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.'"

... But Windows STILL not dying...

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

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!)

Re:Is it worth cracking Vista?

[rucs_hack]

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

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

Microsoft enjoys it too!

[aloktherocker]

If more and more copies of vista are pirated,its microsoft who wins,in its quest of making its bloatware vista more popular than xp. But soon those people would realise what crap they have cracked! :)

Amusing

[NickCatal]

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...

Re:Inconvenience

[transporter_ii]

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:Uh-Why would you WANT to pirate Vista?

[Anonymous Coward]

grow up

For each pirated copy one is saved

[NWprobe]

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.

Re:"Schema"?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was hoping "schema" was just a typo, but having read a lot of comments I realize the poster doesn't know the difference between "schema" and "scheme" (which is should be) -- seeing as they don't know the difference between March 2007 and March 2008.

Still fun hearing the hilarious comments about how much Vista is FAIL, though.

Re:Inconvenience

[Tony Hoyle]

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.

Re:For each pirated copy one is saved

[onkelonkel]

Why? AutoCAD and games.

Right.

[Puppeteer_23]

I actually was talking retailer-specific, to clarify. Most (if not all) brick and mortar retailers have salespeople that don't know JACK about PCs. Or if they do, they're the type that think they know what they're talking about but only know what sales presentations they've been given by Intel, MS, etc. Not very technical.

Also, the big OEMs are much more concerned with hitting certain price points on margin than building PCs that have a decent quality anymore. Very simply, we don't build a PC for less than $550. That's because we don't skimp on crappy PSUs, chassis', and parts. Consequently, we can offer our customers a 3-year parts wty and don't have to worry about big issues (other than the usual PSU failures and HDs, which are minimized).

I'll blame MS to a certain point. The Windows Mail bugs are a pain in the ass, and if you followed their "capable" specs building machines for folks, you definitely saw performance problems. Thankfully, I never considered building Vista PCs without dual-core chips and 1GB so we've seen minimal performance problems from our customers.

That being said, the usual complaints of driver incompatibilities and third-party problems I place solely on the shoulders of those third-parties. MS puts their requirements out there and if they're improperly followed, of course you're going to have problems.

The Apple people love to point to Macs as being rock-solid, etc. But if they had to accommodate as many different third-parties as Microsoft does with PCs, guess what... MacOS would have the same problems. I mean, seriously, they've got what 10-12 specific models to keep tight control of? Oh yeah, they still have issues too.

And Linux... well... the day that you never have to touch a command line or the kernel for driver support (such as sound on my Santa Rosa notebook on Ubuntu) is the day i'll put it on all my machines. It's much MUCH better these days, but no.

So anyway, to sum up, i'll put some blame on MS, but more on all the third-parties retailers and manufacturers for what shortcomings Vista is perceived to have. That being said, my customers haven't had major issues.

People seem to forget the Windows XP launch, too. This is the same thing all over again except that Apple did a MUCH better job this time around of piling on. Between Slashdotters and Apple, the FUD has been flying.

Re:Where can I get one for XP?

[sm62704]

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 infringement.

For some reason most 'old' distros turn EVERYTHING on by default.

Mandriva 8.2, 2005 IIRC. Nothing is turned on by default, and if you tell it to turn something stupid on it scolds you severely.

The only thing I agree with here is the fact that out of box I am treated as if I am 'stealing' software.

That's not the worst of it. The worst part is that proving you're not trying to 'steal' from them is such a PITA. I couldn't care less what Microsoft thinks about me, but making things hard for a legitimate, paying customer is brain-dead stupid.