Black Screens For Unauthorized Copies of Windows 762
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.'"
PFFFFFT (Score:0, Insightful)
Only fucking retards use WGA on a pirated copy. Good luck with your wild goose chase, Microsoft!
That's not too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh wait...
Help Vista or Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's going to be very funny if this does more for Linux than Vista.
Hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows is shareware now?
Re:Notifications (Score:2, Insightful)
I've wondered that too. Two of my PCs are currently using the same key. My install CDs & license keys are buried under dozens of boxes & books and I couldn't be bothered to spend 5 hours hunting for them just because XP needed a reinstall to get rid of the 120sec boot times and constant crashes.
If not, you can use http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/ [wallpaperchanger.de] to change your wallpaper every hour and the text is hardly going to show if you leave a few icons over it.
Fantastic (Score:2, Insightful)
Are they *trying* to push people away? (Score:4, Insightful)
I know several people who've bought new machines in the last 6 months
and been forced to have Vista pre-installed
they didn't want it
so pirated XP
are they trying to push people away?
cause it won't take much to annoy your userbase onto trying alternative OS's
And I'll tell you what,
once your average "mere mortal" Windows user, for whatever reason, tries Linux, and likes it
his testimonial goes a long way with other mere mortals in the same boat
Re:Notifications (Score:3, Insightful)
Whoever is on Slashdot right now with WGA installed(pirated copy or not) should bash their head into their monitor until their vision is nothing but a black screen.
k. Ow...
why the hell did microsoft keep such a flexible UI so locked down with that lame Blue and Green for so long?
What the heck is so bad about it? I've never understood this, someone please enlighten me.
Re:Wonderful; just another reason to pirate it (Score:3, Insightful)
The funny thing is, you're a fool if you update WGA.
What the hell? No you aren't. Microsoft makes you download it every time you get something off their site that isn't a critical update. So, to have WGA, all you need to do is want some software they make. That's not foolish in the least.
Bull (Score:3, Insightful)
> Most people I know who run 'stolen' software don't have the funds, are not otherwise law-breakers,
> and are not aware of alternatives.
Oh bull, if they can afford the computer they could have afforded to get the OEM preload instead of the pirate version from the neighborhood screwdriver shop. Or if they built it themselves then they damned sure could have sprung for an OEM copy when they bought the other bits. Most custom built machines are gaming rigs these days and if you can afford the video card for gaming you can afford a copy of XP. IF you can afford the GAMES you can afford XP... oh, they bootleg the games too.
And yes, they are probably lawbreakers in other areas too... anything THEY decide they should be able to do they probbaly do.
The only sensible thing is your attempts to get em on a legal alternative.
Stopping bootleg software should be the #1 priority of the Free Software movement as it is our primary competition. The main argument one hears when pitching Free (talking about individuals here, large installs do pay) is that they argue back that what they have is also free, in that it either came preloaded and thus they have no idea how much of the purchase price was the OEM licenses or they are using bootleg software that is 'free.' If people actually had to PAY for software like Office, OO.o would be installed a lot more often.
Another push to get people using Vista (Score:4, Insightful)
My theory: This isn't actually an effort to get more people buying windows directly, but to maintain market dominance. M$ are squeezing the illegal XP 'market', trying to get them to use illegal Vista instead.
This is merely the first step, they'll eventually add checks for the most common cracks, followed by kill switches. This comes after service pack 1 removed the kill switch from Vista, making it less risky to pirate.
Whilst this might see a few people jumping ship to Linux or something, I'm guessing M$ decided the risks of losing a few freeloaers outweighed the importance of removing the XP-shaped-thorn from their side.
Get everyone doin' the downgrade, that way people will be used to it for when windows 7 comes out. M$ have learnt their lesson, and won't be creating any more good operating systems any time soon. It's less profitable!
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...
Sweet! (Score:3, Insightful)
Relative: Why does my computer lose my wallpaper and give me a black screen every hour?
Me: Ah, that's just Vista for you. You have to pay Microsoft to get rid of that.
Relative: Why? Why should I have to pay Microsoft? Why doesn't it just work?
Me: A.) It's not Linux, so it won't "just work" no matter what you do, and B.) You didn't really expect Microsoft to let you use their computer for free, did you?
Relative: Um, I already paid for it-
Me: Yes, you paid for the computer. But you didn't pay Microsoft. You have to pay Microsoft before you can use it. You own the computer, they own the software.
Relative: So wait - you have to pay for both the computer and Microsoft?
Me: No, I use Linux. I only have to pay for the computer.
Relative: But if I paid Microsoft, I'd own both the computer, and the software, right?
Me: No, you would own just the computer. Microsoft would still own the software.
Relative: But I could move the software to a new computer if I bought the software, right?
Me: No, that's not how Microsoft works. You pay them, and you get to use the software on that computer. They still own it - you don't - and you can't move it from computer to computer.
Relative: So let me get this straight: I pay Microsoft for software, and they still own it?! What kind of $&*!@ is that?
Me: Yep, that's how proprietary software works. You get to use it, but you can't own it.
Relative: So how is it that you don't have to pay Microsoft?
Me: I run Linux.
At this point, it starts to sink in that pirating Windows isn't doing them any favors. As far as I'm concerned, if you want to use proprietary software, you can pay for it.
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.
Dear MS from a paying customer (Score:2, Insightful)
As a paying customer I don't want to take the time to call you and sit on hold for hours just so I can use what I paid for after your "upgrade" happens by YOUR mistake.
I get so sick of companies treating me a paying customer as an adversary. Years ago I played games and actually enjoyed them. But when DRM made me into a CD swapping machine despite me having more than enough HD space they lost the fun factor and became a hassle. Now I don't game hardly at all. Of course anyone that illegally subverted the DRM is still gaming including non-paying customers. Seems self defeating.
Good luck MS though I see this as another reason that Apple and Linux will continue to grow.
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.
Re:Notifications (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Notifications (Score:1, Insightful)
I've got an ubuntu CD ready for the day I just give up on Microsoft and their customer hunting practices.
Fixed for you.
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.
Re:*Innocent Whistling* (Score:3, Insightful)
Ahh Huh. The people who sing on the street corner do it to make money too. That doesn't mean I'm required to pay them for hearing their song.
The lack of consent in copyright-based transactions is what is so morally repugnant and why so many people refuse to be bullied into paying. You want to be paid for your services? Don't relinquish your control over them.
Re:Are they *trying* to push people away? (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh yes, driving away the freeloaders is a big risk for M$. How many illegal copies of windows XP do you think there are in the world? Now imagine if they all ran Linux instead.
I saw a report recently [theinquirer.net] that said the percentage of PCs with Linux pre-installed was 28 times what it was when vista first shipped. The actual 28 times figure is unimportant, it's more like 14 or 9 times if you look at the months before vista's release, but the actual market share is the important part. That's up to 2.8%, which is comparable to Apple's share.
What does that mean? Apple's share may not be big, but it's big enough to draw developers like Adobe. When you consider the potential that many of the machines with XP/Vista pre-installed will have been dual-booted to Linux, I'd expect the percentage of new computers with Linux to beat the percentage of new Macs hands-down.
There are still a lot of computers out there from past years, however, mostly running Windows XP. They'll probably be jumping to either Vista or Linux and, however much WGA they throw at the situation, they can't afford for them to jump to Linux even if it means making Vista easier to pirate, like by removing the reduced-functionality "kill switch" as they did in SP1.
Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:PFFFFFT (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:My stance on WGA and Vista (Score:1, Insightful)
Excuse me... If it needs 4Gb to run like XP ran in ONE, you have a problem considering that the damn thing didn't bring much to the plate.
Push pirates off XP (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it only me who think that real target are the pirates in 3rd world (China, India) and real goal is to push them to adopt Vista?
Economy of piracy has its mechanics and M$ exploited it many times. Many developers get first taste of programming on pirated Windows using pirated development software. M$ had rather them pirating Vista.
All this WGA thing is really nothing, because there are bunch of packs floating on net with XP and Vista stripped of all unnecessary stuff (like license checks). Most active pirates will not be affected by M$' change of WGA by a bit.
Re:Notifications (Score:3, Insightful)
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".
Microsoft needs a new plan.... (Score:1, Insightful)
I believe that Microsoft's strategy when it comes to OS need some serious revamp, else, in the next 5 to 10 yrs, they will lose their predominance in the field.
Now, they may not WANT to hear this, but WE don't want Vista, that's simple enough!
It's a resource hog, and it doesn't deliver anything useful.
For Microsoft to stay in the OS game, I think they should do the following:
Does this make sense? I think it does, no more reason for piracy! And the best of all is that they probably will increase their bottom line with this strategy! :)
Re:Help Vista or Linux? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Notifications (Score:3, Insightful)
They can certainly update the updater if it is set to check for updates but not install them until prompted. They could probablly use that mechanism to force updates to other stuff too.
I don't think they can force updates if automatic updates are completely turned off.
But while they probablly could force down windows genunine advantage by a number of mechanisms (use the system for updating the updater, hide it in with another update) I doubt they will. MS has a tightrope to walk, on the one hand they want to drive people from pirate MS software to legit MS software. On the other hand they don't want to drive people to non-MS software.
Besides MS has known for ages that users can refuse WGA, it even makes descisions about what updates to give them if they do refuse it. If they wanted to play hardball I would expect them to have done so by now.
Re:Notifications (Score:2, Insightful)
5 Minutes? Discounting Holds and such, it takes damn near 5 minutes to type in the number they give you.
Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is, the net effect of this crap is to treat paying customers WORSE than pirates.
Re:Sweet! (Score:4, Insightful)
Me: A.) It's not Linux, so it won't "just work" no matter what you do...
Linux. It Just Works.
(Your experience may vary.)
Me: No, that's not how Microsoft works. You pay them, and you get to use the software on that computer. They still own it - you don't...
That's not an artefact of proprietary software, it's basic copyright. I can download Ubuntu, but I do not own Ubuntu. I have a single copy, or as many duplicates as I want. I can't just do what I like with it though (eg change the branding and sell it as my own work sans source code) - there are rules for redistribution and all that. Nearly all software has some rules you must follow. F/OSS is not above this.
And you can move Windows to other PCs. I've done it. It might require a call to the Windows Activation team, but it's not hard. You can't have it on two at the same time though, but you can shift it.
I'm not a Windows user, except in the office. I'm a fan of Linux, even though I've never managed to really get it working right. I don't think you should misinform people about what proprietary software is or isn't though - only honest, accurate information is worth using to change people's minds about F/OSS.
Re:Wonderful; just another reason to pirate it (Score:3, Insightful)
Some might beg to differ.
Re:Pfff.... No imagination (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:this happened to me, a legit user (Score:1, Insightful)
more often then not this is because unbeknownest to you, you really are using a pirated copy. There has been massive amount of counterfeiting, dodgy ram doesn't take you from legit to pirated, it could take you back to being unactivated but not pirated. I suggest if you really did buy it then you ring them, if it is pirated they will give you a free copy for reporting it to them and if not they will fix it.
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).
Re:Notifications (Score:3, Insightful)
"XP itself(which is actually highly configurable with transparent windows menus etc -- google it -- but why the hell did microsoft keep such a flexible UI so locked down with that lame Blue and Green for so long?)"
Because if people could make XP less ugly, there would be absolutely no demand for Vista. As it is, Vista is XP with added eye-candy. Gigabytes of it.
Re:Notifications (Score:3, Insightful)
I only run windows because when I put together the system, voice chat in TF2 didn't work under wine (pretty sure it works now, I know it does in CS:S) and now I'm too lazy to reformat and install Ubuntu proper. I only use the computer for firefox, gmail (firefox) and steam games. I'm sure lots of other people only use windows because it meets a basic need and would gladly switch to something free if it were more convenient at install. If microsoft dies because people are pirating an OS they don't even sell anymore causes them to go under, so be it. Vendors will move to a more viable, free platform (likely linux). XP is only a vehicle I'm required to play my games and I have no issue "pirating" a copy. The value of the OS has decreased sharply, and if microsoft wants to continue charging above market value, so be it.
Re:Notifications (Score:4, Insightful)
Before I begin, let us not forget that WGA has found many computers with 'invalid licences' when indeed the computers were licensed fine. Beyond that, people can have multiple computers with the same OEM key activated, which causes problems with Microsoft's WGA servers, and can potentially cause invalidations. Otherwise legitimate people do not know the EULA and/or care for it. As for pirates, just find another solution or move to Linux; you will not regret it. I used to be an all-Windows person, pirating software, and everything. I thought Keygens were amazing; I thought the warez scene was amazing. Truth be told, the 'scene' is simply the result of things like said in this article, but if anything, the 'scene' should be promoting free alternatives instead of just cracking software all day. All that effort spent cracking some copy protection could be spent making a program that does the same thing.
The more a volume licence key gets used (it ALWAYS gets passed during Windows Update) the more chance that Microsoft will blacklist it. That is what happened to FCKGW and a number of others.
As for me, I am a technician on the side and I get volume licence keys from places I visit but I NEVER share them with anyone. So I have like 2 computers (one is mine, however I'm on Linux most of the time anyway; also it's a laptop and has a COA on the bottom anyway) in the house running on volume licence that always pass WGA, but I never allow the daemon to be installed, just the ActiveX control now required to go onto the Windows Update site. Technically, I am OEM licensed, but I would rather not be bothered by WGA so I just use VL keys that I never share with anyone.
The key posted above is definitely going to be blacklisted soon enough. I would stop while ahead.
Here's a method to be somewhat legit: Find an OEM key (just look at the side of someone's computer or bottom of someone's laptop for the COA), reinstall OEM Windows with that key, and activate online (which works a lot) or use the phone call method which is now all automated, no representative. Use a pay phone if you are paranoid. You just say 'This is the only computer this copy is installed to', etc. It works!
Why does this work online? Because Windows activation right now is as so: If the time since the original OEM hardware was activated exceeds 120 days (might be 60), then you may activate an OEM key on ANY new hardware. Violates licence? Yes. Care? No. Microsoft knows? Actually, yes.
As for businesses, I URGE you to find other solutions than deploying Windows installations plus whatever software. Microsoft is only getting more draconian as time goes along. 3D developers, Maya does run on Linux and Mac. Finance people, Quicken has an online version accessible with any browser. Proprietary software yes, but you can use it without worrying that your OS is just going to randomly shut off because it found (and many times has been wrong) that your OS is 'pirated'.
Re:colors (Score:2, Insightful)