ATTENTION: Microsoft Says Pirated Vista May Be Useless

[Vishal Gupta]

Microsoft said supposedly pirated copies of its new Vista computer operating system "will be of limited value" to those who use them.

Microsoft responded Tuesday to reports that some Web sites have been circulating pirated copies of Vista and the Office 2007 applications suite.

The pirated Vista comes with a product key that users can enter to activate a version of the products on their computers without paying for them, according to a report on the Web site of The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald newspaper. A product key is a unique serial number tied to each package of a software product.

A second download, called an "activation crack," can then be applied that bypasses the activation process intended to guarantee that the Vista OS being downloaded is legitimate, the Herald reported. Pirated copies of Office 2007 can be downloaded just with the product key with no second activation code required.

But Microsoft said in a prepared statement that those pirated copies of the OS won't work for long.

"The copies available for download are not final code and users should avoid unauthorized copies which could be incomplete or tampered. This unauthorized download relies on the use of pre-RTM [release-to-manufacture] activation keys that will be blocked using Microsoft’s Software Protection Platform. Consequently, these downloads will be of limited value," the statement said.

Microsoft is still looking into reports of pirated versions of Office 2007 and declined further comment.

"Microsoft is happy that customers are eager to begin using Windows Vista," the company said.

Microsoft has been criticized for multiple delays in bringing Vista to market, but has said it wants to take care that the product is designed correctly to avoid security flaws, piracy problems and other software glitches.

The company released Vista to computer manufacturers Nov. 8 for them to build into new laptops and desktops available for retail sale in January 2007. Consumers can start buying individual copies of Vista on Jan. 30.

Microsoft also plans to have Vista in the hands of business customers by the end of November. It has scheduled a Vista launch event in New York City on Nov. 30 at which the new Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 will also be introduced.

Source

[paul_007]

gr8 news...microsoft this time have worked reaaaaaly hard to prevent piracy........................


now lts see wat crackers will do

[assasin]

Microsoft sux.It aint done anythin to prevent piracy.My copy is working like a charm without any 'LIMITATIONS' as microsoft says.RTM is more or less the final version.As for Office 2007 u dont need to register cuz u'll use VLK(Volume License Key).

[king007]

So i believe the score is Crackers:1, Microsoft:0,

[Third Eye]

Microsoft is kidding...because they want hackers not to crack there windows vista.

Thanks for the info

[n2casey]

Crackers & Hackers r good programmers so it won't b difficult to pirate the windows. Well, lets wait & see what happens.

[kumarmohit]

Originally Posted by assasin

.RTM is more or less the final version.

RTM IS the final Version Man

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by tech_mastermind

Microsoft is kidding...because they want hackers not to crack there windows vista.

Yeah, sure! So you think that Microsoft expects hackers to read this announcement and stop trying to crack Vista! LOL! I know they can do pretty stupid things with their software, man, but they aren't so foolish.

[escape7]

These microsoft guys are trying very hard to stop these crackers etc., they even have that windows genuine program (which i thought was fool proof; but i was wrong ). That too has a bypass; so whatever warnings being given by microsoft will entice many of our freinds out there to work on bypassing the Vista.

Also the delay(I was away from all technology for about an year) - I thought Vista would be out in the market by June 2006.

[dharmeshhtailor]

many of my freinds have vista installed on their pc...
watever MS does to stop piracy..crackers and hackers are one step ahead of them...

[s18000rpm]

Why are you guys so darn happy about the Vista craked.
why do you support the Crackers so much.

Cant you guys support & appreciate the people who worked nearly 5 years to bring something good.

I dunno how or why you guys feel so proud of yourself for using Pirated Stuffs & supporting them.

[sysfilez]

@s18000rpm
i agree pirates are one step ahead.
bill gates knows this very well that out of every 100pc may be half of them is using pirated, i guess he is not bothered coz he makes huge profit by that 50% users. he knows if ppl use ms products that makes his product popular. ms is a giant company and simalarly piracy is a big industry.
if ppl are working for 5 yrs to bring out vista then there are ppl who are also working day in n out to crack vista. i appreciate both of them. its basically a challenge to break in that so called secured s/w.
and yes if everyone is bound to use geniune stuff then i guess this forum will have only few members and we will have few computer literates and pros in our country.

[escape7]

Originally Posted by s18000rpm

Why are you guys so darn happy about the Vista craked.
why do you support the Crackers so much.

Cant you guys support & appreciate the people who worked nearly 5 years to bring something good.

I dunno how or why you guys feel so proud of yourself for using Pirated Stuffs & supporting them.

Seriously tell me, is all the software you use or have ever used has been paid for.

[abhijit_reddevil]

Originally Posted by s18000rpm

Why are you guys so darn happy about the Vista craked.
why do you support the Crackers so much.

Cant you guys support & appreciate the people who worked nearly 5 years to bring something good.

I dunno how or why you guys feel so proud of yourself for using Pirated Stuffs & supporting them.

That's because the initial price of the Vista ultimate edition will be priced around US $400. And I am not that rich to pay about Rs.18000 to Rs.20000 for a copy of windows when I can perhaps get the same copy for free or at most Rs.100.

[aryayush]

If a Mercedes costs 70 lacs, will you buy a cheaper car or steal the Merc!

Originally Posted by escape7

Seriously tell me, is all the software you use or have ever used has been paid for.

Well, isn't it obvious from his post that he only uses original stuff!

[Rollercoaster]

we all know that a pirated copy will be available on the same day, if not before, of the release of vista.

ah! no problem here, i might be getting my Vista Ultimate edition leagl key & download in 2 days

Kudos to MS for giving the beta testers Vista for free

[aryayush]

Really? That's so cool! Congratulations!

Had you submitted reports, etc. to Microsoft from your beta testing?

[outlaw]

in a country like india half of the microsoft products are quite unaffordable

so i dont think its possible to bring an end to piracy here

[iMav]

i agree that vista is toooo costly buti thnk MS is also right in saying tht it will limited in usage as they had said this quite in the beginning and as far assasin goes u and ur frenz can use that copy of vista till june 2007 after tht i dont wat will happen but thts till wen the beta versions will work

[s18000rpm]

well i cant Afford Vista, its way too costly, but just b'coz its costly, i wont buy a Pirated version. We all know there are Linux O.S which are (or maybe) much better Option than Vista & they are FREE.

M.S. should really bring the cost down, coz average cost of a PC is around 30000-40000 bucks. & now Vista costs nearly half of this , this is really a bad news for us in India.

If Microsoft wants to win the Piracy battle, then they should Recruit best of the best Crackers/Hackers.

I've used many pirated softwares like games, MS Office, but after some time i really felt GUILTY of using them, so i just changed myself & threw away all Pirated Crp.
now i've Open Office.org, original games (nfs mw, nfs pu, f1, gta sa) all these cost me 5k, but its really worth it.

[ax3]

same was said 4 XP ................

[iMav]

only time will tell

[Vishal Gupta]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

ah! no problem here, i might be getting my Vista Ultimate edition leagl key & download in 2 days

Kudos to MS for giving the beta testers Vista for free

And I'll get it today in my TechNet Plus subscription



I got it in my Download list

[jack// ani]

Originally Posted by ax3

same was said 4 XP ................

c'mon man vista is way costly....majority of ppl can't afford it, its better to buy a new pc, instead of proudly saying to others that *my vista is genuine* !!

regarding crack....vista will definitely be cracked and will a boon to piracy market until next ms release.

[king007]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

ah! no problem here, i might be getting my Vista Ultimate edition leagl key & download in 2 days

Kudos to MS for giving the beta testers Vista for free

Dude who told u that you would be getting legal key? Even I am official beta tester for Vista on connect but I have no such information of getting a legal key and getting rewarded for beta testing, am i missing something here?...

[Vishal Gupta]

See this thread:

ATTENTION: Select beta testers get free Windows Vista Ultimate

[Third Eye]

Originally Posted by aryayush

Yeah, sure! So you think that Microsoft expects hackers to read this announcement and stop trying to crack Vista! LOL! I know they can do pretty stupid things with their software, man, but they aren't so foolish.

I was kidding man and i didn't type this smiley

[kumarmohit]

Originally Posted by digitized

That's because the initial price of the Vista ultimate edition will be priced around US $400. And I am not that rich to pay about Rs.18000 to Rs.20000 for a copy of windows when I can perhaps get the same copy for free or at most Rs.100.

You can also wait until the price comes down, piracy should not be done just because you can do it its till a crime.

yup, thats true, i have submitted about 5 bugs, & 3 were fixed in RC1, I did not downloaded RC2, so maybe the rest of the 2 are also fixed now

anyway, even if i get it today on MSDN, i won't be able to download, 2555 MB will take 3 days to download here, & i have to leave soon