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Windows Nag Windows to Counter Piracy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the pirate-vein-rupture dept.

Vicegrip writes "Microsoft is enhancing its Genuine Advantage program in the US, Australia, UK, Malaysia and NZ to now include persistent nag screens to remind that your version of Windows is not licensed. These nag screens will keep appearing until you license your version of Windows or, presumably, convince Microsoft they've made a mistake."

5 of 548 comments (clear)

  1. Easy to circumvent... by AnonymousComrade · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Install a virtual desktop manager. Move nag screen to an unused desktop. Voila, problem gone (or at least out of sight).

  2. what nags me.. by Keruo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is the genuine check on genuine product..
    Your copy of windows is genuine and activated.. but lets check it anyway. again. again and again.
    Seesh.

    --
    There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
  3. Piracy is strating to end but... by jamar0303 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It used to be that in my area of Shanghai I could see people selling pirated copies of Windows everywhere (about 16 stands of CDs in a 5km radius). Now, about half of those stands have stopped selling Windows, and are now selling Linux. Coincidence, I think not- MS activation is getting so annoying that they're giving up and going to Linux.

    --
    OSx86 FTW
  4. Re:obligatory by richy+freeway · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It's cracked already.

    There's a LegitCheckControl.dll floating around that you dump into c:\windows\system32 whilst in safe mode, give the PC a reboot and all is well. Windowsupdate etc work fine.

    Not that I've tried it or anything... ;)

  5. Re:I hope not! by Kadin2048 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That would be rather amusing, actually ... create a sort of Windows Genuine Advantage "war dialer" that went through and generated random serial numbers and registered them. One by one, if you just let it go (and Microsoft didn't notice) you'd deplete the keyspace. All of a sudden, people's shiny new HP's they brought home from Best Buy would start saying that they were "counterfeit," straight out of the box. And if you did it to Vista machines, that new interface wouldn't run, along with IE and Defender.

    Man, that would be beautiful.

    I have a feeling Microsoft would catch on though, when they saw the same IP address trying to register 50 or 60 different serial numbers a second. Maybe if you used one of those spam-zombie networks though, you could do it. (Now there's some irony.)

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."