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Media Center Key Accidentally Gives Pirates Free Windows 8 Pro License
MrSeb writes "In an amusing twist that undoubtedly spells the end of some hapless manager's career, Microsoft has accidentally gifted pirates with a free, fully-functioning Windows 8 license key. As you have probably surmised, this isn't intentional — Microsoft hasn't suddenly decided to give pirates an early Christmas present (though the $40 upgrade deal from Windows 8 Release Preview is something of a pirate amnesty). ... The bug involves the Key Management Service, which is part of Microsoft's Volume Licensing system. Pirates have already hacked the KMS to activate Windows 8 for 180 days — but this is just a partial activation. Now it turns out that the free Media Center Pack license keys that Microsoft is giving out until January 31 2013 can be used on a KMS-activated copy of Windows 8 to turn it into a fully licensed copy of Windows 8 Pro. "
In an amusing twist that undoubtedly spells the end of some hapless manager's career, Microsoft has accidentally gifted pirates with a free, fully-functioning Windows 8 license key. As you have probably surmised, this isn't intentional
Yes, in fact, this is exactly what I surmised after seeing the word "accidentally". That usually implies lack of intention.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
On the upside, you can have a fully activated copy of Win 8 with relatively little effort.
On the downside, it'll still be Windows 8.
I think I'll pass, thanks.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
You don't even need a key or a (code-based) hack to run Win7 forever without activation - You can run it in fully-functional pre-activation mode forever.
Google "slmgr -rearm" and "IR5". Note that IR5 doesn't install any sort of actual cracks, it just scripts a few simple tasks you can do manually if you don't trust it.