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Windows Nag Windows to Counter Piracy
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."
The 8th edition : MS Windows Vista $hareware
cracks in 3...2...
So can I presume that it will then start telling me to clean my room, do the dishes and take out the bins?
Hey, why not? After all, I'm sure you're like me and you've registered every bit of shareware that had nag screens, right?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I won't even notice that message with all the other Window's errors I get on the screen and all the reminders from every program that needs to update.
Install a virtual desktop manager. Move nag screen to an unused desktop. Voila, problem gone (or at least out of sight).
"Even though you are using an unlicensed copy, you're still helping up maintain marketshare. Thank you."
And not at the expense of existing paying Windows customers.
I don't think Microsoft is going to be convinced otherwise, and if people are pirating when they would really not use anything else, then hell, they should pay for their Windows license.
It might move those who pirate just for fun into other OS's :-)
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
These nag screens will keep appearing until you license your version of Windows or, presumably, convince Microsoft they've made a mistake
Or until you remove the notifications program. From Microsoft's Genuine Advantage KB article (i.e. TFA):
You can uninstall Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications by using Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
-- Andy Jeffries Scramdisk for Linux (Change the orgy to org to reply)
For the hack to fix this.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
FTA: Microsoft says that every time a notification is displayed, the user will receive detailed information about the specific validation failure. The information includes steps that can be taken to resolve the problem.
These don't seem to include, "try Linux instead".
Oh to be able to hack Genuine Advantage...
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
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.
Well, the software got out the door, so aren't we a little late on this? :)
From my standpoint, what was more interesting was:
a) This was a high priority item. Yes, this is as important as fixing IE flaws. Surely.
b) How it's listed in the license agreement:
MICROSOFT PRE-RELEASE SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS
MICROSOFT WINDOWS GENUINE ADVANTAGE VALIDATION TOOL
So they're putting BETA software into high priority updates?
stored on computers from birth to the grave
I sometimes wonder what planet Microsoft are on. On todays page we have news that the Vista firewall is to be crippled and now we find that there will be nag screens.
Do these guys WANT to drive users to open source?
Ed Almos
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
I'd like one for the wallpaper on my very proper corporate desktop. Just to give the Sysadmins heart failure.
Question: The new "Genuine Advantage" tester is an Update on Windows Update. What happens if you just don't install it?
has _anyone_ done this?
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
Welcome to the new world order.
I fear that Vista will be the next Windows ME. Which means that when people I know buy a computer with Vista and they ask me about the problems they're having, I'll tell them to get a copy of XP installed on it instead.
I had to do the same thing with Win ME. It pained me to say that Win 98 was the better alternative, but compared to Morons Edition, it was true.
Genuine Advantage Notification = GAN = NAG spelled backwards. Coincedence?
The more people are forced to pay for their software, the more people will look out for alternatives. Not everybody. Not all the the same time.
If every Linux user can only convice 1 other user to start using Linux, it will the the main player. Naturlay that new Linux user must also convince 1 other user.
A sort of one-dimentional piramid sceme
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I fully support Microsoft's anti-copying measures. I'd love to see them really lock up Windows updates so that only legitimate users can get access to them, or even better, I'd love to see them create a Windows and an Office that is too tough to crack.
I don't think all of the current Windows users are willing to pay for Windows, and if they are forced into doing it, there's a good chance they'll look elsewhere. Those that do decide to pay for Windows will also eventually be tempted by any alternative that has zero cost.
In trying to make all users pay for Windows, Microsoft would be shooting themselves in the foot, and I think they realise that they need illegitimate copying. Not too much, but not too little, either...
The moral of the story? Take your PC off of auto updates and instead set it to ask permission first!
(btw, my copy of XP is legit.)
This space available.
Did I just violate the DMCA by disclosing this?
Yes.
We'll see you in a few minutes. Thanks.
- BSA
Developers: We can use your help.
Are they going to have the annoying Windows XP style message box hovering over the tray that tells me that my USB 2 device could work faster if it was plugged into a non-existant USB 2 port on my USB 1.1 system?
Maybe they could have the annoying Search Mutt take up the left hand window and do a little animation while I have to figure out how to turn it off?
Or they could have that bastard Clippy come on screen and tell me something like "It looks like your copy of Microsoft Windows" isn't licensed properly." with a list of solutions on how I can throw more money at MS.
Lastly there is the universal message box that could pop up right in the middle of the screen stealing focus. That's a classic.
Microsoft Windows has so many annoyances to choose from that most users will probably just click OK when the message box pops up. After all, it's worked so well for WinZip.
I just suggested this to a friend and he reported back that it says it can not be uninstalled.
No, ME was not Morons Edition. Although that fits nicely. What myself and everyone I used to work tech support with refered to it as was Much Evil, we are talking about M$ after all.
First, the title is "Windows Nag Windows to Counter Piracy." What does that even mean?
Second, as nearly everyone has already noted, as designed this will not "keep appearing until you license your version of Windows or, presumably, convince Microsoft they've made a mistake." It is uninstallable.
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
Seriously, it's fucking scary. /boat/ on trial, and not allow the boat to defend itself (this sounds insane, but I'm totally serious) And then when the boat was found guilty of a crime it would be turned over to the admiral (nutsy isn't it?)
The idea dates back to admiralty law in England. Basically if you violated law with your boat they would put your
This seems quaint, antiquated and entirely absurd right?
IT IS STILL LAW IN THE US.
I think we can all collectively saw, wtf?!
Excuse me...I'm going to go put my neighbors Porsche on trial
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
Linux does not nag you ;-)
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
The point of this program is not to nag people who knowingly pirated Windows. They're just going to uninstall/hack it or whatever. It's to notify people who DON'T know that they're using a pirated XP install. Then they know not to buy computers from "John's Shady Computer Store" in the future.
I'm a tad suprised at the negative view that the Slashdot crowd has around WGA.
... a perfectly functional WGA would be Linux's best friend. Who the heck is going to shell out $300 bux for an OS on a $300 PC? Suddenly the value proposition around Linux becomes much more appealing.
Seriously, it's nothing but good for everybody.
1. Microsoft gets to protect the copyright on its products. Protecting copyright is good for everyone. Proprietary, GPL, Open Source, it all boils down to Intelectual Property Law, and if there were no circumvention of it, people would be forced to make more appropriate choices. You're pretty pissed when companies violate the GPL, right? You should be equally pissed when someone violates the Windows EULA. Look at it this way: for every pirated copy of Windows, there is one less Linux User. If they can't afford Windows, welcome to the Free World.
2. If you can't run a bootleg copy of Windows, maybe you will try something else/better
== feh ==
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
No problem - Windows Defender (formerly MS Anti-Spyware) will remove this. Won't it?
XP is very stable.
:)
I agree, the botnet running on my cousin's PC hasn't crashed in months. Go, Microsoft!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I read an article about this yesterday, I think it came from Google News (now I can't find it, and I was going to submit it to /. too) where the journalist actually corresponded via email with someone from Microsoft and got explicit answers to questions on how easy it is to install, decline to install, and remove. I think this was from some tech publication in New Zealand or Australia.
At any rate, what I remember being the bottom line was that you can decline to install the Notification system without penalty, by declining the EULA. However, how many people really read those EULAs, and how many people just click through them? We all know the answer to that. Once you've clicked through and agreed to install the software, it's not designed to be removable. Regardless of whether or not it may be possible to remove (much like IE is removable, if you're really determined) it's not supposed to be. This was made pretty clear in the email from the MS rep.
It's not uninstallable, it may perhaps be removable, is I guess the bottom line here. Those are two different things.
The closest you can get to "uninstalling" it is disabling the notifications, but they'll go back on automatically the next time a new release is downloaded.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
[If pirates are switching to GNU/Linux because of Windows activation issues,] Then it's working, isn't it?
Not once people in China, India, and other rapidly developing countries start developing and using applications designed for GNU/Linux. Then companies that trade with companies in developing countries will need to make their business processes Linux compatible.
Today i've decided that its time i try linux again. I have a dual AMD 2000+ with 1 gig sitting here doing nothing. I'll keep my amd64 windows, but i'm going to install linux on the older dual and get up to speed.
Thank you Microsoft.
And since the read bit is still there, you won't trip Windows Update to force you to reinstall it; the DLL still matches with the WU catalog and all the WGA registry keys are still in place.
First off I think this is up to Microsoft. If they want to ensure people buy their software and crack down on unlicensed copies then that's fine. I don't and wont use MS software unless its justifiable on a cost basis, and generally it isn't. (although I would love to see a good GNU Visio replacement, preferably with a good community base ... but that's another matter). So no I don't currently use any MS software anywhere, Linux on the desktop Linux and MacOS on the Laptops and PalmOS on the PDA
That aside it might actually help MS maintain market share. Some people will have to license on the back of this because it becomes possible to see when a machine hasn't been licensed.
OK so now we have Nag screens, this means that if you are using a pirated copy you get some inconvenience.
Some predictions...
Next we will see real limitations on what you can do with an unlicensed install;
So I expect some of criticisms of this will be
1) MS will cut themselves out of the market;
They might, but more likely they will get a few more licensed users and remember if you have to license Windows and you Have to license Office then they are going to make some money. If they do this now then they will leverage the market share they have (especially when it comes to document compatibility) BEFORE any of the alternatives (ODF) become widely accepted. The gamble on Microsofts part will be that they have everyone by the balls now but might not in two or three years time, best to try and secure that stranglehold.
Linux BSD and Apple (the Computer manufacturer not the Record Label) OS's only comprise a small market share at the moment so its worth while trying it whilst Joe User isn't aware of the alternatives or doesn't think that they are viable. Thus they can solidify and possibly extend their market share whilst increasing the proportion of that market share that is actually licensed.
2) Everyone will switch to Linux, BSD, Apple, anything to save money / hassle
Again Possible, but corporate users (Directors and managers who TRUST Microsoft) are being bombarded by things like the 'Get the facts' Campaign (which is pretty much just propaganda... in fact if you get the chance check out the case studies and then look at the companies that wrote them, most of their websites are hosted on 'Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) ' including the one that has seen a significant reduction in TCO, an increase in reliability and security all by moving its web applications to 2003 server and .NET (to be fair I think they were talking about their intranet but still, practice what you preach!).
Companies however will take that on board, its the kind of thing that is used in internal company politics to the advantage of the anti-GPL crowd. Moreover as long as Joe uses a Windows box at work he's going to want to use one at home.
3) There will be a revolt, everyone adversely effec
Microsoft's knowledge base is wrong (and not for the first time either)
I have experienced this update first hand;
You can decline the EULA, but most people blindly click YES without even reading them.
The nag is highly annoying. It brands the login/shutdown screen, popus up a confirmation dialog with a short pause when you login, randomly shows a bubble dialog and puts a star-like icon in the system tray.
You CANNOT remove it from add/remove programs (perhaps you can if Windows is considered legitimate, but I certainly couldn't). And if you have pirated windows the WGA-related updates will be completely hidden after your next reboot. Seriously; both the Windows Update and Notifications patches were visible after I installed them, but HIDDEN the next time I rebooted!! Perhaps Microsoft will go the whole way and just install a rootkit next time? (or perhaps they already have.. I probably should check that too)
To dissable the warning requires that you run an ActiveX control from microsoft's website (and probably fill out a form identifying where you got windows from, I don't know..). There's no legitimate way of making the warnings go away without going through Microsoft.
You CAN still use system-restore and return to a point before it was installed. Microsoft might dissable this in future.
I already found a hack to cripple WGA Notification, which also prevents Windows Update from being able to restore it. Digg it.
Microsoft have NOT gone far enough. This patch is nothing but a minor inconvenience and is not going to push widescale migration to Linux as I'd originally hoped.
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
Pirates will always find ways around this stuff, but licensed users who do not stay up on the latest copy protection BS will be screwed.
.NET next year.
I'm a college professor, who teaches programming classes. Tuesday, I took a poll in my C# class the other day, and about 2/3rd of the students had gotten MS Visual Studio.NET to work, while 1/3rd did not have it working on their home PCs. Every one who had it working was running a bootlegged / pirate copy. Every one of us who paid for legitimate coppies (or, like me, got a free copy of VS.NET 2005 at the MS launch event) had run into insurmountable trouble.
I've heard from a friend that MS VS.NET does not run on OEM coppies of Windows. Frankly, I've given up. We're not teaching
Andy Out!
I'll repost the comment that I wrote on the Ars Technica forums. This in reaction to somebody who said that Piracy == Evil, and that if I don't want to pay for it, I simply shouldn't use it.
While I agree in principle, I feel Microsoft has lost the moral right to my money. My point:
I go out to buy bread daily and my town has a street with all the supermarkets right next to eachother. Microsoft is one of them. They sell bread but I don't like the taste of their bread, so I go and buy at a competitor. All is fine.
The next day I come back, expecting to buy my bread at the store I bought at yesterday, but the store is on fire. Microsoft is holding a wholesale on matches. I go to yet another competitor. All is fine.
The next day I come back, expecting to buy my bread at the store I bought at yesterday, but the store is flooded and you can see sharks swimming in the water. Microsoft is holding a wholesale on garden hose...
You'll see where I'm going at. In the end there is only Microsoft with crappy tasting bread, Apple who sells exotic whole grain Knackebrod and Linux who just stands on the sidewalk and hands out free stuff. The only reason why Apple still exists is because they are expensive, and the whole reason Linux exists is because Microsoft can't destroy their store.
In short, Microsoft made bloody sure I HAVE NO CHOICE but to use windows (I play games, yes I know about Cedega, I have other windows only programs that I need to run, yes I know of wine and reactos, stop trying to ruin my example). So I see no moral reason to hand this thug my money.
If windows ever becomes 100% pirate proof, I will head to Linux even if I have to give up gaming. I'm a software engineer. One thing Microsoft does NOT want me to do is go to Linux, find out that I cannot do certain things I _have_ to have and then make it myself. Although I do think Linux would start a tremendous growth spurt if this scenario would ever come into play.
Now, let's change the permissions for WgaLogon:
Now we have a local copy of the ACL which we can modify.
You can now turn "Use simple file sharing" back on, if you want.
It looks like you're trying to use Windows. Do you want to:
A) register your product now
B) try again at a later time
C) confess to your crimes and do hard time for piracy, or
D) set the new "Jolly Roger" theme?
once you strip it down. I don't bother and just install server 2003 (same thing really)
XP adds over 2000:
*) Volume Shadow Service (finally...)
*) MFT defragmentation support
*) 64-bit virtual memory support and 64-bit file mmaps
*) application prefetch
*) better page retiring algorithms and PTE management
*) new (faster) locks for kernel objects for SMP
*) Built-in Terminal Server and detachable console (nee remote desktop)
*) support for read-only NTFS (like on a CD or ZIP disk)
*) redesigned registry and configuration subsys (much faster, less mem, mostly lockfree)
*) slow int 0x2e syscalls replaced by sysenter/sysexit (big difference in context switches)
and a bunch of other little things behind the scenes.
So its worth going to NT 5.1/2 if you can whip it into shape.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
There are two files named:
\windows\system32\wgalogon.dll
\windows\system32\wgatray.exe
Rename these two files to something else and the notifications stop, even the tray icon is gone, and there are no traces left in taskmanager either.
These are for as far as I checked, which wasn't really far at all. I just wanted the nagging notifications to stop. They stopped. I'm happy.
no sig = no personality(?)