com] server.
This lets you control exactly what does and does not get installed, and WGA isn't even available through WSUS (although Office Genuine Advantage is). If you have more than two computers running Windows 2000 or later, WSUS is a big help for saving bandwidth and assuring you get patched up-to-date quickly.
Unfortunately, it requires Windows 2003 Server to run, but it is completely free (as in beer).
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Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's not too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh wait...
that's it? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:that's it? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm impressed with Microsoft's forbearance.
I find their lack of faith disturbing.
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Re:that's it? (Score:5, Funny)
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Help Vista or Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's going to be very funny if this does more for Linux than Vista.
Re:Help Vista or Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with these schemes by Microsoft is that they more often than not inconvenience legitimate owners of valid licenses. I've had more than a few cases of valid installations of Windows "deactivate". It's doubtful that WGA is "bulletproof" and won't flag some legitimate licenses as invalid and screw-up a loyal Windows users' system. Also, for those who really pirate Windows (are there that many pirates out there??), hacking around WGA is child's play. I think that this will turn more people off than stop pirates. I've been using Ubuntu 8.0.4, and I'm very pleased. I have no problem exchanging documents with Windows users, and since I'm doing development in Java, there's no incompatibility there either, since even the Windows guys are using NetBEans and Eclipse...Is there really much pirating going around that Microsoft has to waste programming resources to combat it? From what I see, people want to BUY XP. Microsoft could probably stop XP from being stolen altogether, if they just continued making it easy for OEMs to offer it, and continued support.
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Re:Help Vista or Linux? (Score:5, Funny)
You can have it if you want. [linuxgenui...antage.org]
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Free your Linux box! (Score:5, Funny)
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A new meaning to BSOD... (Score:5, Funny)
Black Screen of Death
Yawn.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Can someone remind me why Microsoft wants to chase people off to other platforms again?
Re:Yawn.... (Score:5, Funny)
Can someone remind me why Microsoft wants to chase people off to other platforms again?
They're increasing their users' pain thresholds so that they'll find Vista's annoyances tolerable.
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Re:Yawn.... (Score:5, Funny)
Because they're hoping one or two might actually end up buying Vista.
The Vista Drake Equation
N = R x fp x ne x fi x fe x L
where
N is the number of Vista sales
R is the number of reported WGA unlicensed XP install hits.
fp if the fraction of those that care about a black screen & bit of text
ne is the number of users with PCs that can actually run Vista
fi is the fraction of XP users who dont have the brains to use Ubuntu
fe is the fraction of XP users who dont use a tool to kill the WGA app
L is the fraction of XP users too lazy to get Windows Update to skip the WGA app
S - Number of sales
X - Number of illegal XP copies
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Great. (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people I know who run 'stolen' software don't have the funds, are not otherwise law-breakers, and are not aware of alternatives. I've had great luck giving these people an OpenCD and explaining the law, and, in the case of small businesses, the BSA's tactics.
I wonder how long it will be before somebody comes along with a registry edit file that will replace the permanent watermark text with a link to Ubuntu?
Wonderful; just another reason to pirate it (Score:5, Interesting)
Just another reason to pirate it since I've triggered the damn tool multiple times on Legitimately licensed product.
Re:Wonderful; just another reason to pirate it (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe it's just me, but I usually set my desktop to black anyway as one of the first steps after an install. This sounds to me like a feature rather than a deterrent.
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*Innocent Whistling* (Score:5, Informative)
Cough, Cough [thepiratebay.org].
*Continues innocent whistling*
They're kidding, right? (Score:5, Funny)
The first thing I do after installing XP is turn the wallpaper to black.
Apparently, pirating it saves me a step after install.
WTG, MSFT!
Hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows is shareware now?
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
P L E A S E R E G I S T E R
Parent
I bet that.... (Score:5, Informative)
It will still flag perfectly legal copies of Windows as being pirated. Just like it has in the past.
Pfff.... No imagination (Score:5, Funny)
They need to get more creative. Here's a few ideas:
1) Cause the NIC to drop random ammounts of packets at random times.
2) Change the wallpaper from Black Screen to one with a letter ending with "... The police are on their way".
3) Every 2 minutes all keys on your keyboard get randomly swapped around.
4) Swaps the mouse buttons. Or moving the mouse left, moves it right, up, down, etc.
5) All print jobs only result in large words in upper case saying "PIRATE ALERT!"
6) Boot sequence and shutdown sequence get 5 minutes added on to them. Hey MS, don't forget to make sure you cause the hard drive light LED to flicker a lot while the users wait around so they think it's something going on. While you're at it, randomly flicker that HD LED every few minutes for 20 seconds at a time.
7) Every 10th web page visited would be redirected to goatse (is that site still around?)
You get the idea... now hurry up so that people get fed up faster and switch to Linux.
this happened to me, a legit user (Score:5, Interesting)
i paid for windows vista ultimate edition *waits for laughter to die down* but after a few months, i discovered that the machine i installed it on had some dodgy RAM and i had to replace it. i don't know if it was because i changed the RAM or because the bad RAM corrupted something, but after that Microsoft decided that my copy of Windows was pirated, and put a permanent message in the lower-right corner of my machine telling me as much, and refused to let me use certain features, such as the Aero graphics enhancements.
personally, i suggest microsoft take a page from our founding fathers, and adopt a more "innocent until proven guilty" attitude (for example, offering a way to call them up and verify your CD Key) before implementing more draconian punishments upon the convicted!
Black? Seriously? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, that'll turn the h4xx04z away. Want to really make it worthwhile? Force a pink-on-pink color scheme, license the theme song to "My Little Pony", and play that in an uninterruptable background loop on all available sound devices. That'll do a lot more to keep a kid honest than would making his desktop look 1337.
Star Wars Reference (Score:5, Funny)
The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers.
It was a tossup between that quote and "Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."
More of the same. Just let go.
Re:PFFFFFT (Score:5, Funny)
Oh crap, get ready for another wave of "omg where is the start button" questions on the Ubuntu message boards.
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Re:PFFFFFT (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a good thing. Treat the noobs respectfully. Ultimately it's lack of respect from MS that's driving them away. If they get that same attitude from Ubuntu they'll just label you as asses and go back to MS.
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Re:PFFFFFT (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:PFFFFFT (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't actually run in the background. It does the authenticity check at startup, and it vets your computer when you try to install an update which requires authentication, and that's it. And there are actual, honest-to-goddess important updates that won't install without such authentication.
*shrugs* but I guess I'm not what you'd consider a "smart" user, in that I choose to let it do its rigamorole on the 4 computers I have running Windows... my laptop, which dual boots with XP MCE, my HTPC which is running Vista Ultimate (both came from MSDN), and my parents' laptops, running XP Home and Vista Home Premium respectively.
Incidentally... none of those systems have ever had issues, performance or otherwise, with WGA. I'm not saying that it doesn't screw over legitimate users. But I am saying that I've never seen an issue with it, and that the ability to install security and stability updates that you couldn't otherwise install outweighs the marginal increase in boot time, which is about the only thing you actually notice when you install/activate WGA.
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Re:Are they *trying* to push people away? (Score:5, Informative)
I spent last night installing XP on a Toshiba Satellite A200 laptop for a friend who has tolerated Vista for about 6 months now.
Not surprisingly, Toshiba (like Dell and many others) has signed a deal with the devil not to provide support for anything other than Vista (honestly, I can see why they might do a deal to pre-install Vista, but why stop loyal Toshiba customers from installing XP if they want to? Crazy).
However, what is truly impressive is the hatred for Vista out there on the net, and the lengths that it inspires people to go to to get rid of it and, in the spirit of the net, help others get rid of it. Googling for info about getting XP up and running on this particular machine yielded pages and pages of helpful information about exactly what must be done to round up the necessary drivers (many from the OEM's who supplied the various components of the machine). Even better, a few heroes had actually compiled zip files containing every driver and distributed them via Rapidshare and the like.
The other really startling thing was how many non-expert users were doing this. There were heaps of messageboard posts where inexperienced users basically begged for help to get XP working on their laptops. Due to the bod of Vista-hatred, the more tech savvy users were generally walking people through the process with a level of patience rarely seen on-line.
I had the same experience installing XP on my Dell XPS 1530 (great computer, once you disinfect it) - there is basically a community dedicated to purging it of Vista.
When you are inspiring legions of both expert users and ordinary non-techy people to go through the pain of installing an operating system using an ad hoc collection of unsupported drivers, something is badly, badly awry. I am critical not of MS so much as Toshiba, Dell and co - they are the ones who have made the key decision to support nothing but Vista. I wonder if they realise the lengths their users are going to to get around this choice?
Incidentally, my friend's reaction was priceless when XP booted up quickly and quietly - "holy shit... you mean it's done? it's so... responsive! It's beautiful!" He then checked the memory usage and noted with awe that it was 120 megs after booting rather than 1 to 1.5 gigs for Vista.
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Re:Are they *trying* to push people away? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know Nissan's product line, so I don't know whether your comparison is apt or not, BUT --
If someone forces me to buy ${EXPENSIVE_PRODUCT_A} as part of a bundle, and I don't want it -- instead I want ${CHEAP_PRODUCT_B}, I'm not going to feel the least bit in the wrong for forcefully trading the ${EXPENSIVE_PRODUCT_A} I was saddled with for a ${CHEAP_PRODUCT_B}.
Legally wrong? Sure. Morally wrong? In the case of software -- where they don't need to manufacture or ship ship physical objects, or otherwise incur costs, on account of my action -- I'm going to take a "no".
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