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Microsoft Withdraws Vista's Kill Switch

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bit-less-damocles dept.

l-ascorbic writes "In what they are calling a change of tactics, Microsoft has removed the controversial 'kill switch' from Vista in SP1. This feature is designed to disable pirated copies of the OS, but had led to numerous reports of it disabling legitimate copies. It will be replaced with a notice that repeatedly informs the user that their OS is pirated. '[Microsoft corporate vice president Mike Sievert] added: "It's worth re-emphasizing that our fundamental strategy has not changed. All copies of Windows Vista still require activation and the system will continue to validate from time to time to verify that systems are activated properly." Microsoft said it had pursued legal action against more than 1,000 dealers of counterfeit Microsoft products in the last year and taken down more than 50,000 "illegal and improper" online software auctions.'"

21 of 635 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft responds with... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "We do not a piracy problem with Windows."

    1. Re:Microsoft responds with... by tsj5j · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft has described the new approach as a "change of tactics". It said efforts to tackle piracy had seen numbers of fake copies of Vista at half the level of XP, the previous Windows operating system. Wow, even pirates don't want Vista. Speaks volumes.

  2. If made you bitch... by smittyoneeach · · Score: 5, Funny

    If made____you____bitch
    Did this____kill____switch
    How 'bout__a______pitch
    In a_______fine____triptych?
    Burma___________Shave

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    1. Re:If made you bitch... by I_Heat_Sexylaid · · Score: 1, Funny

      Proper use of the word "triptych", and you mod it "troll"?
      Turn in your nerd card, miscreant!

      --
      Slashlight! (Can't find the funk) kewl base part
  3. Why stop there? by faloi · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think a lot of users would be happier if they withdrew Vista entirely. I know I'm scrambling to see if I can upgrade my system to XP. Darn gaming addiction...

    --
    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
    1. Re:Why stop there? by Billosaur · · Score: 5, Funny

      XP?!? Bah! I'm trying to "upgrade" to Windows 3.11 for Workgroups!

      --
      GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
    2. Re:Why stop there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Not having problems != a good computing experience. Besides, those vista users are probably the same republican-christian-intelligent-design-believing-microsoft-lovin'-linux-bashin'-hate-filled-racist-sexist Forrest Gump wannabe's that tend to skew the entire national budget towards war. DAMN YOU, VISTA USERS! Don't you know that Vista == Hitler?

    3. Re:Why stop there? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 5, Funny

      You!=Everyone else :) You have to remember that every bad story about Vista isn't representing the whole truth - that there are thousands of folks out there who are using Vista on a day-to-day basis, and are not having problems. I agree! There are definitely thousands of folks out there who are perfectly happy with Vista. That only leaves the other few million customers...
    4. Re:Why stop there? by gallwapa · · Score: 3, Funny

      I've found vista[ultimate] to be rather enjoyable. Performance is great, the new features are nice, and it is overall a nice experience. UAC is a godsend when you demote yourself to a "user" (and before you even start complaining, it makes it like sudo)

      At any rate. This coming from a guy who had his 5 home computers + 1 laptop running SuSE 10.2 / 10.3 for the past year, and SLED 10 on his work machine for the year before that.

      Truth be told, there is a lot of great stuff you can do with Linux. Things I enjoyed were VPNC, for starters. A lot of clients have Cisco VPN and I spent 1 week trying to acquire the Cisco VPN client for Vista. ( Cisco requires a login with a contract associated...yea...). When it came down to it though, things just still didn't work reliably for day-to-day operation.

    5. Re:Why stop there? by mopower70 · · Score: 5, Funny

      there are thousands of folks out there who are using Vista on a day-to-day basis, and are not having problems. I find that difficult if not impossible to believe. I had my second experience with Vista this weekend, attempting some maintenance on an out-of-the-box Vista install on a computer my in-laws had purchased several months back. Turns out they hadn't used it since I installed it because it kept telling them things were broken, incompatible, or they didn't have permission to use them.

      I wanted to download PuTTY so I could SSH into my machine from their house. Simple enough. It doesn't get any simpler than PuTTY - it doesn't even have an installer, you just unzip the files and run them. I'm not exaggerating when I say the whole thing took 10 minutes. For a 2M file.

      It went something like this:

      Windows: I see you're trying to access the Internet. Would you like to allow this?
      Me: yes. [navigate to the PuTTY site and click the zip file download]
      Windows: I see you're trying to download a file. Would you like to allow this?
      Me: yes. [file downloads. Fine. That's about 1 minute right there.]
      Me: [Navigate to the file and drag it to Program Files with the intention of extracting it there.]
      Windows: I see you're trying to extract this file. Would you like to allow this?
      Me: Yes. [Windows sits. And thinks. 30 seconds later.]
      Windows: I can't allow you to do this.
      Me: WTF? [Try it again. Same result].
      Me: Fine. [I navigate to Program Files and create a directory named PuTTY].
      Windows: I see you're trying to create a directory. Are you an administrator?
      Me: Yes. [Windows sits. And thinks.]
      Windows: This action will require administrative privileges to run. Would you like to allow this?
      Me: Yes. [Windows sits. And thinks.]
      Windows: You are attempting to create a directory. Would you like to allow this?
      Me: Fuck yes. [Windows sits. And thinks. And suddenly there's a new directory! Yeah. I rename it. 5 minutes has gone by.]
      Me: [I drag the zip file and attempt to extract it to the folder I just created.]
      Windows: I see you're trying to extract a file. This file is unsigned by Windows and may be hazardous to your health. Would you like to allow this?
      Me: Yes. [Windows sits. And thinks.]
      Windows: This action will require administrative privileges to run. Are you an administrator?
      Me: yes. [Windows sits. And thinks.]
      Windows: [Starts extracting the first file.]
      Windows: This file is unsigned. Would you like to allow it to be extracted?
      Me: Yes. [Windows sits. And thinks. And finally extracts the file.]
      Windows: [Starts extracting the second file.] This file is unsigned. Would you like to allow it to be extracted?
      Me: WTF? Yes. [Windows sits. And thinks.]
      Windows: Would you like to apply these privileges to the remaining files?
      Me: WTF? Yes. [Windows sits. And thinks.]
      Windows: [Starts extracting the 2.2M zip file. AT 2K PER SECOND. FOR A FILE EXTRACTION!!!]
      Me: WTFZOMGBBQ?!? ...

      Me: [Click on the PuTTY icon.] Finally...
      Windows: I see you're trying to use an application.
      Me: BANG!
    6. Re:Why stop there? by ozbird · · Score: 2, Funny

      Windows: This action will require administrative privileges to run. Are you an administrator?

      Why doesn't Vista know? If I'm not an administrator and answer "Yes", will it say "Liar!"?

    7. Re:Why stop there? by FurryFeet · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Ray, when someone asks you if you're an administrator, you say "YES"! "

  4. Strategy not changing? by Jester998 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's worth re-emphasizing that our fundamental strategy has not changed.

    i.e. We're still gonna bend you over. The big guy named Bubba is still employed with us, but now we've taken away his lube.

    1. Re:Strategy not changing? by Mercano · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well I for one won't stand it. Standing isn't technically necessary. See the first sentence of the GP.
      --
      #include <signature.h>
  5. How soon... by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...until they start counting all pirated version of Vista among those "happily" using it in order to inflate their numbers.

  6. Notice by nermaljcat · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe the notice should just contain a link to Ubuntu? =] "An error has occurred and Windows was detected on your drive. Please format disk and install Linux. Download Ubuntu here"

  7. Just like a beta demo. by Ariastis · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just like a beta, Vista is still full of bugs. Just like a demo, it has a lot of nag screens & unnecessary steps in order to make you install the "full" version (XP).

  8. but... by owlnation · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...isn't this one of Vista's most popular features?

    Without that kill switch customers will be left with a slow, buggy OS.

  9. Re:I bet I know who's happy! by Killjoy_NL · · Score: 2, Funny

    Whoah you must be the Goatse guy to pull numbers of that size out of your behind ;)

    --
    This is the sig that says NI (again)
  10. Re:Kill switch is still there if... by Mathness · · Score: 5, Funny

    What stops MS from turning the switch back on at any future date? *rubs a crystal ball*
    Uh oh, I see a shadow heading your way, and ... This is a bit hard to see
    *rubs the crystal ball vigoursly*
    Ah, and it is wielding a chair.
    --
    Carbon based humanoid in training.
  11. Re:"Illegal and Improper" by gsslay · · Score: 2, Funny

    For someone reading slashdot, you seem distressingly clueless about the meaning of AND compared to OR.