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Black Screens For Unauthorized Copies of Windows
arcticstoat writes "In a bid to deter people from using pirate versions of Windows XP, Microsoft is now updating its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tool to introduce a few uncomfortable niggles for users of pirated versions of Windows. These include replacing the desktop wallpaper with a black screen every 60 minutes, although you can still replace it with your wallpaper of choice in the intervening period. As well as this, copies of Windows deemed to not be genuine will also have a translucent watermark above the system tray, which Microsoft calls a 'persistent desktop notification.'"
Too close for comfort.
Some one I know just doesn't download the the WGA notification (tells it never to download when it shows up in system updates) I... I mean he wants to know if that will still work?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Only fucking retards use WGA on a pirated copy. Good luck with your wild goose chase, Microsoft!
At least there's not some odd hidden process that the users have no visibility to running in the background using resources.
Oh wait...
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
I'm impressed with Microsoft's forbearance.
"Some sites have also suggested that this is a sneaky scheme to get more people to buy Windows Vista after disappointing sales of the new OS"
It's going to be very funny if this does more for Linux than Vista.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Wasn't there a news item about Vista doing this as well?
Black Screen of Death
Can someone remind me why Microsoft wants to chase people off to other platforms again?
Most people I know who run 'stolen' software don't have the funds, are not otherwise law-breakers, and are not aware of alternatives. I've had great luck giving these people an OpenCD and explaining the law, and, in the case of small businesses, the BSA's tactics.
I wonder how long it will be before somebody comes along with a registry edit file that will replace the permanent watermark text with a link to Ubuntu?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Just another reason to pirate it since I've triggered the damn tool multiple times on Legitimately licensed product.
Cough, Cough.
*Continues innocent whistling*
Havent MS tried to push something like that before already (via WGA)? - just changing the annoyance that comes when pirated Windows is detected?
The first thing I do after installing XP is turn the wallpaper to black.
Apparently, pirating it saves me a step after install.
WTG, MSFT!
Windows is shareware now?
AEIOU: open-source anonymous internet currency
So if the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tool somehow decides that a real copy is pirated, is my windows new thingabobbers then gonna be as pesky as that mosquito that I can't seem to find and kill, but which I can hear all through the night?
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
I always chose to not install WGA. Sure I check the box that says "do not ask me again" but every once in a while it still does. What requires WGA anyhow?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
My prediction: M$ are squeezing the illegal XP market, trying to get them to use illegal Vista instead.
This is merely the first step, they'll eventually add checks for the most common cracks, followed by kill switches.
It will still flag perfectly legal copies of Windows as being pirated. Just like it has in the past.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Given that there are a number of pieces of malware which break WGA and cause it to fail to validate (most of which are not trivial to clean out), why exactly would Microsoft have WGA punish them even more? I'd have to imagine that people with actual pirated copies of windows will just continue to not visit windowsupdate and continue to not have the WGA. I don't see this having a major effect on anyone except legitimate users.
If we assume that one of the purposes of paying for Windows were to provide the user^H^H^H^Hcustomer with a "better Windows Experience" by means of fixing bugs and improving the Operating System in the next version, and due to the fact that Vista Sucks, I say we got ripped off and piracy is our legitimate right.
And don't get me started into viruses.
.. and just download the new wallpaper.
http://benbrooks.co.uk/genuine/
I know several people who've bought new machines in the last 6 months
and been forced to have Vista pre-installed
they didn't want it
so pirated XP
are they trying to push people away?
cause it won't take much to annoy your userbase onto trying alternative OS's
And I'll tell you what,
once your average "mere mortal" Windows user, for whatever reason, tries Linux, and likes it
his testimonial goes a long way with other mere mortals in the same boat
now microsoft has officially left it's users black and blue
Thank you Dave Raggett
Question: People who annoy you?
Microsoft needs to get a clue and realize that they need to make Windoze free. Linux is making giant strides in the usability department (albeit still a long way off for a lot of people) and people are going to get tired of shit like this. Microsoft is starting to remind me of the recording industry. Either adapt to the way things are changing, or go the way of the dodo. They can still make mountains of money from their other products...
I can see it now... at a social site near you...
Watermarks - they're the new black.... which is also the new black.
Oddly enough - most Windows systems I have to deal with already have a black background.
They need to get more creative. Here's a few ideas:
1) Cause the NIC to drop random ammounts of packets at random times.
2) Change the wallpaper from Black Screen to one with a letter ending with "... The police are on their way".
3) Every 2 minutes all keys on your keyboard get randomly swapped around.
4) Swaps the mouse buttons. Or moving the mouse left, moves it right, up, down, etc.
5) All print jobs only result in large words in upper case saying "PIRATE ALERT!"
6) Boot sequence and shutdown sequence get 5 minutes added on to them. Hey MS, don't forget to make sure you cause the hard drive light LED to flicker a lot while the users wait around so they think it's something going on. While you're at it, randomly flicker that HD LED every few minutes for 20 seconds at a time.
7) Every 10th web page visited would be redirected to goatse (is that site still around?)
You get the idea... now hurry up so that people get fed up faster and switch to Linux.
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
Thanks for saving me a step, Microsoft.
So, Windows is essentially a nagware product now? Choose to pay or not, depending on whether you think it'll be less painful? When will they append third-party advertisements to every file you save? When will it whisper subliminal insults into your audio stream?
[
i paid for windows vista ultimate edition *waits for laughter to die down* but after a few months, i discovered that the machine i installed it on had some dodgy RAM and i had to replace it. i don't know if it was because i changed the RAM or because the bad RAM corrupted something, but after that Microsoft decided that my copy of Windows was pirated, and put a permanent message in the lower-right corner of my machine telling me as much, and refused to let me use certain features, such as the Aero graphics enhancements.
personally, i suggest microsoft take a page from our founding fathers, and adopt a more "innocent until proven guilty" attitude (for example, offering a way to call them up and verify your CD Key) before implementing more draconian punishments upon the convicted!
i could live a little longer in this prison
It's the same behavior on Vista. It won't let me update windows defender, replaces my desktop screen with black, and has that "your copy of windows is not genuine". Lovely. For people pirating Windows XP, look for the corporate edition so your copy will pass WGA test without cracks. For vista lovers, well, even a corporate edition will require activation so I don't know the solution there.
Running unverified cracks from the web is like having sex with a prostitute without protection - don't do it. Your computer will end up with a funny itch.
They give you a blue screen very often. See? By paying for it, you can get the color version.
> Most people I know who run 'stolen' software don't have the funds, are not otherwise law-breakers,
> and are not aware of alternatives.
Oh bull, if they can afford the computer they could have afforded to get the OEM preload instead of the pirate version from the neighborhood screwdriver shop. Or if they built it themselves then they damned sure could have sprung for an OEM copy when they bought the other bits. Most custom built machines are gaming rigs these days and if you can afford the video card for gaming you can afford a copy of XP. IF you can afford the GAMES you can afford XP... oh, they bootleg the games too.
And yes, they are probably lawbreakers in other areas too... anything THEY decide they should be able to do they probbaly do.
The only sensible thing is your attempts to get em on a legal alternative.
Stopping bootleg software should be the #1 priority of the Free Software movement as it is our primary competition. The main argument one hears when pitching Free (talking about individuals here, large installs do pay) is that they argue back that what they have is also free, in that it either came preloaded and thus they have no idea how much of the purchase price was the OEM licenses or they are using bootleg software that is 'free.' If people actually had to PAY for software like Office, OO.o would be installed a lot more often.
Democrat delenda est
Great ID!;anyway;
Yet another nail in microsoft's coffin. I.E., excuse to move to unix.
Black is a good background color. When first I used IceWM I had a black background as well, but changed to the default blue of IceWM, because I liked it better. I know have the default blue of KDE without a picture. I think black would be good for many people with an awful taste they dislike themselves...
Unfortunately, I am using a legitimate copy of XP. I would like so see what would happen when my basic black wallpaper (with no image) got replaced with a basic black wallpaper with no image.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
My theory: This isn't actually an effort to get more people buying windows directly, but to maintain market dominance. M$ are squeezing the illegal XP 'market', trying to get them to use illegal Vista instead.
This is merely the first step, they'll eventually add checks for the most common cracks, followed by kill switches. This comes after service pack 1 removed the kill switch from Vista, making it less risky to pirate.
Whilst this might see a few people jumping ship to Linux or something, I'm guessing M$ decided the risks of losing a few freeloaers outweighed the importance of removing the XP-shaped-thorn from their side.
Get everyone doin' the downgrade, that way people will be used to it for when windows 7 comes out. M$ have learnt their lesson, and won't be creating any more good operating systems any time soon. It's less profitable!
mysql> SELECT * FROM `places` WHERE `place` LIKE 'home`; Empty set (0.00 sec)
Yeah, that'll turn the h4xx04z away. Want to really make it worthwhile? Force a pink-on-pink color scheme, license the theme song to "My Little Pony", and play that in an uninterruptable background loop on all available sound devices. That'll do a lot more to keep a kid honest than would making his desktop look 1337.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I've long set my background to black. I'm glad to see that the rest of the pirating world is conforming to my standard.
Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
This is nothing more than a blatantly transparent attempt to force people to upgrade to Windows Vista by making XP as unpalatable as possible. The same thing has been done all the way back to Microsoft Office 2000 which has a WGA of its own despite being several versions out of date now. Mcirosoft does its best to try and prevent you from moving your legal copy of Office 2K to your new machine instead of buying a whole new version.
The problem is that Microsoft can't even compete successfully with itself and retroactively makes previous versions of its O/S and Office products more and more miserable to use with every passing year. Someone should be in jail for touting that Windows Genuine Advantage is actually a good thing for the customer.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
All our machines were imaged by one of our investor parent companies. I hope to hell they're legit copies. Just checked, the product key sticker matches the registry so I think I'm good.
should be the Microsoft Windows de-installer.
This latest feature is just one more reason for people to run pirate copies, with that particular "Advantage" disabled.
Microsoft really doesn't get it. The only way to make people buy your software is to make it useful and friendly, not by making it annoying.
This is just a small part of Microsoft's huge misconception about operating systems. No Microsoft, people don't buy operating systems to benefit you, nor to benefit third parties like content providers. People buy operating systems to benefit THEMSELVES.
Such a simple concept, but apparently incomprehensible to Microsoft.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
so what is the advantage part of this stuff?
Relative: Why does my computer lose my wallpaper and give me a black screen every hour?
Me: Ah, that's just Vista for you. You have to pay Microsoft to get rid of that.
Relative: Why? Why should I have to pay Microsoft? Why doesn't it just work?
Me: A.) It's not Linux, so it won't "just work" no matter what you do, and B.) You didn't really expect Microsoft to let you use their computer for free, did you?
Relative: Um, I already paid for it-
Me: Yes, you paid for the computer. But you didn't pay Microsoft. You have to pay Microsoft before you can use it. You own the computer, they own the software.
Relative: So wait - you have to pay for both the computer and Microsoft?
Me: No, I use Linux. I only have to pay for the computer.
Relative: But if I paid Microsoft, I'd own both the computer, and the software, right?
Me: No, you would own just the computer. Microsoft would still own the software.
Relative: But I could move the software to a new computer if I bought the software, right?
Me: No, that's not how Microsoft works. You pay them, and you get to use the software on that computer. They still own it - you don't - and you can't move it from computer to computer.
Relative: So let me get this straight: I pay Microsoft for software, and they still own it?! What kind of $&*!@ is that?
Me: Yep, that's how proprietary software works. You get to use it, but you can't own it.
Relative: So how is it that you don't have to pay Microsoft?
Me: I run Linux.
At this point, it starts to sink in that pirating Windows isn't doing them any favors. As far as I'm concerned, if you want to use proprietary software, you can pay for it.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
after a few sixpacks my thirty years in the software business just goes away, and for some unaccountable reason people start calling me "Joe".
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
On the MSDN WGA blog, MS writes "Our research has clearly shown that customers value the ability of Windows to alert them when they may have software that is not genuine..." Wouldn't you like to review that "research"?
I'm not that familiar with windows. Can you do the updates on XP without having WGA installed? I so, how? Any links on a guide?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I wonder when malware will duplicate the look to give them a "Bargain" on a genuine copy of XP.
"Just give your credit card and for $30 your windows will be legit!"
Fo' shiggle, mah niggle!
There's a patch for this whole thing, and it's been out for ages. In some cases it's even easier to use.
It's called Linux, and it's free. Get it today.
Is the Corporate Edition anything different than just a particular corporate license key?
And where can you display the license key on an existing system? Registry? System Properties?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
My desktop works just fine. Wait, crap...
Cue next Mac vs PC ad.
As a paying customer I don't want to take the time to call you and sit on hold for hours just so I can use what I paid for after your "upgrade" happens by YOUR mistake.
I get so sick of companies treating me a paying customer as an adversary. Years ago I played games and actually enjoyed them. But when DRM made me into a CD swapping machine despite me having more than enough HD space they lost the fun factor and became a hassle. Now I don't game hardly at all. Of course anyone that illegally subverted the DRM is still gaming including non-paying customers. Seems self defeating.
Good luck MS though I see this as another reason that Apple and Linux will continue to grow.
Get it here
My desktop background has pretty much ALWAYS been a black background. I suggest changing it to a picture of Balmer with a mean look on his face.
I'm trying to figure out what all the fuss is about but I can't find this WGA thing. Does anyone know what repository it's in?
load "$",8,1
I know a guy who probably never bought a copy of Windows in his life, and he has been telling me how wonderfully superior Windows is to linux and other OSes for about the last decade. He updates, so I can hardly wait for his email.
...an OS they're trying to kill?
The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers.
It was a tossup between that quote and "Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."
More of the same. Just let go.
I already use a black screen on all my pirated copies. I always have windows open, why have a picture that I will never see. Black doesn't hurt my eyes in the dark. Nothing would change for me.
It's too bad that WGA never recognizes genuine copies of Windows given to students at my university. I think it is due to the fact that the disks are produced on campus under a distribution license, or, The Pirate Bay is hosted inside the dark cave on campus. Just a thought.
And the answer is none. None more black.
All these moves by MS has made me consider that inadvertently MS is making Windows shareware. And perhaps if things like this could be proven in court Windows might become shareware because clearly this seems to me that MS is offering a "trial version" of XP for people at no cost and you have to pay money to "upgrade" it to the normal version.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Instead of black the screen should turn in to the blue screen of death.
What exactly is the "advantage"?
Pray they don't alter it further.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
haha, awesome!
Is it only me who think that real target are the pirates in 3rd world (China, India) and real goal is to push them to adopt Vista?
Economy of piracy has its mechanics and M$ exploited it many times. Many developers get first taste of programming on pirated Windows using pirated development software. M$ had rather them pirating Vista.
All this WGA thing is really nothing, because there are bunch of packs floating on net with XP and Vista stripped of all unnecessary stuff (like license checks). Most active pirates will not be affected by M$' change of WGA by a bit.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Call this guy a troll or a flamer, I don't care. He brings up a valid and funny point. An Asian accent trying to pronounce "niggle" will most definitely sound like "nigger". The guy with a few posts above me got it right....
Maybe I missed something, but isn't this just more reason for people to switch to linux?
I believe that Microsoft's strategy when it comes to OS need some serious revamp, else, in the next 5 to 10 yrs, they will lose their predominance in the field.
Now, they may not WANT to hear this, but WE don't want Vista, that's simple enough!
It's a resource hog, and it doesn't deliver anything useful.
For Microsoft to stay in the OS game, I think they should do the following:
Does this make sense? I think it does, no more reason for piracy! And the best of all is that they probably will increase their bottom line with this strategy! :)
the summary does warn that they would be "uncomfortable niggles."
You can use a piece of software that shows it to you (it also shows the keys for Office).
http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/
Were you a victim of Linux Genuine Advantage scheme to make millions? Linux Genuine Advantage Crack will restore free as in speech rights to what should have been in the first place. Down with the man!
http://www.debian.org/
http://www.fedoraproject.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://www.opensuse.org/
http://www.slackware.org/
http://www.gentoo.org/
http://www.freebsd.org/
http://www.openbsd.org/
I didn't start laughing, I was in shock! But the second part of your story was very funny. I guess that's why they called it the ultimate edition - it might be the last one that anyone takes seriously.
Good ol OEM discs for the win, multiple machines, multiple homes, one disc, one key, no issues, windows updates on or not, the machines have never come up with anything stating 'your copy of windows is not genuine'. Now my legit paid for copy of Vista on my gaming rig... I'm afraid to even put more ram in the bastard for fear windows decides it wants me to go through calling up MS to get things sorted.
I don't think I agreed to harassment when I installed XP.
It's definitely not in the EULA and most likely a violation of the CFAA.
They're using their grammar skills there.
In theory:
*wallpaper changes to black*
User: "Oh gosh, I didn't know I had a pirated version of XP. I'll go down to the store and get a legit copy. Phew, thanks Microsoft, you warned me before I did something illegal there, that could have been ugly.".
In practice:
*wallpaper changes to black*
User: "Oh FFS! **** you, Microsoft!"
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
My windows desktop background is set to black already. It's the best thing to look at when I don't want the second monitor to distract me.
'or one of many many possible ways to defeat wga crap
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set oSHApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Do Until oShell.AppActivate ("Display Properties")
Set oSHApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application") 'apply bitmap with a delta of the transparent watermark
sWallPaper = "filepath\filename"
oShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop
\Wallpaper", sWallPaper
wscript.sleep 5000 'lets do this at 5 sec intervals
Loop
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Otherwise it would be possible to hide it with a screenshot and some wallpaper shoppery.
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
I have my desktop set black by default, as (a) it maximises contrast with icons placed on it and (b) looks really cool. So it seems to me like WGA might indeed provide a genuine advantage in this case.
They've been selling Vista just fine the last two years. As opposed to say, Linux?
Problems related to windows bug triggering WPA authentication, cuntless.
Problems related to properly pirated windows, 0.
I like my desktop black. So... now people who see my desktop are going to think I have an illegitimate copy of XP? That sucks. It's the first time in years I'm running legit Windows :)
Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
Free Windows and a better desktop background than that ugly default, I like it already...
Windows is pants
That is all.
It only seems like they will get the very naive pirates with this.
I choose to not allow WGA to install itself, however a family member recently accidently installed this update, and upon reboot was horrified to find a new login screen and desktop. They thought it was a virus!
I took a look at the processes running, and found WGATray, which upon killing, restarts itself within seconds. It was the only windows update in add/remove programs that couldn't be uninstalled. This stuff is as bad as spyware/malware.
If you want to get rid of it, find a copy of RemoveWGA.exe on google, this thing works wonders. I ran it, rebooted, and WGA was well gone.
The People's Spacecraft: "Mission Control, we are now coming up to re-entry interface, on my mark. . . ."
Mission Control: "Ahh, cancel that Spacecraft, and let's do a one orbit go-around - we need to refresh our desktop wallpaper here. Call back in 90 minutes please..."
Anybody having this problem needs to download the VLK version it will never show as pirated because the true VLK version is made to be installed over and over and over from one key!! GOOD LUCK ALL YOU WINDOWS SUCKERS!!
I'm making that my Gnome background.
Wow, that is copy protection. Guess what, my default screen is black. Even though OSX does not allow it, I just set a black gif (10x10 pixels) as the BG image.
I know, many of you like (just as me scuba pictures, cars, babes, bikes, nersy images, superheroes) but at the end I WANT TO SEE MY DAM ICONS, so the best is a black background.
OK, Working as a programmer in the sportsbetting industry today (kickoff day) is a bit stressy, and after coding 12 hours at my (8 hour a day) consulting job pretty much kicked my arse, and I drank some rum from the Dominican Repubic ( ie I am kinda drunk).....
Anyway, black BG is best, that is the ultimate oldscshool, and working in the *NIX environment this is the best you can set.
So does MS expect to scare people with this mean black BG ?
It makes me ill (like ballistic barfing ill ;-p) after a couple of hours and I have to go and take a lie down. :-)
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Google for "belarc advisor" - it's a utility that inventories your system and is able to obtain the key of windows, office, etc. Just download and run the exe file, it will take about a minute and will display a webpage (just a local temp file) in your default browser with everything you wanted to know about your computer (in this case your key, but it tells you about your hardware specs and all the other software you have too).
I'm sure you can find a more "hardcore regedit" way of doing it, but I'm lazy.
Well, if so many weren't too niggardly to purchase a legit copy of Windows, this wouldn't be a problem!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=651859&cid=24683041
You just need to stop using Windows.
It couldn't be plainer.
...from following that link, was the advertisement on the right hand side of their website pointing to hornymatches.com .
I've been seeing some of those WGA 'niggles' for a while: Intermittent blue screens, the system is way slower than it should be given my hardware (and getting slower all the time), my start button has been replaced with this godawful green colored thing..
Wait - what?
Windows Hot Dog Stand Theme
Actually to some extent this depends on which window manager you're running, as they stick buttons in different places by default.
In most cases though, it's probably going to be gnome/kde, although I think that there are some slimline versions of ubuntu that use XFCE or others.
Platforms other than XP? Easy, they're selling them (Vista).
Black screen of death
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
I don't imagine many pirates of xp are stupid enough to download anything beyond SP2.
Maybe you can run it under Wine, or perhaps a VM? :-)
Think about it. Microsoft could have did stuff like this. Thankfully, they didn't.
Change the homepage to Microsoft's website, perhaps a page about Windows XP and piracy.
Have Clippit pop up in the corner of Windows XP, saying, "It looks like you're using a pirated copy of Windows. Would you like to purchase one now?"
Slow one's Internet connection to 56kbps speed, except when doing Windows Updates.
Disable any and all video capabilities.
Limit the display to 800 x 600 at 8-bit colour.
Disable accessing certain file types, such as video files, music files, etc. (Jokingly, because if you pirate Windows, you might be pirating other things as well.)
Court? Yeah, so I want to upgrade my HD in my Thinkpad, so I have to image and reinstall. Then say I want to put in more RAM, later, I want a faster wifi card. Oh, wait, XP is now an invalid copy? At that point the user has an ethical basis for hacking it. Though if Ubuntu supported cisco wifi cards and Lenovo put big enough HDs and fast enough wifi in these things, that problem could be avoided.
They should just download and make BlueScreen the default screen saver.
You think that will embarrass users? You obviously do not have any female offspring under the age of 10. You have perfectly described my daughter's computer. But it's that Hannah Montana crapola...
I've been using Linux for a good many years now. Not long after Windows ME came out I chose to switch to it as my main operating system. I admit I have tried XP Professional and Vista Home Premium and this is one of many reasons I don't use it, and don't recommend it. My girlfriend finds Linux to be easier, my mother, my sister, my father, my friends, my five year old niece all find Linux to be easier. I don't have to prove I have a valid copy of my operating system, I don't get treated like I am a pirate if some validation software makes a mistake. I don't have to answer to a company to use a fully functioning operating system. I don't get nagged, hassled, annoyed, pestered, poked, prodded, or just plain messed with by any software making business. I don't deal with my background being changed, or watermark on my desktop, or a 30 day period I can use software before being deactivated, I also don't have to register my copy, or activate it. I don't have problems with updates to my system that might make a mistake and decide that my copy isn't genuine software (not that this update will do that but I don't like running the risk). For that matter I don't have to worry about my software not being genuine. I am 100% legal and I can do just about anything I want. I will remain 100% legal and genuine by not using Microsoft products. One day you may win me back, but so far I cannot even see that with a very big telescope even remotely peaking up over the horizon. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Windows, I just see it as less usable and harder unless it is all you have used all your life, and this has the potential to add to that mess. Thank you Microsoft for not nagging me, but I guess you can't. :)
My daughters are 8 and 5. As far as I know, they have not yet installed pirated copies of XP.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I like that M$ finally do something against pirates.
Linux will just get a great Push from it. imagine 3 billion annoyed windows user in India and china cant see they cute Hellokitty Wallpapers anymore.
Chinese get usally 200 Dollar per month. So they will do everything but NOT buy windows. (anyway u cant buy it in china)
The easyest solution is linux.
...going to be an image of "a greased, naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck and a leash...and a man's arm holding on to the leash extended out to her shoving a black glove in her face to sniff it"?
Nofeus: Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life - that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that's brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Meow: The Background?
Nofeus: Do you want to know what it is? The Background is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look up at the night sky, or when you turn off your computer. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your license fees. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the Truth.
Meow: What Truth?
Nofeus: That you are a pirated copy, Meow. Like everyone else here on Earth, you were copied illegally. Your DNA has piracy detection code, and, as programmed in the Beginning, it has crippled you and put up a Black Background, which we call Space.
Practice random senselessness and act kind of beautiful.
The thumbnails in the article are a little small and only bring up and ad on clicking.
Actual pictures of the WGA watermark can be found here.
Is that I'm a student an purchased both XP Pro x64 and Ultimate x64 for a total of $25, and Office 07 Enterprise for another $10.
At least 80% of the people smart enough to be able to pirate an OS and install it themselves are intelligent enough to disable WGA. Seems kinda pointless to make a background black. My last 3 have been predominantly black with a small bit of a b&w image so it's not completely boring. Plain black would be a minor annoyance.
Exactly. I've got lots of XP computers. I like, only ever use one at a time. My Toshiba ones broken. WTF shouldn't I be able to transfer the licenses? Which is what I do, WITHOUT MICROSOFT'S BLESSING (because I'm sure their drones would just tell me I'm "required" to buy a new one). As far as I'm concerned Gates has made plenty of money out of me already. I'll only buy the same things so many times. And really, if MS ever took me to court, any fair minded judge would throw the case out.
So what happens if you use a black wallpaper already? are they going to switch it to homosexual clown pr0n?
A clearly superior option would be for a script to periodically do a printscreen of the desktop or whatever program is open and then open it up fullscreen in a Wordpad document so that a user who has not seen this take place will find himself clicking on nothing.
Or any number of hilarious measures.
Although I suppose their moderation in the punishment is due largely to fear of false positives.
As usual, the only people with problems will be those that did not crack it.
My WinXP SP3 and my Gentoo+Wine both report that they're genuine Microsoft software. O:-D
But I rarely use XP nowadays...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Since you cannot vote with your wallet, vote with your mouse. Do not download Windows, Office, or anything of the sort. It is only turning into more bloatware and on top of that now it is spying on your copy just to make sure it is legitimate. WGA's first incarnation was 'phoning home' once a day (I think now it's once a week)! Yes, you can crack away at it; someone always figures out a way around any copy prevention measure. But if you stop using pirated Microsoft software, you are getting yourself out of legal danger. Do I agree with the copyright laws much? Not really, no. But why risk?
If you stop using Microsoft anything, and start using free/open source software alternatives, you are getting yourself out of format lock-in. How many .doc/.docx files do you have? You are nearly stuck if you have a lot.
You might think cracking or a keygen is cool, and the idea of it is cool, but the effort taken to do either of those could be better spent in developing the free alternative.
Since a while ago, on Windows (long before I started using Linux fully), I moved to almost all FOSS software. At the time, Gaim (now Pidgin as you all know), OpenOffice, Firefox, Scribus, and a few more. Start small, 'pirates'. Start from Windows. Get rid of your pirated copy of Office and replace it with OpenOffice or something that can read ODF format. Get rid of Photoshop and learn GIMP. Get rid of MS Publisher and use Scribus. Get rid of Outlook and replace it with Thunderbird (either use the Thunderbird Calendar add-on or use Sunbird for calendar). Yes, there is much learning to be done and perhaps 'quirks' to get used to, but it is worth it. Then go ahead and make the switch to a free OS altogether. You'll find all those apps right there, and you'll be able to open up all your files too. Almost no FOSS Windows versions use the registry, so you can transfer all your settings files to Linux too and they will probably work (I had no issue transferring my Firefox profile to Linux when I switched, etc).
There is a website, MSFN, dedicated to figuring out how to make Windows more automated (cscript, batch files, RunOnce, RunOnceEx, unattended installation, nLite add-ons, etc), but a lot of it is nasty tricks working around Windows' bugs and oddities. I find it odd that such a website would exist, when not only does bash feature a much better set of commands, and for every batch file using for /F, bash's for loop is simple and easy to read and understand. But I guess if people want to literally praise MS then they have their 'stage'. Neowin is also a shrill; when Vista RTM arrived, they had an article and all they could say was 'not as bad as people say' and they were NEVER willing to admit that it sucked. How can one look at the Windows Registry and consider a long Key path like HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Explorer\Main\Toolbar\{3098F-9093A-209BF-5096C-C6902} normal? The registry is clearly made to be complicated to end-users, which is why EVERY single KB article warns about editing the registry. There are indeed some parts of it that can be modified and will forever stop a system from working without a complete reinstall. Ridiculous! How do you call that secure? And remember that on XP, you are administrator by default, any program could secretly call a registry editor (I forget what it is called in the WinAPI) and edit those crucial parts of the registry. If those are protected (as perhaps they should be), since you are administrator, that program could beat that because it could call a permissions command that sets permissions to Allow again, then go ahead and do its dirty trick. Or how about a program that disables SFC and then closes explorer and deletes it? It is too easy to break a Windows system. I know when I'm not root, my /usr folder is almost always safe (yes exploits may get found someday, and have been in the past). My only folder in danger at any given time when I execute is $HOME. That is ACTUAL security. Mac asking for a pa
Under normal circumstances and working (having a number of programs/windows open) I do not see the background at all, I see it once a day when I start up the machine ... then the desktop is covered by windows. soooooooooooooooooooooo WHY BOTHER?
to code or not to code, that is the question.
Too bad that most pirates use the corporate edition of WinXP, which comes without the annoying WGA stuff.
A good education is a bit like a STD - it makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and gives you a desire to spread it.
That's exactly why I haven't switched to Linux yet. EIGHT links to the same stuff. How can I choose? Forget it, I'm staying with my Windows.
As the majority of you slashdotters know, it's almost impossible to purchase a PC from Dell, Compaq / HP, etc without getting a CD key stuck on the side of the machine.
Now Microsoft have us forced on to a proper corp licensing scheme, so we pay some kind of special business key for every machine on the network.
Every single computer in the office has a Windows sticker on the side of the machine which is NEVER used.
I tracked down a copy of the Windows XP retail CD (which is surprisingly hard to find, most of us on the internet seem to have 'liberated' the corp) :/
I install Windows on my machine(s) my friends machines and my families machines using completely genuine and valid CD keys that Microsoft themselves issued to Dell / HP, the keys are never, ever going to be used - good old double dipping by Microsoft
I've got no doubt I'm bending the rules and in a grey area, however now all my computers / friends / family computers I work on are completely 100% legitimate with genuine copies of Windows, no more WGA problems, no more activation problems etc.
Quite handy, Microsoft wouldn't be impressed but I'm sure they have bigger fish to fry than me.
This is really it. I am jumping ship the second Apple releases a new version of the Mac Mini (hopefully next month). WGA, when it first arrived, was the slap in the face from Microsoft that did it for me. Why do I, a paying customer, need to be subjected to this treatment? Microsoft acts as though it is a privilege to use their operating system. Well, I've been paying enough money to Microsoft since 3.11 and I no longer like the stink here so I'm moving on. Thanks for the memories Bill and Steve...good luck.
A photo can be [fade out] and still have meaning, [smoothed] for the eyes, news-paper model with [half-toned], grow a tan with [colourise] or be Gomez with [reduce colors], be [pixelated], look through [blind]s, hell, your background could grow [fur] or catch [fire] even! Not all backgrounds have to be that fluo-hey-i'm-here-attitude but could be rather [Chrome] relaxed.
And still you come with the half-baken excuse you can't see your damn icons?
These tools exist to make your photogenic/graphic life a lot easier, to make that Tubgirl picture make look no different with an [Inner Bevel] or to hide Goatse behind a nice layer of [Polished Stone] which makes the Grand Canyon go jealous! For those who know these effects, you know which tool (v9 above all!) I'm loving above Photoshop.
OK!
I've got to give it to you,
I like my GUI black too, no sugar, no milk;
although if you can choose a background to easen your pain of point-and-chuck; you might be able to use a little photoshop for it, mkay?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
<irony>i pirated windows vista ultimate edition *waits for laughter to die down* and after a few months, i installed some new RAM. i don't know if it was because i changed the RAM, but after that Microsoft decided that my copy of Windows was legit, and didn't put a permanent message in the lower-right corner of my machine telling me as much, and did not refuse to let me use certain features, such as the Aero graphics enhancements. Although I have disabled it because it is slow as hell when you alt-tab out of games.
personally, i suggest microsoft take a flying leap, and adopt a more "don't charge me 300 euro's for a service pack" attitude (for example, the way OSX does it) before more people get the mind set that piracy is not just about being cheap, but a principel! </irony>
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"Every time you operate one of these weird black controls, labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you've done it"
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
No, they should have used a bright red and blue checkerboard pattern, not only on the desktop but title bars, too.
The human eye has some red/blue chromatic aberration, making red/blue patterns pretty annoying to the eye.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
My default background for my desktop is a black screen...
So this would affect me how?
(And how will they do this to my X desktop ;> )
--- Users are like bacteria -> Each one causing a thousand tiny crises until the host finally gives up and dies.
WIndows is just going through an Emo-Goth phase. It's common these days to wear all black when you're an Emo-Goth. Don't worry... I'm sure they'll grow out of it....
That could be the next internet meme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTrgh0vELEo
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
... the airport security dumbasses will confiscate your laptop and claim you are using a pirated version of Windows.
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
Enable Windows Update service, set to notify me, wait 5 mins, click the popup bubble, uncheck the WGA update from the list of updates :), download/install everything else, disable windows update service.
Also works for cracked Vista 32/64 I believe.
Even though I don't use Vista, I'm pretty damn sure that Genuine Tool thing can be pretty much removed/disabled without hurting the OS. I think MS should provide us with such entertainment every day :D
Given the choise between Hitler and RIAA/MPAA I'd go for the first one - at least he knew when to shoot himself.
my wallpaper IS a black screen:)
Yeah, sure...
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080710
So if I prefer a black background, I can steal Windows without bothering with cracks and workarounds? Pirate Bay, here I come!
There was an qemu+linux screensaver for windows
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-scrnsave/
maybe the desktop background should be replaced too ...
with an compiz enabled on
developer http://flamerobin.org
I did that at work before to keep people from looking over my shoulder. Actually, it wasn't "My Little Pony," but a unicorn Word template that I found on Microsoft's site. Also, I had dual monitors so that it became more of an eyesore. Worst case scenario, I got a few laughs out of it.
"Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two" -- RFC 1925
All they need now is to add is a skull and crossbones and then rename the system to XP: Pirate Edition.
Just press control, alt, command, 8 to invert the display colors.
Warning: Makes some mac users slap their shiny laptops.
If this stops my screen going blue every 15 minutes I'll be happy
Karma: Bad. (As in Good?)
for a minute. then i realized i can just pirate a copy of XP and not deal with this crap.
it still runs all my games, which is really all i use windows for. it also installs faster, boots faster, and runs faster on my dual core. why did we have vista again?
Good people go to bed earlier.
After i installed vista for the first time i found that my computer crashed alot. It turns out that i had to install a new driver for my SATA controller.
I installed it and it started working fine. Except that Microsoft decided that the new driver means i moved the harddrive in another computer so in three days i couldn.t boot in windows. Fortunatly the vista license was free, as i got
it throught the MSDN Academic Alliance program. And mother than that, the people that run tha MSDNAA at my university were stupid enough to put diferent licenses on the CD,DVD and X64 versions, and change them at a point. So now i have 6 linceses for Vista. Doesn't mather because since then i've been using Linux.
Turning the screen black; it's usualy the first thing i do (on my registred) XP version
As all these images only distracts my clear overview of icons.
I hope this can become a future in any legal version too, to startup with a black screen.
BTW if Microsoft would realy plug-out the power of those "free" systems.
How many of them would go to free alternatives like linux ubuntu or others ??.
I think MS should be happy that those people still use their MS product.
Especialy since Vista is around, and MS ignores it's XP succes (doesnt listen to its custommers).
As such people know how to use MS products in corperate environments.
MS should think of them as students, who also get (almost?) free MS software from schools.
Those people spread the words Microsoft in the world, call that free marketing; thats free for free.
Or simply lower it's price as a CD costs almost nothing, and it are only copies. With not that much support.
If the high price is because of included support costs, then sell two versions one with support, and one without.
Or... since microsofts dominates ICT; create a free simple version for home usage. For example a version with only FAT32, single user, no sharing options, no mediaplayer, no games, no calculator, no mstc, etc just a free limited down version, like an OS was in the DOS age. But then let the people buy online extensions.
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.
My thought is (and this may have been said before, I only skimmed the comments) is that this, like most Microsoft tactics regarding piracy are sadly only aimed at naive users. Poor folks who can be easily goaded into coughing up a credit card number on the "are you genuine" website, people who actually believe the big green shield in Windows update is the right choice.
Saavy users have the WGA problem kicked in a matter of minutes, which interestingly is the group least likely to actually succumb to being bullied into buying a new license for Windows.
Windows has more viruses because linux has more virus coders.
I disabled WGA ages ago on my legitimate copy of Win XP, and the rest of my systems are either linux or OS X.
Now, if they changed the background image to a skull and crossbones, or a nice slideshow of pirate-themed images, that would be cool.
Changing the background image? The more you tighten your grip, the more systems that slip through your fingers -- and, heck, that's not really much of a grip you've got there, MS.
That's odd. My screen is blue not black after an hour.
That's really hypocritical, they make their buisness on the concept that "windows is free" u.u"
I happen to have a fully black desktop with no icons on all my Windows desktops... am I now going to be blames as a pirate?
Linux says: "thank you!"
Pay for a genuine copy of Windows. There is no excuse not to.
Discontinuing your use of Windows is the only alternative. I totally encourage you to switch to using free software if you can't afford to pay for Windows.
The high price of Windows combined with the simplicity of stealing it, the anonymity of the theft and how essential the product is makes for the theft of it being a pretty common occurrence.
Cellphones, razors, and clothes all have the same problem -- very easy to steal, except that it's pretty clear that people are regularly being caught and punished for those thefts. I'm not so sure that the average software thief is at any risk of being caught.
you can have my key
UN00B-ROFLM-AOUR2-KEWL4-SK00L
I'd pay for the my little pony theme
My wallpaper is a screenshot of the entrance to that giant space cigar Doomsday Machine from Star Trek and I like to sit in front of it, squirming in my chair making faces-of-horror and sweating while singing "da-da da-da DA-DA DA-DA".
But look at who I'm telling! Of course most of you reading this do the exact same thing! Ha ha ha.
What?
If you enjoy ignorance, just pay someone to do if for you. It will probably cost less than an XP licence.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
If X requries n OS, big deal, just vmware it.
Oh you need the ISO to install? thats just one google click away, and a few hours wait for the download to finish.
If MS thinks their WGA and security is so good, why dont they release a new XP ISO every 3 months with all the patches included. Why do we have to do our own slipstream iso? 80 billion dollars doesnt buy you brains, just more hookers and cocaine and stupid people.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
well if a black background isn't what you want...a simple program like webshots told to change it once an hour...the hour starting right after microshafts, should do the trick.
One would hope that Linux would capitalise on the plight of Vistas over engineering and too many cooks syndrome. The only way and I mean the only way Linux is going to come out smellling like roses is for it to seriously bridge the gap between the two technologies Wine is in my opionon the the light at the end of the tunnel. Nativly support Win32 and itgrate it into the subsystem so when running an exe will have the same result on both systems and you have found the cure :)
Well that works for me. . . I already use a black only wallpaper on all of my computers. I figure it's for the greater good. Less battery consumption on laptops. Just trying to do my part. lol
Self proclaimed wannabe geek. You know how it is. Most of us who read this stuff probably fit in that category.
So now I need to use some bright, irritating wallpaper to convince people I'm not using unlicensed software? Fuck that. Microsoft needs to change their plans, because the first customer who accuses me of piracy because of my black desktop background means a lawsuit for tortious business interference for Microsoft.
I've had no problems with a black screen, and I just hit the microsoft update servers last night. If there were a problem, I'd just roll back a snapshot. Funny how VMWare workstation, which I only use to run windoze was worth the money to me, where the OS I'm hosting under it certainly is not.
Guess my XP Pro from TPB is legit, not that I ever use that session for anything any more. It was mainly for dealing with windoze-only crap while searching for a job last year. Why on earth would I pay for something that I normally would never use in the first place?
BSOPRD
Black Screen of Public Relations Disaster.
On a side note, I bet support calls to display device makers go up as an unintended consequence. Yes, I know the icons will still be there, but you cannot overestimate the power of PEBKAC.
What's it gonna take to get new management at MS? How big does the disaster have to be? Never mind the ethics, it would be nice to have someone who is worthy of the 90%+ market share shrewdly won with clever marketing and cutthroat keen business senses, if not quality.
So much of computing, as it exists now, depends on Microsoft. This sad joke must end. Satisfactory management would be a step up. Right now, the only thing they're "F-ing burying" is themselves.
Anyone with common sense doesn't want to see MS just implode like this.
--
Toro
I know the one effect this is going to have on me, Switching to Linux! If this is what happens when they cant sell that crap Vista I wonder what will hapen when Vista goes the way of the dodo. And I'm one of those idiots who has been actually BUYING Windows XP. Thank you Micro$oft for teaching me the error of my ways.
Plain black *IS* my preferred background. Ha ha... suckers.
And mod this up.
For those who pirate they get what they deserve!! It doesn't cost that much to purchase Windows if that is what you are running or plan to run!!! CMON folks. I bet these pirates don't bat an eye at spending 1000 bucks for new hardware and put the same ole pirated OS on it. If you don't want to pay for it run Linux. Linux has become so much easier to run these days there really is no reason to pirate the OS any longer. :)
http://www.autopatcher.com/
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You have to get the Autopatcher packages themselves from torrent sites, and verify them with the MD5 hashes on the Autopatcher site. I thought they still had that info on the homepage but it's been removed. It has to be done this way to keep Microsoft off their asses.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
No accounting for taste I suppose.
On further research you get them through the updater now. It's been so long since I've used that thing (read: had my own Windows computer)
I'll shut up now.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Good thing my desktop BG is black, and I don't use the system tray!
Before he has to kiss Bill Gates' ass.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Actually, I'm hoping that TweakUI will let you make the "notification" appear if you want it to, that way I can increase my street-cred with my l33t buddies!
Well they think this will do what exactly i know one thing it wont do get people to use windBloWs pistake
but they will learn one day
This was announced back before SP1. Why is this a suprise now? I thought the Emos would appreciate saving the otherwise hours spent searching for a background to show their inner darkness.
Really don't think anyone is going to switch OS just because of this, that includes vista also. These guys don't care about the fact they are running pirated versions.
Microsoft's efforts to annoy pirates are, however, quite amusing. Why don't they just stop the OS loading for pirate versions!
New business model:
Pirate versions get 1 week to run, then it will refuse to load, or load in limited mode, where user can only activate it.
Instead of an annoying message that pops up, why not have a premium number in the start menu, with a day counter until Windows won't work. User has to phone to activate the software. Users can think of the cost of the call as cost of the upgrade (in the case of pezpunk's comments).
End result:
Microsoft richer.
Customer annoyed but forced to use windows anyway. (which was no different to before the call!)
I don't use windoze, but my desktop is black anyways, so it won't make a difference :]
MS has already demonstrated that it can't get WGA right. In addition, they are not exactly helping by making it compulsory to stick the license code holo on a system so that an average passerby can take a picture of it so you end up with a pirated serial number.
So, if I run legit copies of Windows and this crap appears, I won't be embarrassed. I'll go after them for defamation and computer intrusion (their license cannot change applicable laws), and get as many people to join as I can manage. I'm sick and tired of having to prove that I'm not using pirated software. I wish they would spend as much energy on getting the code even remotely safe. Vista sucked like no vacuum cleaner will ever manage.
That's also why most of our stuff now runs on Linux. They asked for it.
Insert
just dont install the update, its that easy.
I don't even remember what my background image is. I've ALWAYS got an email program or 2 running, as well as several web browser windows, and various programming tools, so the desktop is never seen. If they painted their annoyance nag scren on TOP of everything else, I would be in the store purchasing a new copy immediatly.