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Options for 'Fixing' A Pirated Copy of Windows
PunkOfLinux writes "My parents are running a pirated copy of windows that my mom received from a teacher at school. My parents want to go legit, and buy a copy of Windows, but they are afraid of deleting everything and having to reinstall all their programs. Seeing as I know you guys will have an answer, I'm going to ask you: What would you do in this situation?"
Yes, it's easy to google for it, provided you already know that the solution relies in a key changer.
IF your folks are worried about a reinstall, they're NOT ready to survive a catastropic harddrive crash.
Much less full reload to clear an infection.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
Depends on which OEM... the OEM disks are occasionally quite restrictive, in other cases they are close to the retail version..
Using a program called nlite to redo your disc still solve many problems
Yes, this is also true. Thank you for the additional clarification. Still, I was struck by how common, practically unavoidable it was, to buy OEM versions on my local-dealer-research/purchase day (as I described earlier), and how difficult and expensive it was to buy a retail (full) version. And what buying the inexpensive version *really* meant, (i.e. it would wipe any existing installation, and probably cause difficulty in getting it exchanged for a more capable, expensive version later). M$ certainly doesn't put much effort in clarifying the situation for the consumer's, here in Amsterdam, the nation's capitol. It's like M$ assumes (and to a certain extent dictates) that everyone purchases an OEM version aspart of a PC upgrade, acting just like it was a business model or something.
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
I'm absolutely amazed. When you already know the answer and derive keywords from the answer you already know, searching for the solution is trivial!
The legit vendors meet the letter of the law by shipping a cable or some other trinket that qualifies the media as OEM. That part is not a grey area. Yup, the transfer issue is why I mentioned the retail version - but you would have to transfer from three machines to break even. If you have more than three machines, odds are the volume pricing is for you...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
A "repair" will often fail when repairing between different versions of Windows (Home/Pro, Media Center/Pro, etc). I agree that a repair is a lot cleaner than what I suggested but it is less likely to get the job done. Between the different versions, (home, pro, media center) and the different sub versions (upgrade, full, OEM, corp) the number of Windows CDs needed for people who do this daily is ridiculous.
...then you will never be trapped by something like this again. Linux or BSD are just as easy to use for most ordinary tasks, and once installed are solid and reliable for ordinary users to access web sites, and to do simple word processing tasks. The majority of users do not need any more, and it is certainly an act of crass stupidity to pay for Windows licenses to do just these things.
a number of drivers did require reinstall
It's actually alluded to on the page that you linked to, but it bears spelling out explicitly:
The repair install option returns Windows to the state it is in when freshly installed from the CD used
In other words, while you keep all your settings, files, etc, it wipes out any drivers, service packs or other updates that you have installed since installing from the CD. An XP SP1 install CD used to repair an up-to-date XP install is going to wipe out SP2, and a whole host of other updates.
That's why you had to reinstall the drivers - they weren't on the CD so they were nuked.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
The only reliable way to reinstall anything is to buy a second HDD, replace the HDD, make a new install, copy your valuable data to the new HDD and put your old HDD into the fireproof armoured container placed in a cool deep place far enough from the Middle East. I had a lot of trouble assuming that "c:\Program Files" contains the program files and no application data, while there was an application holding it's data in Program Files. I was lucky enough to have written beforehand a duly registered report "I need a spare HDD for reinstalls" and to have received the written instruction "You don't need a spare HDD for reinstalls, you only save the files the operator explicitly asks for". It costed operator an additional week to reenter data.
The same policy will be applied, much more aggresively, with Vista, because of economics.
There's a lot of speculation that Microsoft will have to orphan the Xbox - the 360 will be the end-of-the-line. This would have been unthinkable a year ago, but the financial situation has changed a lot, and a recession would pretty much seal its fate.
Buy a Mac? YOu honestly advocate going out and spending at least 600 bucks (of couse that would require at least another 512 MB of ram, a keyboard and a mouse and possibly a new monitor0, not to mention the costs of replacing software as well as the loss of all the data on the Windows based PC? Lets not even get into the costs of getting them familiar with the Mac over the PC.
Linux? Once again, they loose most, if not all their software, and probably the same with the data.
Sorry when a person asks for help getting a copy of Windows LEGIT, they are not asking to move to another OS.
What your post is, is nothing more than rabid fanboism at it's best.
No, really, call Microsoft. They will give you all of the legit, legal options. I've seen them sell media-less CD-keys for Windows for as low as $50.
http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org./ Takes a couple minutes to run, installs pretty much every codec out there along with apps to use them with. It's crushingly difficult. And so hard to find too--it took almost a whole minute to find the link on the Ubuntulinux wiki.
Which linux distributions have you tried? How much have you used them? Because I'm sensing a lack of familiarity. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Stick with Windows if you're more comfortable. Just don't assume that what's right for you is right for everyone.The MS OEM restrictions TheNetAvenger describes are no longer part of the license.
I just bought the OEM version of Win XP a few weeks ago and was surprised to find the restrictions a thing of the past. The real difference between the retail and OEM version licenses is that the OEM license is non-transferable and tied to a single system, while the retail version can be uninstalled from one computer and installed on another.
Regarding activation and hardware modifications, MS allows some flexability, but the intent of the OEM license is to tie the software to the system on which it is orignally installed.
I see, so as microsoft have made a lot of money, that means its ok to pirate their software? Google have made lots of cash too, is it ok if i use click fraud to screw up adwords?
These people are obviously happy with their OS, as they want to stick with it, I dont understand why you think they shouldnt pay for a product they clearly use probably every day, or is this just normal slashdot microsoft bashing?
What is it about products that can be encoded digitally that some people think that their creators dont need to eat?
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Hmm, you can't just go and buy the upgrade because it's cheaper! The upgrade is for people who have earlier versions of windows, legally. There are limits on the versions which qualify, maybe 95, 98, ME, 2000 etc. If you don't own a legal version of one of these OS's you can't just buy the upgrade of XP as you won't satisfy the license and it will still be illegal, there's no point then.
I'm often asked to do things to PC's which turn out to be running a pirated XP. When I tell the owners they usually say something like 'so what'. If I tell them I won't work on an illegal version they think about buying, see the price and make odd noises.
Come on people, if you can't stand the price, use FLOSS for god's sake.
What would you do in this situation?
Whenever I have to reinstall windows (or more often, linux since my main computer runs a different distro about every week), I do an audit of all my data.
First, write down what you need to keep: emails? accounting data from Quicken? config info from other applications? bookmarks? Get it all down and back up everything to an external drive or a CDR.
Second, reinstall the OS and all applications. If you went through the whole harddrive, directory by directory, you should have saved all the config files and data files that you needed. If you didn't, then you should have gone more slowly and carefully.
It is best to do a reinstall anyway, because if they've been running Windows for a long time, they probably have a lot of cruft... left-over services and other junk from programs they don't run anymore that are slowing down their machine... and there's always the possibility of malware lurking in the shadows.
A reinstall takes care of all those things. Tell them not to be afraid, just patient and careful.
Sorry to go on an off-topic rant here, but...
I'm a consultant who helps small business and home users. I can't tell you how many times I have talked to customers who (in the past) have had another tech come along and do a re-install without understanding all of the implications.
There is value in a machine's configuration! The customizations, tweaks, and even icon arrangements people create to make their systems work and lives easier are time-consuming to recreate, and there can be a major loss of productivity if they have to re-do it all from scratch. I'm a professional, and it's not uncommon for it to take me 3-5 hours to do a good job of getting all of the software, utilities, and configuration changes done for a typical business machine. Just because you can rebuild your own gaming rig from scratch in two hours (because you do it once a month) doesn't meant that this is a course of action that makes sense for everyone.
This is why I always recommend *full* backups of the entire system... not just "important" documents. And it's why I do a full re-install as an absolute last resort. I can count the number of re-installs I've been forced into in the last *year* on one hand.
The good news is that if you know what you're doing (unfortunately many techs don't) VERY few problems require a rebuild. It's very possible to clean off even the "worst" infections fairly quickly, with high confidence that everything is gone. I charge a two-hour flat rate for *any* infection cleanup (including kernel rootkits), and that usually works out to my advantage. Hard drives often have only failed in a few sectors... I commonly am able to image the failed drive to a new one, and repair the windows install using a combination of sfc, system restore, misc subsystem fixes, and (in the worst cases) a repair re-install.
The benefit to the user is that they get their machine back *exactly the way it was*, the same day, without a large repair bill. The benefit to me is that the customer is happy and calls me back the next time they have a problem... instead of cursing me the whole time they are trying to rebuild their system the way they had it.
If you are a tech and haven't learned this stuff, you are doing your customers and yourself a disservice.
-R
I wouldn't - copyright controls copying, not removing property such that the original owner will no longer have. It involves potential profits as opposed to physical objects. They're completely different things.
GPL: Free as in will
Yup. For a while I could not start up my computer proberly. It kept crashing inside one of the windows dll's - can't remember right now which one. After running windows update again it updated the wga again and my computer worked fine.
*Then* they can think about doing a Windows key update or if necessary reinstalling.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Show me a passage in any lawbook that equates copyright infringement with theft.
That's a bit like saying that home invasion isn't assault, and then demanding to see a law book that equates home invasion with assault, with one exception: using unlicensed software isn't copyright infringement. Just because there's a more specific version that uses a name involving different words doesn't mean that it's anything different.
Now, as to why using unlicensed software isn't copyright infringement, let's review, shall we? Copyright is the body of law which governs who is allowed to publish or distribute materials. Copyright infringement of software is the source side of piracy, not the destination side: the people who print illegal copies of a CD and sell them for $5 are infringing copyright. If these parents have not redistributed what they were given, they are not infringing copyright.
As far as what they actually are doing, well, it's theft, plain and simple. What Microsoft sells are licenses to use its software. The user agreement is used to enforce that someone may not use the software without having purchased a license from Microsoft, a retailer or partner. In this sense, US law quite plainly interprets sold licenses as equivalent to currency, in that they can be transferred, sold, bought, and have a value as representative of another item - in the case of dollars it's the gold standard (or at least once was,) and in the case of software licenses it's the right to use the product.
In that one may transfer one's right to use software by selling one's license, to duplicate said license - which is prerequisite in the case of using a license one has not paid for - is parallel to counterfitting. You are by using cracked software counterfitting a license. And, if you'll take the time to look, counterfitting in the United States is considered theft from the government.
That said, nobody was trying to be legalistic. The issue is simple and obvious from the moral standpoint: Company A offers a product it cost $5 to make for $10. You use said product without paying for it. That's boldly obviously theft, your attempts at legal semantics notwithstanding.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
"interesting idea. So is it just you and your friends who get to take the product for free under this system, whilst laughing at the poor schmucks who paid for it and made your actions possible?"
:-) How long do you think MS would remain solvent if it had to compensate the users of its buggy bloatware when it fails to operate correctly because of a serious design flaw or programming error, the way automakers have to do when their products fail miserably? Can GM limit its liability to $5 in cases where its cars blow up or exhibit sudden brake failure?
Exactly what has been taken? It isn't like a tangible thing (made of matter/energy) which, when you take it, means someone else is deprived of it. It is information that is expressed as a bit pattern.
Having had my own software pirated, I had to confront this question years ago. I can't say that I know how the IP issues ought to be addressed, but it is safe to say that grabbing a copy of a program from someone else is very different than stealing or even borrowing their car.
The worst that software companies can claim as true damages is lost revenues -- that a software pirate would have paid somewhere close to the going rate for the program if he didn't get a free copy somehow. It would be nice if they had to prove that claim in each and every case of software piracy they prosecute. Given that most people who pirate software would not (and could not afford to) pay anywhere close to the advertised prices for it, that would be hard to do.
It might be quite appropriate if software companies could only demand that they be compensated (at most) for some realistic minimum value they actually put on their software, say the amount they can be held liable for under their own contractual licensing agreement(s). In Microsoft's case, the value of their major software packages is really what, $5, according to the MS EULA? It isn't as if Microsoft is claiming its software will do much in particular...read the whole EULA if you haven't done so already.
They are as much as admitting that it isn't worth what they ask for it.
I'm unsure as to how commercial software should be priced, but I think it would be best if the government was not put in the position of penalizing people who haven't done any real harm. That would be very difficult in cases where those who use copied software for other than commercial purposes are concerned. It would be fairly easy in cases where a firm sells product created with commercial compilers, word processors, or editors, or services that depend on commercial DBMS packages. Little Timmy doesn't cost the vendor of Grand Theft Starship: The Revenge of Mario a dime if he snags a copy from his pal Suzi. At worst, if they can show he was clearly able to purchase a copy and did play the pirated one a lot, they ought to get compensated for the street value of the program and Timmy ought to get a citation or something for being a Bad Boy(tm).
Now, if Little Timmy goes into business selling copies of GTS-RM to all his friends at school for ten bucks a pop, then the penalties ought to be fairly harsh, because he is selling (for profit) what isn't his. Cases where Timmy sells it for just enough to cover his cost of distribution are still questionable, but one could argue that he still profits by gaining goodwill (something accountants think they can actually quantify).
"You're young, you're drunk, you're in bed, you have knives; shit happens." -- Angelina Jolie
Haha.
The guy was an idiot and your were congratulating him on it.
He did the equivalent of saying that only druggies complain about drug laws, or only speeders think speed enforcement laws are often abusive, or only gun-nuts dislike gun-restriction laws, etc, etc.
In his self-righteousness, he couldn't even conceive of the possibility that one might make a rational argument criticisizing the state of copyright law without himself being a copyright violator. That's worse than attacking the messenger and ignoring the message, its making up strawmen to impune the integrity of someone you disagree with but can't otherwise justify your disagreement.
And you thought that was just great. Hoo-rah! Just the kind of behaviour we need more of online.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.