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Vista Pirates To Get "Black Screen of Darkness"

jcatcw writes "Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide, and sent a letter to OEMs explaining the consequences of Vista piracy. These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop. Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'"

39 of 873 comments (clear)

  1. Insult to injury by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't using Vista enough punishment in itself?

    1. Re:Insult to injury by Kadin2048 · · Score: 2, Funny

      If poor software is criminal, who do I get arrested for all those times I tried to install Linux only to be greeted with the inability to connect to the network, get X running, or use most of my peripherals?

      In that case, you're entitled to a full refund.

      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. So when you legally buy the software... by InvisblePinkUnicorn · · Score: 4, Funny

    So when your legit copy of Vista dumps you to a blue screen of death, you can rest assured that you are experiencing the Genuine Advantage.

    1. Re:So when you legally buy the software... by Technician · · Score: 4, Funny

      So when your legit copy of Vista dumps you to a blue screen of death, you can rest assured that you are experiencing the Genuine Advantage.

      Linux users don't have to be left out. Enjoy.
      http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
  4. Just Now? by Joe+Jordan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide
    I thought they already did that with the release of Vista?

    Sorry, it was too easy.
  5. Blue Screen Of Death is Passe by curmudgeon99 · · Score: 4, Funny

    How hysterical. Earlier the blue screen of death came at no charge. No you have to pay to get the black one.

  6. Re:Something's missing by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Funny
    "(On a more serious note, doesn't the term "reduced functionality" imply that something is still functional? The description makes it sound like it disables the system entirely.)"

    Yes, it does. My guess is that M$ turns your computer into a node for some sort of grid computer they are running, which will run DDOS attacks on mirrors.kernel.org.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  7. Black Screen of Darkness by smittyoneeach · · Score: 5, Funny

    Black Screen of Darkness Assails the knave
    Defend yourself
    With your shaving glaive
    And the white foam of truth:
    Burma Shave

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  8. Buy the software or suffer the consequences by Kildjean · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good afternoon, as of this week, Microsoft has activated a function in Vista called 'Reduced Functionality.' This is a specific function in Vista that effectively disables nongenuine copies of Windows. Therefore anyone who has a pirated copy of Vista will experience:

    "The Need to move to Mac OS X"

    --
    Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
  9. Re:WGA server downtime? by mangoshake · · Score: 5, Funny

    And what if the WGA server is down again? I have my popcorn ready.
  10. Irony by Just+some+bastard · · Score: 5, Funny

    anyone who has a pirated copy of Vista will experience:

    A black screen after one hour of browsing
    No start menu or task bar
    No desktop

    Vista may actually be usable like that. Why aren't Microsoft sharing this upgrade with their paying customers?
  11. Hooray! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Finally Emo kids will have an operating system that matches their souls!

  12. With apologies to W. Gibson by replicant108 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The year of linux is already here.

    It's just not evenly distributed.

  13. Shifts? Mordor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You need to revisit Tolkien. Like Microsoft, Sauron initially gave away lesser rings for free. If you needed a ring of power, Sauron was the guy to go to. There were other rings of power, available, of course. Most notable were those forged by two hobbits named Linwise Torvalds and Dick Stallyman. But their rings achieved little success, so great was the marketing genius of Sauron, servant of Melkor, who is Morgoth, Black Foe of the World.

    Once Sauron had achieved market dominance (also like Microsoft), he then unveiled the One Ring, complete with Mordor Genuine Advantage.

  14. Let me see if I understand this by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 4, Funny

    If the copy of Vista is illegal, the machine will slow down, crash, and become vulnerable to viruses.

    So, how does that differ from legal copies?

    --
    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  15. Downgrade by Deadplant · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm getting a kick out of this discussion because I am sitting here downgrading two new machines which came infected with vista to XP.

  16. Re:2007, the year of linux. by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Funny
    I used to think the "Year of Linux" would be when the following people were using a Linux system:

    • My Grandmother
    • My Girlfriend
    • My Mother
    But they are all Linux users now, and amazingly it was out of need. The family wanted a way to see me live when I was in far away places (which is most of the time now) and to defeat the shitty Verizon DSL firewall, I used a Linux solution. The girlfriend needed her laptop's battery life to be very long, and Fedora outlasts Vista by almost 3 hours.

    So here is the revised list:

    • My parakeet
    • My goldfish
    • Andrew Tenenbaum
    --
    Palm trees and 8
  17. Re:Unintended Consequences by Locutus · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Microsoft does not shut down the networking on this 'nongenuine' machine than they also just provided alot more CPU resources to the botnet owner. Just think what resources have been freed up by killing the Windows desktop and task bar.

    I wonder if the Accept/Deny dialogs will still pop up asking the user to allow installing software to view naked Portman pictures? ;-)

    LoB

    --
    "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  18. Ahhh... now the dots connect! by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Funny

    Remember the WGA outage a few weeks ago, when suddenly nobody could connect and verify their license? That was the beta-test for it on their servers.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  19. Re:and by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    thats if the "blue screen" doesn't get to you first Don't taunt the Microsoft. You piss them off enough, you'll get the pink screen of OMGPONIEZ!
    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  20. Re:and by roadkill_cr · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think it'd be quite fun to see the blue screen and a black screen battle in a fight to the death.

  21. Re:What the heck?? by jollyreaper · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think I will just wait a few days for M$ to shot themselves in the foot... This type of poor business behavior is not sustainable longterm... Yeah, I'll say. They're gonna run out of feet!
    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  22. Re:I am glad that Microsoft is doing this by kaiwai · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mate, in Aussie, I used to repair peoples computers and constantly used to hear, "oh, yeah, I've got a copy of Windows, I picked it up really cheap in Bali when I was on holiday".

  23. Re:Unintended Consequences by mhall119 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "This is further evidence that Microsoft products are harmful to all consumers."

    Fixed that for you.

    --
    http://www.mhall119.com
  24. Re:"Copyright infringement". by Craig+Maloney · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually, I think Microsoft should force the user to download security patches. I know most people I talk to think that waiting for software patches is punishment, especially over a slow modem.

    "You are required to download 900MB of patches. Estimated time until completed is 8 hours, 23 minutes. Allow us to stream this anti-piracy movie while your computer is inaccessible. Download time now increased to 10 hours, 42 minutes".

  25. Re:This should end well by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yea,
    I've seen people spend 15 minutes of their time to save $2 on a gasoline fillup.
    Do the math...

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  26. Re:This should end well by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd call it a VDDOS (Vendor-Driven Denial of Service) attack on Microsoft's own customer base.

    {sigh} Stupid is as stupid does.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  27. Re:2007, the year of linux. by CopaceticOpus · · Score: 4, Funny

    You go to Microsoft, and they have a whole 'SP2 is great!' page which extols the virtues of installing it, suggesting that the best way to get it is via Windows update.. So, you go to Windows update, and it says.. "Hey, you need SP2! You should check out this page which explains why it's great, and how to get it!", and links back to the first page. Took me a few hours to figure out how to bypass that one.
    Want to know a faster way to install SP2? Watch for the reply to this post!
  28. Re:This should end well by BronsCon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well that's because people want popular software to work as well as it's going to straight out of the box.
    Don't forget, the rule of twos:

    With windows, it works for two hours and never again.

    With Linux, it takes two hours to get it working, then you never have to fuss with it again.

    With Mac, you spend two hours finding and app that does what you need, but it "just works".


    Going for +5 Funny and falling far short.
    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  29. Re:2007, the year of linux. by CopaceticOpus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Want to know a faster way to install SP2? See the parent post!

  30. Re:"Copyright infringement". by wanderingknight · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Let us play this MP3 file you've got here. Whoops! Download time now increased to 13 hours, 15 minutes."

  31. We are just lucky..... by CharonX · · Score: 2, Funny

    We are just lucky that the Microsoft WGA mechanism has worked so flawlessly in the past.
    Not a single hickkup or false positive, no issues at all with genuine copies being correctly authenticated and ...

    Wait, what do you mean "Today is not not opposite day"?

    --
    +++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
  32. Re:This should end well by suv4x4 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Quality-wise, wouldn't you consider Windows Me the worst? Even with all the updates that OS was a nightmare.

    When I imagine the timeline of Windows releases, somehow ME doesn't even appear there :P

  33. Why the hell would I want to pirate Vista? by The+Real+Veritas · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just spend two hours "downgrading" to XP on my new laptop. Pirating Vista would be like stealing a Yugo.

  34. Brilliant strategy!! by Em+Ellel · · Score: 2, Funny

    These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop. Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'" This is brilliant. My machines been doing this since days of Win95 - work for about an hour then have exploder crash to have no desktop, no start menu, nothing working proper. Whomever came up with calling this a "new anti-piracy measure" deserves a medal. People always joke about it being not a "bug" but "undocumented feature" - and now MS is taking it a step further and making it a "documented feature". Bravo.

    I bet next week we will see explorer chewing up all the memory billed as an "anti-virus" measure - see, if there is no free memory, viruses cannot run. Trust us, its worth the extra money. Upgrade now.

    -Em
    --
    RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
  35. Heh, I'm sure someone's already said this here by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 2, Funny

    But I thought "Reduced Functionality Mode" was the NORMAL operating mode for any version of Windows!

    Bwaahahahahahahaha!!!

    Little pissants! Is that all you've got, huh? Are you nuts? Come at me!

    --
    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  36. Re:"Copyright infringement". by PurpleBob · · Score: 2, Funny

    That analogy certainly doesn't fit very well. After all, the consumer paid for a bag of flaming shit, and not an Apple.

    --
    Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
  37. Re:NO. It is theft. by NickFitz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pray you don't have to replace the hard drive. It's a fatal flaw.

    Absolutely, it's appalling that when I want to replace the drive in my MacBook I have to:

    1. Power down.
    2. Remove battery.
    3. Undo three screws.
    4. Lift out thin bit of metal held in place by said screws.
    5. Pull the convenient tab attached to the hard drive.
    6. Lift hard drive out of battery compartment.

    Reverse the procedure using the new hard drive and I'm done.

    Damn you Apple, how dare you make my life such a misery.

    (Now to start Googling on how on earth I replace the hard drive in my Toshiba - the computer that's actually broken...)

    --
    Using HTML in email is like putting sound effects on your phone calls. Just say <strong>no</strong>.