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WGA Under Vista SP1 Is Kinder and Nags More
DaMan writes in with a ZDNet blog entry on Windows Genuine Advantage under Vista SP1. It seems that the draconian features present in Vista RTM have been replaced by nag screens and annoyances such as repeatedly changing the desktop background to black. But WGA no longer turns off Aero and ReadyBoost or logs you out after an hour."
Sounds to me like they just made WGA consistent with the rest of the OS.
And the answer would invariably be: "Yes it is ugly, but does it run Linux?"
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
If they were serious about WGA they'd just set the background to goatse.jpg
Does anyone know if you can upgrade to SP1 if your Vista doesn't pass WGA? This one hour automatic logout is really starting to an
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Is this part of the strike settlement ? I hope the writers vote it down - I don't want any TV writers nagging me !
I got around not having a valid registration of vista: I select the NI (not installed) Mode. This mode comes with every non registered version of vista, but is not well known. The benefits are that you get unlimited access to the web and your files, your computer runs faster, your software choices are unlimited, and you don't have to put up with annoying adware. Since I've switched to NI mode, I've been more productive and had more time to spend on ./ because I spend less time dealing with the vista bugs.
Just callin' it like I see it.
So it looks like Vista goes from abusive-dad mode to well-meaning-but-annoying-mom mode. No thanks, I'm still staying with the grandparents.
Besides, it only shows one of these factors, none of which are good:
In either case, none of this addresses the underlying bloat, bugs, and obviously creaking NT architecture, on an OS version that was allegedly rebuilt from the ground up. With most corporate folks likely holding off now for "Windows 7", and home users nursing XP. Vista likely won't make much difference now in either case...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Nice popup window. Wait, who's the victim again?
No professional product could afford to do something like WGA, kinder now or not. WGA illustrates what Windows really is: A tpy, that you cannot depend on and that, incidentially, is not intended to be dependable in the first place. Anybody relying on it gets what they deserve for gross incompetence.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Now it turns Aero on and changes my pretty black background? fuking hell.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Here KDE, KDE, KDE!!
Sorry... it was there, I had to say it.
I run Vista in a bootcamp partition and also use that partition as a virtual machine in parallels. Well, I "TRY" to do this.... What happened was, the hardware looks so different between the two that Microsoft deactivated both of them, I believe. I'm a little fuzzy on what happened really because I wasn't aware that it "would" happen, since Parallels advertises this feature pretty heavily. I thought they could treat it like a laptop, with a docked and undocked mode. Anyway, it took about an hour or more to fix the boot camp side, and the parallels side doesn't work, it is still inactivated. For the record, I legitimately own a Vista license. I had to first muck around with some crappy UI trying to reestablish a network connection in some rubbish single user mode (using a wired mouse since my mighty mouse bluetooth no longer had the drivers loaded.) I finally got it reconnected and then it said that it couldn't activate me online. So I had to call someone at what I suppose to be an offshore call center. I had to read this guy like 40 characters off my screen, and he read back a bunch of characters that I had to key in. This part was tedious and it was way more characters that what would seem necessary. In the end I felt like a total criminal. After buying Vista Ultimate, I felt like a criminal. I can install Ubuntu for free and not feel like a criminal, and I can donate $20 to Ubuntu or another distro and really feel good about myself. I don't believe the Bootcamp/VM setup violates the EULA for Ultimate because they are just different ways of launching the same image. If this is a violation, certainly a docked and undocked laptop violates it. ANYWAY, now that I'm done ranting (sorry), my question. Does RC1 fix all this?
I've never ceased to be amazed about how many people that run Windows deal quite happily with 1000 popups from various spyware that's installed over the years, completely oblivious to the fact that this behaviour is very non-standard. Just as long as they can read their emails, chat to friends, and open Word and Excel they're happy.
This will be just another of those popups that gets closed without a second thought.
throw new NoSignatureException();
"It's an expensive product"
It's only an expensive product because people have tricked themselves into believing there are no alternatives.
Windows 3.1 was $130 and commonly discounted to $80. That was for the whole OS, not split up so you have 4 different versions. The top price was $80. The cost was low because Microsoft had competition.
Now that the installed based is two orders of magnitude greater, the price should be cheaper or maybe the same. Even the cost of Apple's computers dropped significantly. But for MS Windows, the cost doubled or tripled. All because consumers refuse to use alternatives. We're our own worst enemy.
So this argument is an ironic one in that once Microsoft made Windows the most expensive piece of software on your computer, they had to put in place lots of things to "protect" it against people who didn't get the message that you pay whatever Microsoft wants for an operating system.
In any event, this argument misses the point. WGA was put in place because Microsoft has no more market-share to get. They only have two place to get more money... charging more money for Windows, and reducing the amount of piracy. So WGA has been designed solely to reduce piracy rates of windows a few percentage points.
Irony again! To make another few million dolalrs, MS decided to irritate every customer with new types of monthly checks to make sure you're "Genuine".
And I wonder if pirates who know what they're doing are bothered by WGA in the least?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
WGA made sense in XP when there was a corporate license key that worked without activation. But all Vista keys need activation in some way, either a corporate KMS activation key (which is possible to be recalled), an ordinary key, or an OEM certificate+corresponding SLIC in the BIOS+serial number (which is installed on hundreds of thousands consumer PCs and a key recall is practically impossible).
The only way WGA can be triggered is either the KMS key or some hacking scheme of activating one computer with an ordinary key and then activating another one with a simular configuration with the same key.
Most cracked Vista copies use the BIOS method which impossible to detect, especially if there's no driver installed and the SLIC is actually patched into the real BIOS.
And if it were that simple, nobody would be complaining.
One issue is that the OS keeps checking. What if it decides it isn't valid?
Another issue is that it sends an unknown set of information to Microsoft, to see if the OS is legit.
Another issue is that, if you change the hardware setup, the OS might decide it's not legit. This is not an acceptable behavior in servers, and is a real pain in general.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Sounds to me like Microsoft is worried about the uptake of Vista and is reverting to a more piracy friendly stance. Because let's not kid our selves, it was the piracy of 9x-2000, XP that really helped increase it's user base and then maintain that base. Now it's been gambling with shutting down that (back)avenue of adoption which probably would of worked if Vista would have been seen as a more worthwhile upgrade.
It reminds me of the more shareware friendly days of yore.
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
I've had this argument with so many managerial types over so many years...
The big problem with Windows is not whether it's good or whether it's bad, it's that it's a pig in a poke. There are no stable specifications for what Windows is or isn't, and what's in Windows and what isn't. People make business decisions on things like the "fact" that Windows "comes with Toolbook" (yes, no kidding). It comes with Toolbook for as long as Microsoft thinks it should, then it doesn't. You can repeat this ad nauseam for any important characteristic of Windows, without even getting into questions of what kinds of DRM are actually enforced to what degree.
There is no specification for Windows. As a simple technical matter we have even had problems determining which DLLs and OCXes are "part of" Windows: there does not seem to be a standard list of what a full directory listing of a "standard" Windows installation is supposed to look like. The same Windows CD will install slightly different sets of files on different PCs.
This is equally true of the Mac OS. It comes with HyperCard, until it doesn't. The characteristics of what QuickTime will and won't do, how many Macs can be "authorized" under iTunes changes, etc.
This is not necessarily a characteristic of proprietary software in general. I grew up in an environment where the word "specifications" meant a document that was written by a buyer, often the government or the military, but in any case an entity with the clout to say "we are interesting in buying something that does X, Y, and Z." And software vendors would either pass up the business, which they could not afford to do, or supply a known product that met known specifications. The FORTRAN compiler darn well better meet the FORTRAN spec...
I've tried to get people that make business decisions to understand that if they go with Microsoft, they cannot make their judgement not solely on the basis of what Microsoft is delivering today: they are committing their company's future to their guesses about what Microsoft will be doing in the future.
As long as the people who make purchasing decisions about Windows don't care about having a real set of specs and holding Microsoft to them, Windows will continue to be a pig in a poke.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Isn't Windows licensed on almost every PC sold before I even get it out of the factory door? I was under the impression that most OEMs have a licensing agreement with Microsoft that pretty much puts a Windows license on every computer sold -- whether or not it actually has Windows on it.
So, why all the hoopla about WGA? Is Microsoft so worried about a few people who are upgrading from XP to Vista? In a few years, these people will be buying a new computer and will end up with a new Vista license anyway. This was the same company a decade ago worried about Windows penetration into the Chinese market because not enough people were pirating their software in China!
It sounds like for the few pennies that Microsoft might be losing to unlicensed copies of Windows Vista, they're busy making legitimate user lives miserable.
I believe that is hello.jpg.
"I personally think that if WGA can keep the already high price of windows down then there's nothing wrong with it."
WGA has nothing to do with keeping the cost of windows down. It has everything to do with maximizing profits.
Now, let me say, there is nothing wrong with that. Companies should be able to charge anything they want for a product, and if people want to pay it (even foolishly), I think that's fine.
But piracy has nothing to do with the cost of Windows; the cost of Windows has to do primarily with how much the OEM's will pay for it. Therefore WGA is not keeping your price low. It's just a PITA to make sure a few more million bucks profit goes to MS each quarter.
It is indeed funny that people put up with it, particularly people who bought it in good faith expecting a better experience than software pirates.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you