Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
Cough, Cough.
*Continues innocent whistling*
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.
You can always run your own WSUS server.
This lets you control exactly what does and does not get installed, and WGA isn't even available through WSUS (although Office Genuine Advantage is). If you have more than two computers running Windows 2000 or later, WSUS is a big help for saving bandwidth and assuring you get patched up-to-date quickly.
Unfortunately, it requires Windows 2003 Server to run, but it is completely free (as in beer).
This is actually pretty easy to defeat. Just boot into safe mode (XP Home) or regular mode (XP Pro or Media Center). Find the files in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 called 'wgalogon.dll' and 'wgatray.exe'. Bring up the file properties, go to the security tab and remove the inherited permissions from the files (don't copy them, strip them completely). Answer yes when it asks if you're sure about this. Reboot and WGA will never bother you again. I've done this on dozens of machines and it just skips the update because its too stupid to fix permissions. The only exception to this is the Service Packs or repair installs. YMMV
Of course nobody should have to do it in the first place but this is an example of corporate-think at it's best from our fiends in Redmond. If XP is so dead why should they be developing new WGA tricks for it anyways? Sounds to me like its them getting a bit nervous about how many people are jumping ship from Vista and pointing at 'hackers' as the problem. Again. =)
I spent last night installing XP on a Toshiba Satellite A200 laptop for a friend who has tolerated Vista for about 6 months now.
Not surprisingly, Toshiba (like Dell and many others) has signed a deal with the devil not to provide support for anything other than Vista (honestly, I can see why they might do a deal to pre-install Vista, but why stop loyal Toshiba customers from installing XP if they want to? Crazy).
However, what is truly impressive is the hatred for Vista out there on the net, and the lengths that it inspires people to go to to get rid of it and, in the spirit of the net, help others get rid of it. Googling for info about getting XP up and running on this particular machine yielded pages and pages of helpful information about exactly what must be done to round up the necessary drivers (many from the OEM's who supplied the various components of the machine). Even better, a few heroes had actually compiled zip files containing every driver and distributed them via Rapidshare and the like.
The other really startling thing was how many non-expert users were doing this. There were heaps of messageboard posts where inexperienced users basically begged for help to get XP working on their laptops. Due to the bod of Vista-hatred, the more tech savvy users were generally walking people through the process with a level of patience rarely seen on-line.
I had the same experience installing XP on my Dell XPS 1530 (great computer, once you disinfect it) - there is basically a community dedicated to purging it of Vista.
When you are inspiring legions of both expert users and ordinary non-techy people to go through the pain of installing an operating system using an ad hoc collection of unsupported drivers, something is badly, badly awry. I am critical not of MS so much as Toshiba, Dell and co - they are the ones who have made the key decision to support nothing but Vista. I wonder if they realise the lengths their users are going to to get around this choice?
Incidentally, my friend's reaction was priceless when XP booted up quickly and quietly - "holy shit... you mean it's done? it's so... responsive! It's beautiful!" He then checked the memory usage and noted with awe that it was 120 megs after booting rather than 1 to 1.5 gigs for Vista.
Read Pynchon.
Um....I hate to break the news to you,but if you would have read the news section at Windiz after nobody came forward when they requested help coding the site they quit updating it. So the newest patch there is from 2006. Doesn't really help when the latest bug strikes. There used to be a site with a batch file which downloaded Windows Updates,but I'm afraid I no longer have the link. But going to Windiz is pretty much a waste of time and I don't know why the site is still up.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
If you didn't get it, #008080 is the default background for Windows 95/98
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.