Microsoft tweaks anti-piracy check for Windows XP

[Lite]

Microsoft has updated software that verifies whether a copy of Windows is genuine in its Windows XP Professional edition, making it similar to the notification in Windows Vista and thus more persistently visible to users.

In a blog posting attributed to Alex Kochis, a Microsoft director of product marketing and management, the company said it made the changes to the Windows Genuine Notification (WGA) alerts for XP Pro because it is "the product edition that is most often stolen."

Now when a version of Windows XP Pro is found to be pirated or counterfeit, the next time a user logs on to the system, the desktop screen background will be black, replacing whatever custom desktop may have been set by the user. This will reappear every 60 minutes, even if a user resets the screen's background. Previously, this was not a part of the WGA notification for Windows XP Pro.

Another new feature of the alert system is to put the PC into "persistent desktop notification" mode, with a banner at the bottom of the screen informing the user that the copy of Windows is not genuine. The notification is translucent and users can interact with any objects underneath it; however, it will continue to appear on the screen until a user installs a genuine copy of Windows.

Microsoft said the update to WGA also simplifies the installation of the alert system on Windows XP Pro. In addition, the company has improved its ability to detect non-genuine copies of Windows.

View: Original Article

[dzjepp]

Shame... hopefully TEAM ETH0 will continue to release their WGA cracks but they seem to be slowing down (and they are pretty much the only ones left doing it for XP nowadays).

I already bought an OEM copy of Vista Ultimate because of WGA BS, don't really wanna do the same for XP. :P

[bearoninternet]

That's sweet.

Now i dont have to change the original teletubbydesktop by myself anymore. :P

[Marik]

well, that ain't gonna be a problem for me, since I have a valid serial :P

[SacredCultivator]

Lol I hope it isn't a problem for me.. Not too sure if mine is valid or not =P

But I know I never had to dl a WGA Patch or whatnot.

[Zoo]

Shame... hopefully TEAM ETH0 will continue to release their WGA cracks but they seem to be slowing down (and they are pretty much the only ones left doing it for XP nowadays).

I already bought an OEM copy of Vista Ultimate because of WGA BS, don't really wanna do the same for XP. :P

TEAM ETH0 is no more ETH0.Goodbye-ETH0

We quit...

...but before, there is one little thing. As far as we can say, _max_ is in now way affiliated with us. What he do/dont do is not in our hands. Ever heard of bnc's with same ident. So to put it easy. Deaaaaaas isnt _max_ and _max_ isnt Deaaaaaas.

And to all siteops and stuff, please delete all accounts affiliated with ETH0.

Goodbye...forever!

so dont think team eth0 is going to save us this time :P

[myidisbb]

well, that ain't gonna be a problem for me, since I have a valid serial :P

a vaild serial doesnt mean anything. like before if their system thinks you are not valid they will get you. doesnt matter if you have a real serial. im tired of wga. i paid and i shouldnt have to go therough this crap everytime. they actually should be sued for causing the illegal copies to not be able to update important updates. this is why most xp's in certain nations have such a high virus bug crap on their system. sell the product at a more reasonable price and they wouldnt have this proble so much.

what pisses me off the most is when i change harddrives or ram chips a few times and it kicks in.

[manpe]

I guess most people will turn to Vista then

[dzjepp]

If you don't have a valid serial for Vista then the problem is the same and in many cases worse, since Vista has more advanced piracy measures built-in.

[alaindc]

so...

unless a new WGA "friendly" patch is released, it seem i won't update XP anymore.

i surely won't turn to Vista. (slow to copy files, even more on network)

i feel better with XP(and much faster), desktop sidebar, and cachemanXP

[irefay]

Shouldn't really effect Volume License Key holders.

[killerbo]

i just check for update on my xp pro and had no problem i am using the jollyroger verison from mininova

[tyzmoR]

Don't worry about how to update ur OS. Try CTUPDATE tool (VulneralibilityAssesment). Type in Google. Check that :P or try to use ArcaBit PatchFinder or in another case you can try Autopatcher. I'm polish, so I can't use Autopatcher in polish ver of WXP. :P

[bearoninternet]

If it turns out to be true: a patch will be available very shortly afterwards.

Such is the law of the WildWildWest. ;)

[Lammster]

Don't blame M$ for trying to protect their intellectual property. Blame M$ for treating the symptoms and not their actual problems. Even better, blame software programmers for not offering cross-platform software for the last 20 years. If it pisses you off that much, get Linux with a win32 emulator. If not then don't bitch. Ultimately, consumer responsibility is the only thing that will fix M$'s attitude problem

[bob1234]

does anyone know if this change happened? I haven't updated in a while because of it, but I haven't heard about it other than here.

[bearoninternet]

Don't blame M$ for trying to protect their intellectual property. Blame M$ for treating the symptoms and not their actual problems. Even better, blame software programmers for not offering cross-platform software for the last 20 years. If it pisses you off that much, get Linux with a win32 emulator. If not then don't bitch. Ultimately, consumer responsibility is the only thing that will fix M$'s attitude problem

Umm, who's blaming microsoft (nobody mentioned m$, before you did). :lol:

does anyone know if this change happened? I haven't updated in a while because of it, but I haven't heard about it other than here.

Pretty sure nothing changed here. :)

[myidisbb]

Pretty sure nothing changed here. :)

should been xp sp3 and vista sp1

vista sp1 required all these updates and hided updates before giving you access to sp1.

one of the reason they took Lindow site down. they want to require you to use their site for updates only. there is of course many sites up out there for updating site.

one of the biggest problems with xp and vista protection was the unprotected copies in asia and middle east. millions of pcs that hackers can now use to attack others with. one of the main byproduct of it. thank you bill gates.

[irefay]

Really the thing that gets me about M$ is that they are so far removed from the average user. They have no idea what we want. Then they suck up a lot of talented people and put them in an environment that does nothing positive for the rest of the world.

No wonder why Google and M$ dont get along all that often.

[_Fallen_]

so dont think team eth0 is going to save us this time :)

Don't worry, supremophantom did a nice job, it'll save you

a vaild serial doesnt mean anything.

I use a valid key, maybe a VLK - Volume License Key, everything work fine, no problem with MS update

[Bizarre™]

If you're all worried about M$ anti-piracy, just download the first RTM version of WinXP SP3.

It doesn't contain M$ baloneys :) .

[sumant30]

Whatever microsoft does a WGA patch will be released soon on the torrents/RS and this foolishness could be stopped in seconds. I had a patch which i had downloaded from torrents which even use to make me dload all registered content from microsoft site itself :) :dance2:

[Bizarre™]

Well, I don't care about M$ patches really.

I can easily download all the patches and use RyanVM's Integrator anyway :think: .