Vista Pirates To Get "Black Screen of Darkness"

jcatcw writes "Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide, and sent a letter to OEMs explaining the consequences of Vista piracy. These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop. Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'"

Re:2007, the year of linux.

[A beautiful mind]

The year of linux is every year since 1992, just for different people. You can of course argue that from year to year, the group of people linux appeals to is getting larger and larger and that in 2007 the difference compared to the previous year is exceptionally large and I'd be inclined to agree with you.

The Motivator

[ackthpt]

So basically, M$ is going to screw customers if their OEMs screw M$. This should be fun to watch. Just another reason for linux.

So the problem, as you see it, aside from a MS Screwup(TM) is people suffering for purchasing from a shady dealer. People who buy from shady dealers should learn not to, not really MS's problem there, it's the cheapskates who do business with scumbags. People stung will have to go back to the cheatie dealer and demand satisfaction.

Re:MS has no right to steal consumer data.

[onecheapgeek]

Except it is a stolen car, and you don't get your goods out of police impound. Usually impounded (and thereby forfeited) goods are auctioned off to whomever wants them. At least they are where I am from.

In response to "stolen" data.... Ever used a PE boot disk? Works wonders on borked installs to get data off a hard drive where the native OS won't boot. You are still in possession of your data. They are simply refusing to facilitate that retrieval, since you are not a legal, paying customer.

Re:Insult to injury

[halo8]

two months ago i bought a Thinkpad T61 it came with 2 gigs of Ram and Vista Ultimate.

Being a daily slashdot reader i knew that 4 gigs was the "sweet spot" silly me, i thought that Vista would still work.
I spent 6 hours trying to printer share from Vista to XP.
I spent 3-4 hours reading forums and turning off all the crap services in hopes of speeding it up.
I finally gave up and this very minute I am installing XP recovery CD's thankfully given to me from IBM.

My harddrive light never went off in Vista, it was always blinking.
When i called IBM to complain they said to buy more ram. Of course the damn thing came with 2 slots each filled with 1 gig sticks, now WTF aim i supposed to do with thoes when i go out and buy two 2 gig sticks? what a waste of fucking money.
and then said that SP1 wasnt coming out till 2008.

My Theory
1- MS did this in purpose.
2- This is, or should be, criminal.

Its the same thing they did with WindowsME,

Re:"Copyright infringement".

[Achromatic1978]

Actually, it's also "fraud", or "dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception", depending on your local criminal code.

Summary not quite accurate

[dnamaners]

Not to defend vista, but lets get the facts strait. It seems that there are 2 modes to the reduced functionality, Basically if you don't activate you get the black screen and are screwed. They will treat pirates the nearly same as they do in XP with updates only. Sigh, I would have hoped for more aggressive blocking. Just to give people a chance to consider the true cost of Vista.

reference
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925582 [microsoft.com]

Ill summarize what you can do:

non-genuine key:
Can use Windows Vista features
Can activate Windows Vista
Can change the product key
Can log on without a time constraint to perform certain activities (no 1 hour restriction)

Can not use certain Windows Vista features such as Aero Glass and the Windows ReadyBoost.
Can not obtain some content from Microsoft Download center.

Out-of-grace period for activation:
Can activate Windows Vista
Can remotely script Windows Vista
Can change the product key
Can log on to Windows Vista for one hour to obtain a new product key or to access data on the local computer.
Can use most of the features that are available in Windows Vista.
Can activate the Windows Vista product key.
Can remotely access a shared network location.
Can remain logged on
Can run Windows Vista in safe mode

Can not play built-in games
Can not use premium features such as Aero Glass, ReadyBoost, and BitLocker.
Can not log on for more than one hour

it is a hoax people

[cobbaut]

I can't believe that 400 posts in this thread fail to mention that this is a hoax [wired.com].

Re:Unintended Consequences

[jawtheshark]

Just that you know.... You have access to those files witha Ubuntu Live CD and a USB harddisk to backup to.

I know, that harddisk of my parents failed (hardware), and I was able to recover most NTFS data using the Ubuntu Install CD. It now resides on an ext3 external USB disk.

Re:"Copyright infringement".

[orclevegam]

"Let us play this MP3 file you've got here. Whoops! Download time now increased to 13 hours, 15 minutes."

I realize you made this comment in jest, and I'm certainly no fan of MS, but since you got modded insightful I feel I need to point out the speed reduction chosen by MS was picked to not be noticeable on anything less than a gigabit connection. So, unless you're downloading at over 1Mbit/s from your ISP (and in turn every hop to the MS update servers), there won't be any noticeable change in your download rate.

Re:Good marketing trick

[dada21]

Clever marketing. Microsoft dorks them and you get to be the hero. The PR value is priceless.

That's the plan! Actually, the referrals that we pass on from the "good business" freebies could be very profitable, so there's more than just a simple "return customer" PR perspective there. Nothing better than one CEO saying to another "This company actually downgraded all our new accounting PCs from Vista for free, and they're running so much better."

We can't count on Microsoft but we can always count on good 'ol Adam. It's a good investment in time because I've got money someone says, "Hey, since you're here, can you look at..." which are the magic words that mean you get the bill the call anyway.

Actually, if it was minimal work, I'd probably cover that, too. Some clients LOVE seeing freebie invoices, especially since the freebies always say "September 10, 2007: $620, Discount: $-620" But of course there are always issues beyond that service call that would bring more cash into the near-future than we'd lose.

Keeps your face fresh around the office, you can schmooze while you're working, talk to them about alternative operating systems...it's a great idea. One that I fully intend to shamelessly copy. :) Bothers me I didn't think of it on my own...but I'll get over it.

Here's another one for you that worked for some subsidiaries I helped start:

Take the going market rate for small-sized businesses (5-50 desktops, 1-3 servers) and nuke $5-$10 an hour off of it. If the going rate is $80-$120, charge $75-$110. Offer a $10/hour preferred-bonus on all hours billed, and place that bonus on your monthly invoices. If your invoice is for $1500 one month, $1200 the other and $2000 the third, the third month's invoice would say "Bonus Available: $440" Include with your invoice a small catalog of bonus options and let the customer use their bonuses to purchase them (for the business, for their home, etc).

The subsidiary that did this increased their market share significantly over just the first 3 months of me working with them. The bonus hardware was offered at MSRP, so the actual bonus dollars only cost them $3-$6 per hour, and the bonus hardware was not covered under any labor warranty, which increased the service/maintenance cost over 3 years to cover double to triple the cost of the hardware. If I remember correctly, one customer (a headhunter) replaced their entire workstation and server network (maybe 10 machines and 1 server) in 2 years with "free" bonus hardware, and the CEO got a laptop for his kid for college "free" also. Net profit dropped only 3% versus expected profit, because gross billing was way up due to the bonuses.

The new subsidiary I am starting in Northern Illinois will be taking the idea to the home support group (sort of like geek squad, without the geeks, focused on home networks of CEOs and management types who have terrible luck getting their in-house guy to come over). "Free" stuff like Tivos, restaurant dining certificates, and golfing certificates should do very well in the 5 areas I'm hoping to target.

When people in IT complain to me that there isn't a lot of work, I just have to shrug. There's work at every price tier we investigated: from the $40/hour consulting monkey (no offense) to the $300/hour consulting guru. The problem is marketing: don't be a geek, be a business owner. Don't be a geek, be a parent. Don't be a geek, be a music nut. I'll never understand the lack of inspiration in the IT field, if we took most of our ideas nationally, there'd be huge profits ahead. Too bad I'm too A.D.D. to focus on a national roll-out :)

Good luck!

Re:it is a hoax people

[Glorat]

However, Reduced Functionality Mode is not a hoax. Linked from your article is this - straight from Microsoft. I guarantee this link is worth the visit, despite the Flash.

http://oem.microsoft.com/downloads/public/US/wgavista/Flash.html [microsoft.com]

MOD PARENT UP!!!

[iroll]

Damn my expired mod points! "Hoax"-my-ass; it might have been a minor overstatement, but it's not a hoax by any means.

That wired article basically concludes by saying "Well, sure, Reduced Functionality Mode exists, but you still get to browse for an hour at a time... and your monitor doesn't go COMPLETELY black."

Re:2007, the year of linux.

[Annymouse Cowherd]

High-end laptop batteries average about 7 hours in low power consumption mode (underclocked, dimmer lcd)

Re:2007, the year of linux.

[Mad Merlin]

I can easily get ~6 hours of battery life out of my Thinkpad T60 with the 9 cell battery pack.