FIGHT PIRACY: Microsoft Office 2007's "secret kill switch"!!

[Kiran.dks]

Office 2007's "secret kill switch"

Microsoft's battle with pirates continues, as the company has built a feature into Office 2007: Reduced Functionality Mode. While Microsoft has been fairly coy about whether or not this feature exists in the latest Office release, a new Knowledge Base article on their site confirms that it will apply to all Office 2007 products.

Reduced Functionality mode is triggered whenever Office 2k7 fails activation. This can happen when the program is initially run after installation, or if it fails a subsequent check following an Office update. Once the switch is thrown, Office continues to run, but with the following restrictions:

You cannot create new documents.
You can view existing documents. However, you cannot edit them.
You can print documents. However, you cannot save them.

Despite what some media outlets are reporting, the Reduced Functionality Mode is not new. It already applies to Office 2003 and even Office XP versions. While the approach undoubtedly has at least some impact on piracy, the process is not 100 percent foolproof: some legitimate users have reported problems with the activation process.

Most industry analysts consider the total elimination of software piracy to be impossible: dedicated crackers will view any new scheme as an intellectual challenge to be overcome by any means necessary. However, by adding all sorts of "kill switches" to the operating system and applications, Microsoft can make keeping up with their antipirating measures just annoying enough that many users will choose to purchase a legitimate version instead.

Microsoft is not just limiting Reduced Functionality Mode to its Office programs, however. The company is also planning to introduce reduced functionality limitations to Windows Vista, which also must be activated after installing. Copies of Vista that fail the activation process will have the Aero visual effects disabled and any "Premium" or "Ultimate" features deactivated.

Courtesy: arstechnica
Edited: Kiran

[piyush gupta]

i hasn't seen any product other than kasperkey AV which don't have a keygen for it

let microsoft a try

[deepak.krishnan]

well how can MS be so sure about the functionality of that thing???? There are thousands of hackers around the globe are someone is sure to get through the mechanism of that s/w.
Lets wait and watch!!!

[Kiran.dks]

^^^yep! Human are the ones who create software and they are the one who cracks to. Nothing can be done regarding this. New ways to avoid Piracy should be found and that's what now Microsoft are to now......let's wish them Best of Luck!

[aakash_mishra]

Well the best way of stopping piracy is stop buying pirated s/w. But we can't do that. Well I use original Office XP and only 3 or 4 softwares are pirated in my system.

Microsoft did a great a great job for stopping piracy but crackers anyhow will crack it............

[Ankur Gupta]

well the best way to stop piracy is to integrate anti piracy measures in the hardware itself such as the Cell processor does!

[sonusahu]

lets say, if Microsoft has 50000 brains working for it then it has 500000 brains working against it..!!! who do u think is going to win..?

[tarey_g]

Same story everytime , in the end hackers win as they have millions of good wishes behind them

[paul_007]

Originally Posted by tarey_g

Same story everytime , in the end hackers win as they have millions of good wishes behind them

yup completely agree......any software can b cracked no matter wat anti piracy measures they have incorporated

[JGuru]

Hackers & crackers are very very good at cracking anything. M$ loses the battle all the time!!
Goodluck this time for M$!!!

[birbal]

Microsoft will spend millions of dollars to develop anypiracy methods but they will never think to reduce their software prices.

Imagine if they sell M$ Office for Rs 2500/- then approximate 50% of all Indians will buy genuine copy & still they will manage together lot's of cash which will be 5 times more than what they are getting now by selling M$ Office at $399.00

Mr. Bill Gates...r u reading this ?

[QwertyManiac]

Bleh, a Volume License Key on Office 2007 still doesnt need activation. How about that? So, havent we all got WiNK ? [Notice the small i if you still dont understand]

[bharathbala2003]

Originally Posted by QwertyManiac

Bleh, a Volume License Key on Office 2007 still doesnt need activation. How about that? So, havent we all got WiNK ? [Notice the small i if you still dont understand]

i dont get it.. :$

[Third Eye]

Ah Microsoft can't stop piracy.....

[anispace]

Originally Posted by QwertyManiac

Bleh, a Volume License Key on Office 2007 still doesnt need activation. How about that? So, havent we all got WiNK ? [Notice the small i if you still dont understand]

yeah the good old torrents... so much for office 2007`s anti piracy features

[nishant_nms]

You all are right. If anti-piracy measures like Starforce was cracked then what a activation protection can do

[EagerBeaver]

ya ms products is popoular, evry1 vants 2 first curse it, then crack it, and then use it.

[mehulved]

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver

ya ms products is popoular, evry1 vants 2 first curse it, then crack it, and then use it.

Nah not everyone