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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.'"

21 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Old News Crack by Tx · · Score: 4, Informative

    In other news, pirates have created a crack to prevent news from 4th March 2007 appearing a year later on /.

    Well we live in hope.

    --
    Oh no... it's the future.
    1. Re:Old News Crack by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 4, Funny

      In other news, pirates have created a crack to prevent news from 4th March 2007 appearing a year later on /. So the $64K question is -- why in the bloody hell haven't that implemented it then?

      --
      My blog
    2. Re:Old News Crack by piemcfly · · Score: 4, Funny

      the drivers weren't up to date?

    3. Re:Old News Crack by cp.tar · · Score: 4, Funny

      So the $64K question is -- why in the bloody hell haven't that implemented it then?

      Wasn't it 640K?
      Oh, wait...

      --
      Ignore this signature. By order.
    4. Re:Old News Crack by S.O.B. · · Score: 4, Informative

      I guess someone is too young to know that the OP was referring to "The $64,000 Question" (1955-58).

      The GP was alluding to the oft quoted Bill Gates line "640K ought to be enough for anybody" although Gates denies ever saying it. A very clever reference that whooshed over your head.

      --
      Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
  2. Is it worth cracking Vista? by jkrise · · Score: 5, Funny

    I remember a CNN news snippet on YouTube... it's just not worth pirating Vista, unless one is a hardcore masochist, of course.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:Is it worth cracking Vista? by rucs_hack · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You have to admit it's a novel approach, making a product so bad that hardly anyone is interested in cracking it.

      Who cares about a crack, I wouldn't run Vista if microsoft gave it away free, and I *like* windows...

    2. Re:Is it worth cracking Vista? by pallmall1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Who cares about a crack, I wouldn't run Vista if microsoft gave it away free...
      Yeah, it's the old joke about game show prizes. Grand prize, one free copy of Vista. Second place prize, two free copies of Vista.
      --
      3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
  3. ... But Windows STILL not dying... by PC+and+Sony+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Although this particular "activation" method has been around for awhile, it is interesting to see that microsoft never bothered to fix it.

    I can't believe that microsoft is still a lumbering software giant; notwithstanding their disdain for consumers (Turning off vista if it wasn't genuine ... even when it was!), they continue to make boatloads of money. This 'workaround' for activation is another example of their disdain for the end user; they're willing to accomodate the manufacturers in order to push an inferior software package onto the masses.

    It makes me feel like Henry Ford is running MS - 'you can have any OS you want, so long as it is VISTA'.

    I've personally decided to put the effort into getting my home computers running OSX (a very FUN project) so that my family can have the eye candy that is associated with MS without ... MS.
    (and yes, linux can be pretty... but I'm the only one that uses it!)

  4. Fixed summary by sakdoctor · · Score: 4, Funny

    It seems that Microsoft has allowed large OEMs like ASUS to ship their products with a pre-installed version of XP that doesn't require product activation -- apparently because end users would find using Vista too inconvenient.

  5. SP1 by Xenolith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since this article is a year old, no testing on SP1, I assume.

    --

    Journal
  6. Re:Good work MS by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Owned ages ago. This is PARADOX's crack and it's old.

  7. old news. 365 days old. by leuk_he · · Score: 4, Informative

    Note that the article is dated 4 March, exactly 365 days ago. SOmehow the editor does not have 29 feb and though he was living at tomorrow.

    THis particular crack has/will be defeated by sp1.

    1. Re:old news. 365 days old. by baadger · · Score: 4, Informative

      > This particular crack has/will be defeated by SP1.

      Yes this particular crack (by Paradox) has been fixed in SP1. The thing is, SP1 only blacklists some very specific 'soft mods' (Boot loader replacement designed to emulate an OEM issued BIOS SLIC table and trick Vista into accepting your machine as an OEM product). It is widely known that there are still many others out there, even ones dating from the middle of last year, that work just fine with SP1.

  8. "Dear pirates" by joaommp · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Please do not crack software and publish the crack on the net. It hurts my employer's feelings.

    Thank you."

    --
    Onda Technology Institute
  9. ... And? by PC+and+Sony+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, calm down!
    I'm an equal opportunity f*tard ... I didn't pay for my copy of windows either ;)

  10. In other related news... by xtracto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Another group has published an undocumented way to bypass the adult verification in the new Leisure Suit Larry game by pressing ALT+X.

    How do these guys learn this stuff??

    --
    Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
  11. So Vista's now available free? by Malevolent+Tester · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just need to wait a few more months and hopefully Microsoft will start paying people to use it.

    --
    If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
  12. Re:Inconvenience by IBBoard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You probably would - you only typed it once for XP (unless you upgraded your machine, at which point XP thought it was a new machine and wanted re-activating). The problem with CD keys (from Microsoft's point of view) is that you can copy a key and hand it around, but you can't copy an activation code that needs to be confirmed by a remote machine.

    I'd rather have a single CD key than 35(?) characters I need to type in to the phone followed by 35(?) characters you have to type back in to your computer. I had to activate three XP laptops at work that were purchased specially for a project and that was a pain. Actually, no, I'd rather not have a CD key at all, but that's why I run Linux at home.

    One of the linked articles does cover an implicit acceptance of piracy in countries like Romania, mainly as a way to get people hooked on Windows before making them buy it (or just to keep OSS in check).

  13. For each pirated copy one is saved by NWprobe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For each pirated copy of windows, one more computer doesn't run an alternative OS.
    This is one of the factors keeping the userbase of Linux down. It's a mystery to me why people choose a pirated version of Windows instead an open and free version of a Linux distribution. I guess ignorance is not bliss.

    --
    #find /dev/brain find: no such file or directory
  14. 2007... by Gription · · Score: 4, Funny

    Right on the front page of the article it clearly says "4th March 2007".

    Most likely their "slashdot" button has received some current activity as someone has finally gotten around to trying Vista...