Pirates Find Proper Way to Crack Vista's Activation Schema

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.'"

Re:Old News Crack

[morgan_greywolf]

In other news, pirates have created a crack to prevent news from 4th March 2007 appearing a year later on /.

So the $64K question is -- why in the bloody hell haven't that implemented it then?

Re:Old News Crack

[Constantine XVI]

Well, one of the side-effects of this crack is hallucinations. You've really been in a crack-induced haze for the apparent past year.

Is it worth cracking Vista?

[jkrise]

I remember a CNN news snippet on YouTube... it's just not worth pirating Vista, unless one is a hardcore masochist, of course.

Fixed summary

[sakdoctor]

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.

Re:Old News Crack

[Rogerborg]

Eh, it's an easy mistake to make. Whoever wrote the "Zonk" shell script just introduced an off-by-one error.

"Dear pirates"

[joaommp]

"Please do not crack software and publish the crack on the net. It hurts my employer's feelings.

Thank you."

Re:Old News Crack

[piemcfly]

the drivers weren't up to date?

Re:Is it worth cracking Vista?

[pallmall1]

Who cares about a crack, I wouldn't run Vista if microsoft gave it away free...

Yeah, it's the old joke about game show prizes. Grand prize, one free copy of Vista. Second place prize, two free copies of Vista.

... And?

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

Hey, calm down!
I'm an equal opportunity f*tard ... I didn't pay for my copy of windows either ;)

In other related news...

[xtracto]

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??

So Vista's now available free?

[Malevolent Tester]

Just need to wait a few more months and hopefully Microsoft will start paying people to use it.

Sweeeeet!!!!!

[wandazulu]

I still don't want it, though.

At last

[Anonymous Coward]

It was so embarassing to have to crack it the improper way.

Re:Old News Crack

[cp.tar]

So the $64K question is -- why in the bloody hell haven't that implemented it then?

Wasn't it 640K?
Oh, wait...

Re:... But Windows STILL not dying...

[cp.tar]

Vista SP1 is supposed to kill off the crack: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Vista-SP1-The-Death-of-the-2099-Grace-Timer-Crack-and-OEM-BIOS-Hack-77948.shtml [softpedia.com]

Ah. So it will just have to be cracked again.

Re:Good work MS

[bendodge]

So old I've had it on my flashdrive for over a year!

Re:... But Windows STILL not dying...

[Anonymous Coward]

Steve! Steve Jobs, is that you?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

2007...

[Gription]

Right on the front page of the article it clearly says "4th March 2007".

Most likely their "slashdot" button has received some current activity as someone has finally gotten around to trying Vista...

Re:Old News Crack

[MadJo]

$64,000 should be enough for everyone!

New Scheme to get full functionality from Vista

[hydrodog]

There is only one known way to get "full functionality" from Vista, and that is with an install of "Fedora Hack" which eliminates the approximately 80% of Vista that is bugs, and the 20% that constrains the user from doing anything useful. There are a number of Fedora hacks to Vista available, the most recent being Fedora Core 8.

Re:Is it worth cracking Vista?

[Gareshra]

They should come with a free trial for AOL while they're at it.

Re:timewarp | flame

[Anonymous Coward]

timewarp

Again?

Re:... And?

[harry666t]

...And I didn't paid for my copy of Linux, so f*cking what?

Re:... But Windows STILL not dying...

[geekoid]

"The Model T ford was sold in many colours, black was not even an option on the early models, and the later ones were always offered in multiple colours in all countries ...?"

oh yeah? then how come there black in all the pictures?

Re:Is it worth cracking Vista?

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to admit it's a novel approach, making a product so bad that hardly anyone is interested in cracking it.

No, it's not novel at all. Hollywood studios have been using that exact anti-piracy strategy for the past decade.