Windows Product Activation Creator Reveals Truth Behind XP's Most Notorious Product Key (tomshardware.com) 34
Dave W. Plummer, the Microsoft developer who created Task Manager and helped build Windows Product Activation, has revealed the origins of Windows XP's most notorious product key. The alphanumeric string FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 was not cracked through clever hacking but leaked as a legitimate volume licensing key five weeks before XP's October 2001 release.
A warez group distributed the key alongside special corporate installation media. Windows Product Activation generated hardware IDs from system components and sent them to Microsoft for validation. The leaked volume licensing key bypassed this entirely. The system recognized it as corporate licensing and skipped phone-home activation. Users could install XP without activation prompts or 30-day timers. Microsoft later blacklisted the key.
A warez group distributed the key alongside special corporate installation media. Windows Product Activation generated hardware IDs from system components and sent them to Microsoft for validation. The leaked volume licensing key bypassed this entirely. The system recognized it as corporate licensing and skipped phone-home activation. Users could install XP without activation prompts or 30-day timers. Microsoft later blacklisted the key.
used to be worse (Score:5, Interesting)
https://gurney.dev/posts/mod7 [gurney.dev]
Re:People would rather pirate Windows (Score:5, Insightful)
The "secret recipe"
not having to deal with other linux users
Re:People would rather pirate Windows (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: People would rather pirate Windows (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Exactly. There is no Vehicle, there are dozens of different cars, each with their own quirks, and as a noob to cars I'm supposed to try out each one to see which I like best, according to most advice I've seen.
Re: People would rather pirate Windows (Score:2)
There is no Linux Operating System
He obviously meant "There is no one Linux Operating System" - it's 'helpful' Linux Advocates that discourage 'normies' from dipping their toe in the GNU/Linux operating environment...
Microsoft appreciates your help with keeping people running Windows.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. There is no Vehicle, there are dozens of different cars, each with their own quirks, and as a noob to cars I'm supposed to try out each one to see which I like best, according to most advice I've seen.
Poor analogy. Vehicle Construction And Use regulations of various nations make certain things on motor vehicles a legal standard requirement regardless of who makes the car or even where in the world it comes from. For example here in the UK cars must have amber turn signals, rear fog lights, a specific headlight beam pattern, tyres with date codes on and no older than 10 years old etc etc etc regardless of whether it's made in the UK by Jaguar, made in China by BYD or made in the USA by Chevrolet. LSB, Lin
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Which is why, personally, I use Mac, because I don't care to worry about those issues anymore. I've used Linux since 1994 or so, and have set up hundreds of systems. Nowadays, meh; I don't want to bother. I just wake up my machine and go. True, it's limiting, in a
Re: (Score:2)
It's not like I had a choice at the time. Most software was only made for Windows so if you needed get shit done (like write a thesis) you were stuck with Word on Windows.
Re: (Score:2)
Linux is good, especially the recent versions.
However, not all software that people want to use runs on it. Sure, some of it has Linux versions, some can run on Wine, but not everything.
Similar with games, Valve has done a great job making games run on Linux, but not all games do (especially the ones that use anticheats).
So, the choice is this:
1. Use Linux which can run 99% of software you want.
2. Use Windows which can run 100% of software you want
3. Use Linux for the 99% and then have a second PC, dual boo
I suspect ... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
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The system recognized it as corporate licensing and skipped phone-home activation.
The important part is the 'skip phone-home'. Without a special product code and/or key for this, how would one ever configure a new machine in a SCIF? If it phoned home, the Department of War would drop by Redmond HQ pretty damned fast.
Re: I suspect ... (Score:2)
Yes, WinXP is a viable option now that Win 10 is going off support... /SMH
Win 95 keys (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember the keys for Windows 95, along with related Microsoft products, being laughably easily defeated by the number 7. It didn't matter what the first 3 or 4 numbers were as long as the last 7 numbers, when added together, were evenly divisible by 7. That's why 123-1234567 and 1234-1111111 would work.
Re: (Score:2)
I never ran across the first three digit limit and I didn't know about the limit to 9 as well. Interesting.
Re: FCK GW? (Score:2)
Re: FCK GW? (Score:2)
It was aimed at Gateway Computers, remember the Holstein design on the boxes?
Re: (Score:2)
Alternatively, Greg Whitten. He worked for Microsoft from 1979 to 1998.
Severe case of nostalgia (Score:2)
I've just recited this key perfectly from memory after learning it 24 years ago.
My deity_of_choice, nostalgia is really killing me right now... :'-)
Re: Severe case of nostalgia (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
:fist_bump:
Was finally cracked in 2023 (Score:2)
It's quite easy to activate XP now all these years later. So if you have some old, isolated machine that requires XP, you can install it still.
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Activation (Score:5, Interesting)
The older I get and the longer I work in IT, the more I believe that software activation is to be avoided at all costs, especially time-limited software activation.
I've got a Framework laptop on pre-order because I'm pretty certain I really don't want Windows. I have only one Windows machine at home, on Windows 10, and I'm really not convinced that it offers me anything at all that I want. Much of my early use of that device was getting AROUND shite that I don't want, and fudging things to make them work. Windows 11 needs that x 100, from my experiences with it.
And now they have the 10 ESU stuff, which is just unnecessary, especially after they promised "no more new versions of Windows".
So I think I'm done. Again. Having previously used Slackware as my primary desktop for 10 years.
I audited the software on my primary machine and I don't think there's a single thing on there's that proprietary, needs "activation" (I "activated" my software when I clicked the download button, giving it executable permissions or via the use of credit card to purchase it in the first place, thanks) or that can't work on Linux.
I'm at that point again where I need to computer do work for me, not run off and do whatever the hell it likes. Between activation, AI, mandatory cloud accounts, "search everything" rather than just organise stuff, etc. I think I'm done again.
I have 20 years until retirement. I reckon that's a viable proposition to reach there without having to have a single Windows machine at home again.
He says, typing from a Samsung DeX session on an Android phone.
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I've got a Framework laptop on pre-order because I'm pretty certain I really don't want Windows.
You don't have to buy a laptop from Framework just to not have one with Windows on. Dell, HP, Lenovo will all sell you laptops without Windows on, Dell for example list Ubuntu as a pre-installed OS option on some of their range, and if you buy one with Windows on there's nothing at all stopping you from just wiping the drive and putting Linux on.
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And, for decades, they didn't. And they still don't really. You have to fight like hell to find the models, you have to pay overpriced prices to get to it, you have to basically forget technical support for it (I've had them say "can you just boot Windows so we can check that's working", etc.), they don't provide proper drivers, and ongoing support is dubious.
And so if I'm going to have to drop that much on those models which do support that option, and deal with that? I'm just going to buy a product des