Windows 8 To Fight Piracy With the Cloud

MrSeb writes "With the latest Windows 8 build (8064) that has been delivered to Intel, it's clear that the company is taking strides to make sure that its upcoming OS isn't quite so easy to pirate. For starters, the generic volume license keys that were so easily exploited during the early days of Windows 7 leaks will no longer be an option for pirates. Product keys also won't be shipped in the prodkey.txt file included in the build packages. Instead, installers will need to retrieve a unique key from a Microsoft web page. There's also a good possibility that the recently-surfaced fast booting patent could come into play as well. If Microsoft does indeed have designs on using a remote server to push OS code to systems at boot time, that code would be a very clever place to embed activation-related programming. Even if a crack was discovered, it would be neatly undone during a subsequent start-up sequence — similar to the way Microsoft's now-idle Windows Steady State could turn back the clock on an entire Windows installation after rebooting." Microsoft has also indirectly confirmed in a recent blog post that Windows 8 will make use of an app store.

Comments

"push OS code to systems at boot time"

[TaoPhoenix]

Found it!

If you no longer even own your full OS and require "pushed OS code at boot time" the Cloud Scam will be complete!

Re:"push OS code to systems at boot time"

[MightyMartian]

I'm fairly certain this will apply mainly to consumer versions. The corporate world won't put up with external dependencies like this for any number reasons, so I'm sure copies bought via corporate channels like volume licensing won't be crippled in this way.

Or maybe I'm wrong, in which case when our next set of upgrades happen in about two or three years, I may in fact be making a strong case for moving from Windows entirely.

Re:"push OS code to systems at boot time"

[Baloroth]

Don't worry. ~80% of Windows 8 users (the other 19.9% are business users) won't be using this "feature", as TPB edition won't have it...

Re:"push OS code to systems at boot time"

[guruevi]

The VLK license codes are usually the ones used in pirated Windows. The VLK codes are easy to mask when the system dials in (it's not unusual that multiple machines have the same code), they usually unlock all the different flavors Windows comes in and not easy for Microsoft to de-active (unless they want to piss off a major client).

It doesn't prevent them from doing so, the institution I work at is at it's 3rd or 4th VLK for WinXP and at least one of them is easily found in Google and will fail the 'Genuine' test.

The problem I find with pushing OS code is that when (not if) a flaw is found in the system or a private key gets found it opens the way for malware to enter into the system and masking as OS boot code it won't be easy to find or remove until it's too late. It's a security incident waiting to happen. The other obvious problems are when the system is not on a network or their systems are not available besides bandwidth. If they allow for systems to run without 'checking in' a crack for the system will easily be built.

If you haven't already migrated away from Windows, I would recommend doing it soon. There is no reason anymore to stay with it. I have successfully phased it out at my place of employment for both Mac and Linux. Sadly people still depend on MS Office so I still have to donate to Bill Gates' trust fund but it's a bunch cheaper than having to buy Windows, Windows Server, CAL's for every single piece of server software they sell etc.

Gawd

[Anrego]

I really hate the direction software and computers are heading.

I'm not that old.. but it just seems like every new thing makes me cringe. Maybe it's for the best and this is the way people want it, and maybe I'm just too attached to the way things are now (or I guess the way things were) to adapt to all this new thinking, but dammit if I don't feel something I'm passionate about is slipping away.

Maybe I should just go plant trees for a living or something :(

Re:Gawd

[armanox]

I consider Ubuntu to be an example of the problem.

Re:Widows?

[PPH]

He died waiting for a license key.

To the roots

[iONiUM]

Microsoft needs to go back to their roots and remember that their success in the PC market these days can largely (but of course, not entirely) be attributed to the fact that many younger people pirated their OS and used it a lot.

This is why they should just let piracy go, especially for the OS and Visual Studio, that way when people enter the workforce, they already are accustomed to these things. This is why RIM should be so disturbed that many younger people don't use BlackBerry's anymore; when those younger people enter the workforce, they're going to scream and yell to get their iPhone's and Android's connected to the exchange server.

It has always been this way, and Microsoft would be stupid to forget it.

That said, there's the China piracy problem, which is outside of above.. maybe this is targeting that..

As a Linux user...

[bmo]

I'm OK with this.

The sooner the theft of Microsoft products ends the better. Turn all the knobs to 11, Mr. Ballmer. The sound of gnashing teeth will be as sweet as Beethoven's Pastoral symphony.

--
BMO

Re:Here it begins.. the FUD

[recoiledsnake]

Well of course these speculations should be taken as that until MS locks down features. Those articles you link deal with panic over MS enforcing anti-piracy for third parties. However given the history of MS pushing for more anti-piracy features of the OS itself such concerns are not neccesarily FUD. My main concern with that would be the false positives. Having been inconvenienced with calling MS for them to bless my installation of Windows for no apparent reason I can say it's a concern.

Lets take this from the article:

With the latest Windows 8 build (8064) that has been delivered to Intel, it’s clear that the company is taking strides to make sure that its upcoming OS isn’t quit so easy to pirate. For starters, the generic volume license keys that were so easily exploited during the early days of Windows 7 leaks will no longer be an option for pirates. Product keys also won’t be shipped in the prodkey.txt file included in the build packages. Instead, installers will need to retrieve a unique key from a Microsoft web page.

That was the case for Windows 7 Beta and RC releases as well,with the keys expiring in 1 year. Don't see anything new here, the article does cite any sources except a build to Intel which is obviously a preview build which always required you to get a key from Microsoft web pages to operate.

Re:Deja Vu

[Billly Gates]

I normally have respect for haiyfeet as his comments contribute a lot and he knows what he is talking about.

In terms of DRM ...
IN actually, I find a lot more pirated versions of Windows XP than Windows 7 on a popular torrent site. The windows 7 ones were hackjobs taht required a special bootloader from some guy (seperate download) and with the hacks you get a Windows 7 OS but you can't use Windows update for patch 2334. Some give error messages a lot and so on.

Maybe there is a perfect pirated Windows 7 professional edition out there, but after reading this I decided to stick with Windows 7 home premium with these hassles. Windows XP has been hacked awhile back.

I have not seen a hacked version of Office 2010 either that worked for more than a week or two. Microsoft has got it down well with its DRM. I hate the DRM and I think Microsoft are idiots in their pricing scheme to the Asian world but it is their choice to be stupid. You need to pay if you use their products. Thank god for GoogleDocs and LibreOffice.