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Category: Technology
Posted on: December 4, 2007 8:09 PM, by Greg Laden
Microsoft Softens Response to Piracy from PhysOrg.com
(AP) -- Microsoft Corp. is pulling back from a system that disables programs on users' computers if it suspects the software is pirated, opting instead for a gentler approach based on nagging alerts.
[...]
Whenever Microsoft Softens you know something or someone is about to get bit....
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Comments
MicroSOFT?
Posted by: Coturnix | December 4, 2007 9:37 PM
That's in Windows Vista, and Microsoft claim it has cut piracy of the OS. It probably hasn't occurred to them that anyone computer-savvy enough to install an OS would probably avoid Vista in the first place.
Apparently Windows Genuine Advantage was getting a healthy number of false-positives leading to annoyed users making support calls. This new 'gentler approach' is mainly for Microsoft's benefit: if there were no false-positives in WGA, I suspect that MS would have happily stayed the course.
Posted by: Barry | December 4, 2007 9:43 PM
There was a version of Windows 2000 that did this: If you changed a couple of pieces of hardware, like added a new hard drive and upgraded your memory, the system would detect this and assume that it was not on the same computer it was on when it went to sleep the day before .... indicating that Norton Image or some other piece of software had been used to pirate it, I assume.
The software would then tell you to kiss its ass, and that you did not own it anymore. There was a number you could call and maybe they would give you a code to let you reinstate your status. Happened to me a couple of times.
Posted by: Greg Laden | December 4, 2007 10:35 PM
That's XP, surely? To my knowledge product activation wasn't in any version of Windows 2000 -- I recently transplanted a W2K Professional hard drive between two quite different systems, and aside from a heap of driver issues there were no other problems.
(On the same day I transplanted a Debian hard drive between two even more different systems, and impressively it just worked).
Posted by: Barry | December 4, 2007 11:43 PM
Barrry, my memory was that this was prior to product activation and XP. I was not product activation ... installation was normal, and this would happen later. But, I could be wrong. It did not happen on all versions of whatever operating system it was.
Posted by: Greg Laden | December 5, 2007 8:31 AM