Pirated Windows XP fades to black

[Munkey]

Microsoft has announced a significant update to its Windows Genuine Advantage system. In future users of pirated copies Windows XP Professional - which, it says, is the version most commonly stolen - will find that their Windows desktop has been replaced by a plain black screen. In addition, a translucent message will display in the bottom-right hand corner, warning that the copy of Windows "did not pass genuine Windows validation":

Users will be able to replace the desktop wallpaper if they choose, but after one hour it will change back to the black screen. The notifications produced by previous versions of WGA, which pop up from the system tray, will continue to appear.

The new notification system mirrors the one used in Windows Vista, but with one crucial difference. A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to Zdnet that the new WGA system for XP Professional does not include the "kill switch" that severely limited the abilities of non-validated copies of pre-SP1 Windows Vista.

WindowsWatch

 

[karym6]

lol, ouch.

I wonder how many businesses are going to be screwed when this hits

 

[witchy]

Surely no-one pirates their Operating System??

:err:

 

[Munkey]

Pirates on this forum, no chance. We're all legit.

 

[karym6]

Bugger this lot, one place I worked in had 500 employees and 150 XP Pro licenses.

 

[Munkey]

Who actually checks these licences karym? I have never heard of the M$ police kicking doors down.

 

[robc11]

And everytime they update WGA it will get cracked straight away, mine did it about 3 weeks ago after an update and now its working fine for some reason:sneaky: Funny thing is mine is a legit copy just for some reason its shows as counterfeit, think it may have something to do with installing the same version of xp on differernt hard drives maybe? I know all i need to do is phone M$ but i can never be assed.

 

[karym6]

Who actually checks these licences karym? I have never heard of the M$ police kicking doors down.

in companies that size, a server installation of windows would normally check that. Basically, any SOX compliant software would have a license server to carry out an audit. As soon as the audit sees more installations than active licenses, bells and whistles go off.

Pretty certain that MS doesnt get told, but I know that some systems have their invalid workstations license revoked. It will be fun to watch the BOFH's go nuts worrying about it though!

 

[witchy]

Bugger this lot, one place I worked in had 500 employees and 150 XP Pro licenses.

off-topic, however....

Reminds me of my last job.

I work on an IT helpdesk and I spotted a virus infection on the entire LAN, I went to the head of IT and explained the situation to which he replied...

"Those aren't actual viruses, those alerts are simply the software highlighting files which have the potential to be infected!"

I replied "?!"

He then said "The software can tell which files are most likely to be infected and it has flagged them"

So I replied "?!"

His next explanation was "There must have been a AV update last night and our Anti-Virus software is alerting us to potential threats, it's nothing to worry about"

I said "Are you really the head of IT in this place?"

Later that day our servers ground to a halt and were out of action for almost 24 hours, the company lost millions.

oh BTW, the same guy was rewarded for the 'quick recovery' of the network and is still head of IT.

 

[karym6]

off-topic, however....

Reminds me of my last job.

I work on an IT helpdesk and I spotted a virus infection on the entire LAN, I went to the head of IT and explained the situation to which he replied...

"Those aren't actual viruses, those alerts are simply the software highlighting files which have the potential to be infected!"

I replied "?!"

He then said "The software can tell which files are most likely to be infected and it has flagged them"

So I replied "?!"

His next explanation was "There must have been a AV update last night and our Anti-Virus software is alerting us to potential threats, it's nothing to worry about"

I said "Are you really the head of IT in this place?"

Later that day our servers ground to a halt and were out of action for almost 24 hours, the company lost millions.

oh BTW, the same guy was rewarded for the 'quick recovery' of the network and is still head of IT.

lol, similar story here: a development network had an application firewall attached to it for some reason. It kept on highlighting a security issue, so IT turned it off.

Same with a load balancer, it caused problems so they just turned that off. We ended up taking the piss as they wanted all this new kit, the comment was made by one and all that they wanted it bought just to turn it off...

 

[Munkey]

And everytime they update WGA it will get cracked straight away, mine did it about 3 weeks ago after an update and now its working fine for some reason:sneaky: Funny thing is mine is a legit copy just for some reason its shows as counterfeit, think it may have something to do with installing the same version of xp on differernt hard drives maybe? I know all i need to do is phone M$ but i can never be assed.

I know the feeling. I refuse to call M$ after they refused to activate a legit license for the same reason as you mentioned.

We're pushed into piracy..
--

Cheers for the info karym

 

[karym6]

We're pushed into piracy..

You know, I really dont think all these anti-piracy engines actually work all the time. Aside from hacks and cracks, I think they just dont work as people think they should.

 

[redwolf]

I've just been reading about this on someones blog site...and according to him you can turn it off by going to:

Home / Windows / Tweak / Uninstallers / RemoveWGA 1.2

at softpedia.

 

[witchy]

I've just been reading about this on someones blog site...and according to him you can turn it off by going to:

Home / Windows / Tweak / Uninstallers / RemoveWGA 1.2

at softpedia.

Dang!

Silly Microsoft.

Unlikely mate, verrrrrrrrrrrrry unlikely.

lol

 

[karym6]

lol, it would be rather unlikely that MS would leak this info...

 

[mozr]

Lets have some hackers give Microsoft Corporation a black background please?

Perhaps we need a poll. Anyone actually bought an operting system (apart from oem stuff bundled with hardware)?

 

[karym6]

Lets have some hackers give Microsoft Corporation a black background please?

Perhaps we need a poll. Anyone actually bought an operting system (apart from oem stuff bundled with hardware)?

Well, I bought Vista seperately.

Even then I was naughty as I bought the OEM version...

 

[daveleebond]

can't you just get 2 pieces of back insulation tape and place over it?

 

[Munkey]

Well, I bought Vista seperately.

Even then I was naughty as I bought the OEM version...

Unbelievable!

I once bought Sever 2003 but that was only because it was urgently needed for work and it still hurts me to this day.

 

[smirnoff_rules]

dont have any bent os anymore but lm sure within a month there will be a patch for something like that .. l installed a vista cough cough copy the other day for a m8 , it u have a bent xp copy just upgrade lol