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Pirates Find Proper Way to Crack Vista's Activation Schema

Posted by Zonk on from the little-ants-can-fell-big-trees dept.

El_Oscuro writes "A genuine crack for Windows Vista has been released by pirate group Pantheon. The exploit allows a pirated, non-activated installation of Vista (Home Basic/Premium and Ultimate) to be properly activated and made fully-operational. 'It seems that Microsoft has allowed large OEMs like ASUS to ship their products with a pre-installed version of Vista that doesn't require product activation — apparently because end users would find it too inconvenient.'"

1 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Product activation a nightmare for corp. users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Any kind of mass deployment becomes a fiasco if each computer has to go through some kind of activation. MS has been under pressure from hardware vendors and large corporate customers for YEARS on this topic. Whatever they do to alleviate the well-documented headaches of these people will inevitably become the basis for short-circuiting the process for everyone else.

    At times like this, Vista is being ignored at a time when MS needs it adopted. "Features" like product activation have no place in a product that is already a driver-deficient, DRM-infested headache. MS has obviously overestimated the amount of grief that the customer base would tolerate to get a new version of Windows.

    Speaking of Vista, gotta love those MS memos about Intel 915 graphics. They claim the Intel 945 "barely works". My MacBook runs Intel 965 graphics; nothing "barely" about it. No Vista, no problem.

    Before MS worries too much about piracy of Vista, they need to make the product worth stealing.