Kccitystar Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 Microsoft has had a long history of battling against piracy, ever since Bill Gates' Open Letter to Hobbyists in 1976, long before there was even a personal computer software industry to speak of. Now, Microsoft finds itself in its latest piratical engagement, with the recent cracks of Windows Vista and Office 2007, both of which just hit gold release status. Torrents of the cracks are already finding their way around pirate sites. The crack for Windows Vista (which is called "Vista BillGates") is not a true crack, as it replaces components from the final version of the operating system with those from earlier betas. This allows the would-be pirate to use a product key that worked with Beta 1, Beta 2, RC1, or RC2, with the Gold release of the operating system. This allows the OS to be activated normally over the Internet, but does not bypass the activation system itself. Microsoft had made these earlier betas available to the public on a limited basis. The other piratical news today is that a copy of the Enterprise edition of Office 2007 was also made available on the 'Net. This version, like other "Corporate" editions of Microsoft products, uses a volume license key (in this case, Volume Activation 1.0) and does not require activation over the Internet. Of course, Microsoft has methods of fighting back against these latest leaks. The company can push updates through Windows and Office Update that deactivate the pirated copies. As the company did with Windows XP Corporate Editions, Microsoft can invalidate corporate volume license keys that have leaked out at a later date. This latter strategy worked moderately well for Microsoft—at least a few people whose pirated copy of XP had its VLK invalidated did bite the bullet and replace it with a legitimate version. Also, Microsoft can continue their strategy of using Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) to restrict access to certain non-essential updates. Internet Explorer 7 was an example of a product offered only to users who passed WGA. Microsoft's aim is to make piracy annoying enough that casual users will stop bothering with it, despite the fact that dedicated pirates will still manage to break it again and again. Still, it's clear that the battle between pirates and those who would wish to stop them is far from over. Link Discuss..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brutushayesosu Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 I wouldnt mess with getting a leaked OS. I really dont care that much about Vista and would only get it if I got a new computer or more RAM on this one. I dont plan on getting a DX10 card until 2009 either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAM Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 welcome to the golden digital age of 1's and 0's. anything can be cracked and always will be. some may take more work than others but as long as it's out there; there is always a way. i know MS has gotten better i know guys w/ cracked XP os's and after a few months it was rendered unusable via auto updates. but, there's always a way around that. as for vista. i think i will build one final ulitmate PC after i finish restoring my bronco and visat is semi stable. something water cooled and an ultimate media PC as well. then i'm going to throw down on a high end MAC laptop and eventually go for a nice MAC desktop system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleMo Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 I'm wondering if I'm the only one ready to buy a PC with XP so that I won't have to use Vista when all of the PCs roll out offering only Vista and no XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marinerschas2 Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 anyone try mvp on vista yet. i have the rtm (thanks msdn subscription) and i'm planning a full system restore. however i don't want to install just to have mvp have problems, i read madden works, but im curious if anyone has tried mvp on one of the rc's or on the rtm build. also 256mb stick of ram went out, i can get another 256mb for 27 and it will put me at 1gb agian, or should i go for the $50 512 stick and get 1.25 total. how much will performance go up, i imagine it wont be too much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkB Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 I tried out Vista at work the other day (Dell received new betas almost every other week) and for all it looks good, I still have doubts over the subsystem being used. It does look crisp, but will it be functional? I was begging to try changing it from the Vista Aero theme to Windows classic to see how it performed, but the lab techs weren't going for it. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marinerschas2 Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 yeah, most likely i'll still use classic on vista, just like i use classic on xp. Why slow down your system to get fancy 3d effects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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