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Microsoft Wins Windows XP WGA Lawsuit
Rish writes "A lawsuit that accused Microsoft of misleading consumers to download and install an update for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) under the guise that it was critical security update has been tossed out. Last month, a federal judge refused to certify the lawsuit as a class action, which would have meant anyone who owned a Windows XP PC in mid-2006 could join the case without having to hire an attorney, and on Friday the same judge dismissed the case completely."
OP here, it's invalid product keys that won't validate. Believe it or not, those VLKs do exist and are used by hobbyist pc people to build their moms, uncles, and other relatives computers. The moms, uncles and relatives blame us, despite the fact that it was their hobbyist relative that really committed the crime.
And, yes, calling microsoft does give you an option there. Buy a genuine copy for a reduced price.
Anybody in the repair industry worth their salt knows there's more than one way to be invalidated by WGA.
Or crack it.
/a reg.key located in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Run)
Import this key at every system restart. (saved as c:\windows\system32\reg.key, it would be regedit
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents]
"OOBETimer"=hex:ff,d5,71,d6,8b,6a,8d,6f,d5,33,93,fd
"LastWPAEventLogged"=hex:d5,07,05,00,06,00,07,00,0f,00,38,00,24,00,fd,02
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
"CurrentBuild"="1.511.1 () (Obsolete data - do not use)"
"InstallDate"=dword:427cdd95 "ProductId"="69831-640-1780577-45389" "DigitalProductId"=hex:a4,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,36,39,38,33,31,2d,36,34,30,2d,\
31,37,38,30,35,37,37,2d,34,35,33,38,39,00,5a,00,00,00,41,32,32,2d,30,30,30,\
30,31,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,0d,04,89,b2,15,1b,c4,ee,62,4f,e6,64,6f,01,00,\
00,00,00,00,27,ed,85,43,a2,20,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,31,34,35,30,34,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,ce,0e,\
00,00,12,42,15,a0,00,08,00,00,87,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,94,a2,b3,ac
"LicenseInfo"=hex:9e,bf,09,d0,3a,76,a5,27,bb,f2,da,88,58,ce,58,e9,05,6b,0b,82,\
c3,74,ab,42,0d,fb,ee,c3,ea,57,d0,9d,67,a5,3d,6e,42,0d,60,c0,1a,70,24,46,16,\ 0a,0a,ce,0d,b8,27,4a,46,53,f3,17
+ Anti WPA 3.46
= Away you go
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Ars Technica left out a whole bunch of information. The plaintiffs didn't agree to dismissal because the suit was bogus. Plaintiff's' attorneys had a poorly-drafted complaint to start with, spent four years adding and dropping plaintiffs trying to find ones that had actually been "injured", and four years amending the complaint with ever-more-vague claims against Microsoft. This is all part of the public record and anyone can take a look at it. Moral: If you're going to be all mad about something, do your homework first before charging off and filing a lawsuit.
If you were talking about iPhone OS, you might have a rational argument, and would have earned your moderation.
But I thought we were talking about an operating system for a general-purpose computer. Contrasting Mac OS X with any post- W2K Microsoft OS:
- I've never had to enter an 'activation' key to install it.
- I've never had to worry if it's going to turn on me and accuse me of using a 'counterfeit' version of it.
- I've never had to call Apple and ask, "Pretty please, is it okay to have my computer back?"
I think you're a little bit confused as to "Super-Lockdown-Incorporated" really is.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
You're missing the forest for the trees. Mac OS never asks for validation at any stage of installation. Just put your disc in, install, reboot. That's it. Change your hardware, no need to validate. Ever. Starting with Mac OS v.10.5, upgrade discs no longer checked to see if you had an older version already installed.
Lockdown!=Lockout
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