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Pirates Find Proper Way to Crack Vista's Activation Schema

Posted by Zonk on Mon Mar 03, 2008 08:13 AM
from the little-ants-can-fell-big-trees dept.
Microsoft Security Operating Systems Software Windows
El_Oscuro writes "A genuine crack for Windows Vista has been released by pirate group Pantheon. The exploit allows a pirated, non-activated installation of Vista (Home Basic/Premium and Ultimate) to be properly activated and made fully-operational. 'It seems that Microsoft has allowed large OEMs like ASUS to ship their products with a pre-installed version of Vista that doesn't require product activation — apparently because end users would find it too inconvenient.'"
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Submission: Pirates crack Vista at last by El_Oscuro (1022477)
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Pirates Find Proper Way to Crack Vista's Activation Schema 50 Comments More /

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  • Old News Crack (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tx (96709) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:17AM (#22622494) Journal
    In other news, pirates have created a crack to prevent news from 4th March 2007 appearing a year later on /.

    Well we live in hope.

  • Is it worth cracking Vista? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jkrise (535370) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:24AM (#22622540) Journal
    I remember a CNN news snippet on YouTube... it's just not worth pirating Vista, unless one is a hardcore masochist, of course.

  • ... But Windows STILL not dying... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PC and Sony Fanboy (1248258) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:25AM (#22622548) Journal
    Although this particular "activation" method has been around for awhile, it is interesting to see that microsoft never bothered to fix it.

    I can't believe that microsoft is still a lumbering software giant; notwithstanding their disdain for consumers (Turning off vista if it wasn't genuine ... even when it was!), they continue to make boatloads of money. This 'workaround' for activation is another example of their disdain for the end user; they're willing to accomodate the manufacturers in order to push an inferior software package onto the masses.

    It makes me feel like Henry Ford is running MS - 'you can have any OS you want, so long as it is VISTA'.

    I've personally decided to put the effort into getting my home computers running OSX (a very FUN project) so that my family can have the eye candy that is associated with MS without ... MS.
    (and yes, linux can be pretty... but I'm the only one that uses it!)

  • Fixed summary (Score:5, Funny)

    by sakdoctor (1087155) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:25AM (#22622556)
    It seems that Microsoft has allowed large OEMs like ASUS to ship their products with a pre-installed version of XP that doesn't require product activation -- apparently because end users would find using Vista too inconvenient.

  • SP1 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Xenolith (538304) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:28AM (#22622566) Homepage
    Since this article is a year old, no testing on SP1, I assume.

      • Re:What SP1? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Xenolith (538304) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:56AM (#22622748) Homepage
        Yup. But the version MS was about to release contained updates to stop the more common hacks. This hack may have been one of them. There are other activation hacks out there that have been tested to work with SP1 RC.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Puppeteer_23 (1249966)
        No. SP1 is RTM, but a pre-requisite update went a bit awry and THAT's what they pulled back.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Tony Hoyle (11698)
          I had that - MS have started limiting MSDN activations in Vista, whereas they never bothered in XP, so you can only have a certain number of VMs installed. Like you I keep VMs around for more than a month so need to activate - we had a whole pile of VMs go fubar on us because our MSDN sub rolled into the next year and they changed all our activaton codes overnight.

          Took the best part of a day to sort that mess out.

          Most of the office is Linux servers running VMWare and Macbooks running VMWare Fusion, to limi

  • Inconvenience (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rik Sweeney (471717) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:28AM (#22622574) Homepage
    I don't know how Vista's activation works, but I imagine that you only have to type it in once. Surely they could have just asked the user to type in the key on the back of the DVD / CD case, and if they don't have a DVD / CD then to contact their OEM. Works for me.

    Unless of course Microsoft have done this on purpose to get more copies on Vista on the desktop...

    • Re:Inconvenience (Score:5, Interesting)

      by IBBoard (1128019) on Monday March 03 2008, @09:11AM (#22622884) Homepage
      You probably would - you only typed it once for XP (unless you upgraded your machine, at which point XP thought it was a new machine and wanted re-activating). The problem with CD keys (from Microsoft's point of view) is that you can copy a key and hand it around, but you can't copy an activation code that needs to be confirmed by a remote machine.

      I'd rather have a single CD key than 35(?) characters I need to type in to the phone followed by 35(?) characters you have to type back in to your computer. I had to activate three XP laptops at work that were purchased specially for a project and that was a pain. Actually, no, I'd rather not have a CD key at all, but that's why I run Linux at home.

      One of the linked articles does cover an implicit acceptance of piracy in countries like Romania, mainly as a way to get people hooked on Windows before making them buy it (or just to keep OSS in check).

    • Re:Inconvenience (Score:4, Insightful)

      by transporter_ii (986545) * on Monday March 03 2008, @09:16AM (#22622926) Homepage
      Yeah, Microsoft keeps locking it down, and then backing off on the lock-down right at the last moment. What we need is a crack to turn the lock down back on in full force, not to totally bypass WPA.

      Back in the day when there wasn't anything else, pirating copies of Windows was OK. Now that there are good choices, lock that bitch down hard and when you hear people PMS, tell them there is no WPA in Linux.

      Transporter_ii

    • Re:Inconvenience (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Tony Hoyle (11698) <tmh@nodomain.org> on Monday March 03 2008, @10:34AM (#22623756) Homepage
      Businesses are normally on MSDN and get their activation codes from Microsoft, not from DVDs (MS send out DVDs but nowhere near as frequently as they used to - it's considered normal to download the ISO nowadays).

      Vista does ask for reactivation from time to time. For MSDN users that's once a year as the codes change each year (had this happen this year and I expect it to happen next too). Also if your environment changes it'll ask for reactivation also (much more than XP, which almost never used to do this)... which is why it's good practice to only install it on virtual machines with virtual hardware that never changes.

      There's also the problem of activation codes suddenly going bad.. which has happened to us. Suddenly you can't install Vista and it's a choice of an overseas phone call (typically lasting an hour or more if you're in a qeueue) or an activation crack.

  • old news. 365 days old. (Score:5, Informative)

    by leuk_he (194174) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:37AM (#22622632) Homepage
    Note that the article is dated 4 March, exactly 365 days ago. SOmehow the editor does not have 29 feb and though he was living at tomorrow.

    THis particular crack has/will be defeated by sp1.

    • Re:old news. 365 days old. (Score:5, Informative)

      by baadger (764884) on Monday March 03 2008, @10:32AM (#22623728)
      > This particular crack has/will be defeated by SP1.

      Yes this particular crack (by Paradox) has been fixed in SP1. The thing is, SP1 only blacklists some very specific 'soft mods' (Boot loader replacement designed to emulate an OEM issued BIOS SLIC table and trick Vista into accepting your machine as an OEM product). It is widely known that there are still many others out there, even ones dating from the middle of last year, that work just fine with SP1.

  • "Dear pirates" (Score:5, Funny)

    by joaommp (685612) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:40AM (#22622648) Journal
    "Please do not crack software and publish the crack on the net. It hurts my employer's feelings.

    Thank you."

  • Fixed :) (Score:3, Informative)

    by cigawoot (1242378) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:41AM (#22622654)
    This was fixed in SP1! I was thinking they found way around the SP1 fix (not like I condone piracy, but seeing MS get owned every once in a while is fun).

  • In other related news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by xtracto (837672) on Monday March 03 2008, @08:50AM (#22622712) Journal
    Another group has published an undocumented way to bypass the adult verification in the new Leisure Suit Larry game by pressing ALT+X.

    How do these guys learn this stuff??

  • Amusing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NickCatal (865805) on Monday March 03 2008, @09:00AM (#22622774)
    I always find it amusing that MSFT says that Vista is the least cracked OS they have made to date... They fail to see that most people who pirate OSes actually intend on using that OS and are as likely to want vista as anyone else...

  • So Vista's now available free? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Malevolent Tester (1201209) * on Monday March 03 2008, @09:08AM (#22622852) Journal
    Just need to wait a few more months and hopefully Microsoft will start paying people to use it.

  • heh. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Machine9 (627913) on Monday March 03 2008, @09:14AM (#22622914) Homepage
    Am I really the only person who is not super dissatisfied with Vista? I've honestly not experienced anything negative with it. I still prefer the ubuntu installation on my laptop mind, but gamers will be gamers, and Wine hurts my brain =(

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by BLKMGK (34057)
        Funny, I run Vista64 too, Ultimate - no issues. My XP system is dragging pretty badly though and I think I might slap Home Premium on it instead. I've found a total of two pieces of software that I'm interested in that have issues with Vista - an advanced encoding CODEC and an unsigned driver for a hardware monitor - speedfan I think. everything else has run smooth as butter and while some of the UI elements irritate me - the start menu in particular - I've found that it works great overall. Mind you I run

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by JustNiz (692889)
        Don't hold your breath. They still can't get most DX9 games working well. Actually Wine is looking better than Cedega for DX9 gaming these days.
  • Are you into pain or something? Why would anyone want to steal what most consider WinME II? I gave away the DVD I got for beta testing Vista,and last I heard it had already gone through at least 4 people,each having tried it for a couple of weeks and then running back to XP. It is like one of those fruitcakes that nobody wants-it just keeps getting passed around.I wonder if they have started making room in the landfill where they buried the Atari E.T. carts for all the Vista DVDs that will end up getting tossed?


    And yes,I know some folks have managed to get it to run okay.I also have a neighbor who is still using and swears by WinME,but that don't make it good. Enough folks have been burned by Vista that all the service packs in the world ain't going to help the bad experiences of way too many early adopters. I'll stick with Xandros for my laptop and XP for gaming.But you do have to admit it is a brilliant way to combat piracy,just make an OS so slow and bloated that nobody will want to steal it!

  • Sweeeeet!!!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by wandazulu (265281) on Monday March 03 2008, @09:26AM (#22623014)
    I still don't want it, though.

  • For each pirated copy one is saved (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NWprobe (28716) on Monday March 03 2008, @09:54AM (#22623286) Homepage
    For each pirated copy of windows, one more computer doesn't run an alternative OS.
    This is one of the factors keeping the userbase of Linux down. It's a mystery to me why people choose a pirated version of Windows instead an open and free version of a Linux distribution. I guess ignorance is not bliss.

  • How piracy fits into adoption strategies (Score:3, Interesting)

    by moxley (895517) on Monday March 03 2008, @11:48AM (#22624630)
    One thing to always consider: Just like it always is, one way or the other piracy plays into the strategy of getting this OS adopted.

    Who cracks and/or installs pirated software? Mostly young techies. If they can get an OS for free or for cheaper than Vista, then Vista needs to be made "free" to compete in that sector - However, you can't just make the product free or reduce the price point, because that is only going to get you less money from people who are going to pay for it anyway and won't affect those who acquire software activations via other means.

    MS knows that people who are going to pirate are generally not going to pay for an OS, and certainly not full price, and some people would pirate even if it cost $2.99.

    I would think that one of the worst things that could happen to a new OS is to be rejected by the young technically savvy users - for so many reasons, but one reason is because they influence adoption; especially upgrades and new system purchases. Do you know when my parents and pretty much every other non-techie person I know decides to upgrade their OS, or buy anything computer related? After they ask my advice (or whoever they consider to be the most computer savvy person in their life). I am sure it is the same for a lot of us here.

    Certainly I used to use pirated stuff sometimes before I could afford MSDN or worked in places that provided all the legit software I needed. I am not posting about whatever piracy is right or wrong here, that has been debated endlessly and it's a personal choice. One thing I can say is that (with the exception of a few times I have seen legit copies of Vista deactivate) it certainly is a lot less of a pain in the ass to use properly activated software.

    I wonder though - if you plotted the adoption rate of Vista on a graph against MS expectations, my guess is that the further below expectations the adoption rate is, the less stringent activations are going to be and more cracks and workarounds (that work well) you're going to see.
    • There were work arounds like getting it to let you have the 30 day trial 4 or 5 times (or something like that). This is a proper crack in that it actually removes or disables the activation.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by sm62704 (957197)
        I have used this system a few times. If it is 'unintelligible' perhaps you should think about a different cell phone

        It was a Razr the last time i had to activate it. And that was the very least of its being a pain in the ass. The whole thing was a pain in the ass. Yet the pirates don't have to put up with it. IMO it's brain-dead stupid of Microsoft to do. It isn't saving or making one poenny for them, it's only pissing off their paying customers while doing absolutely nothing whatever to deter copyright inf

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