Windows Anti-Piracy Check Already Cracked

[JohnnyCNote]

Antipiracy flub for Microsoft

Microsoft's efforts to curtail counterfeiting hit a snag when hackers discovered a new way to bypass its Windows Genuine Advantage, only days after the antipiracy software's official debut.

The software giant announced WGA 1.0 on Monday. WGA requires users to verify that they have a legitimate copy of the operating system before they can download add-ons for Windows XP.

But within days of the software's release, a number of Web sites, including the popular Boing Boing blog, were posting details about how to bypass WGA.

What a surprise....

[MJA]

http://home19.inet.tele.dk/jys05000/

[JohnnyCNote]

That's pretty amazing - thanks for the link! They give you a menu option to turn it off....

[Adub]

HHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAA AAAAAAAH
HHHHHHHHhhAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is absolutely hilarious!!!!

Sh*t that was funny.

Nice work guys.

[banger298]

i like that it's neat

[GKar]

I wish I could test it. I uninstalled I/E 6 with Xplite already so I'll have to wait for my next fresh install....Microsloth is just too funny sometimes.

[only_emo_kid]

there is also a java script command you enter in your browser before choosing the "custom or express" and works haha

[MJA]

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/28/microsoft_genuine_ad.html

[MJA]

but the 1st link does the job just fine

[only_emo_kid]

I was only saying? the other way is alot faster, and don't have to d/l anything either

[fritzi93]

but the 1st link does the job just fine

Indeed it does. :P

Too funny.

[handyguy]

In IE there is a option to turn off the genuine advantage check. Too easy:
1) In IE, go to "Tools," "Manage Add-ons..." Click "Windows Genuine
>> Advantage" and click "disable."

[MOVIEGEEK]

Too funny
Leave it to MS crack anti-piracy team to miss this.

[bazooka]

Yep, it was cracked within 24 hours.

If they cannot even protect XP, this doesn't bode well for Vista.

[AlecWest]

http://home19.inet.tele.dk/jys05000/

Thanks. As it happens, I downloaded WGA as an update to my XP ... and my system apparently passed scrutiny. But, I saved a copy of that website you mention in case "things change" in the future.

[AlecWest]

Yep, it was cracked within 24 hours.

If they cannot even protect XP, this doesn't bode well for Vista.

Actually, it wasn't "cracked." It was already broken before Microsoft sent out the WGA update. It's just that someone discovered where Microsoft's loophole was and the method used to exploit it.

[Mythos2002]

This is indeed hilarious. They need to look at why so many people pirate their OS software. I think it is because the high price. It should be no more than $100.00 U.S. for the full retail version and $25.00 to $50.00 for additional licenses. I know you can get it OEM for $120-$140 from places like NewEgg like I did, but it should be $100 everywhere. Furthermore, they should stop with any Home Version crap. Just make one version (two if you count upgrade) and cut down on marketing and packing costs. M$ Office should also be no more than $200.

That's just my 2 cents.

Mythos

[DereX888]

So funny
Only Microsoft could do it

I bet all the pirates of the world pray to God "long live Microsoft!" After all 'software protection' like this is probably their bread'n'butter since everyone need an OS, but not everyone can afford paying full price...

[whitejremiah]

If your up in arms about office, just download the FREE alternitive to it, its called open office, it works just as good, at least in my opionion...no need to drop a few hundred bux just go get excel on your pc....or a new text document...MS is getting far too greedy..and has been for a long while...ive got nothing against paying for an OS.....but the thing shouldnt blot to 4 times the size of the previous version every time a new version comes out...if they are gonna charge an arm and a leg for it, they should at least make the thing decently optimized to run with the computers that they are running on, i bet if they worked on it, they could probably drop the windows xp FULL install down to like a gig at most.......i still dont get why on god's green earth they use wav files for the OS....they should compress THAT stuff to mp3...or heck, if they wanna be all straight up MS, they should compress it to wma...no need these days to use wav for anything other than straight out audio recording, and even then, computers these days can do mp3 conversions on the fly...thats not even counting all the excessive junk that they put into windows that NO ONE EVER uses. In reguards to the security check being gotten around, it doesnt surprise me, any program that updates through a webpage is very liable to have loopholes...MS shouldve learned this long ago.

[DereX888]

Great alternative to i.e. MS Word is free Atlantis Nova (I use it for about 2 years already and haven't missed that fat hog Word even once!).
Open Office is nice, I have used it in the past, but it misses quite few bells'n'whistles that people get used to i.e. in Excel.

[Mythos2002]

If your up in arms about office, just download the FREE alternitive to it, its called open office, it works just as good, at least in my opionion...

Its funny you should mention Open Office. I actually have both it and MS Office. I downloaded Open Office because it was the only software I could use for free that would open a corrupted PowerPoint file that was on a floppy I had. I used the tip from a website and it worked like a charm. I only use Microsoft because it is what I am used to, but I do like Linux a lot. I just have to stop being lazy.

Mythos

[AlecWest]

I know you can get it OEM for $120-$140 from places like NewEgg like I did, but it should be $100 everywhere.

I got my XP Home OEM for $84 from VIO Software ... and now it's down to $82.96, free shipping (grin):

http://www.viosoftware.com/Windows+XP+Home/Windows+XP+Home+with+SP2+OEM.html

Mine passed WGA so there's no problem with the software. And, they're selling XP Pro OEM for $142.00, also with free shipping:

http://www.viosoftware.com/Windows+XP+Professional/Windows+XP+Professional+with+SP2+OEM.html

If your up in arms about office, just download the FREE alternitive to it, its called open office, it works just as good, at least in my opionion.

My opinion, too. OpenOffice has solved SO many problems for me. I don't think I'll ever "buy" another word processor (which is all I ever use it for now). I've not even explored all the other things it can do. But here's one feature I noticed right off the bat.

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat but want to create an Acrobat document, simply create it in OpenOffice ... then, from the File command dropdown menu, choose "Export as PDF." Heckuva lot cheaper than buying Acrobat, hehe.

[AlecWest]

Just a brief P.S. I host websites for a small but loyal clientele. And, I notice in running stats that a whole heckuva lot of visitors still use Win98SE or WindowsME software. Of course, WinXP is now shipped with most new computers ... but it appears that most users of older computers have chosen not to upgrade. I wonder what that may mean when Windows Vista comes out?

Many moons ago, I was a Commodore 64 user. And I know that even when a company abandons support for an operating system, user groups step in to fill the void of information and advice. Even now when I enter in the search phrase "Commodore user group" at Google, I get 599 hits.

Makes me wonder what will happen to people who choose to remain with Win98SE/WinME ... and later, people who choose to remain with WinXP when Vista is rolled out. If user groups continue to offer info and advice, I suspect not much will change for those who choose to stay put.

FWIW, my own system is a dual-boot system ... Win98SE on one partition, WinXP on the other ... and the only reason I upgraded to WinXP is to beat the 4-gig barrier of filesize inherent in FAT32 systems. Even now, the only time I'm in my XP environment is when I'm doing video work. Otherwise (like now), I'm in my Win98SE partition.

[ROF]

This is sad. Microsoft is only trying to protect their IP.

This is also quite hilarious because of how easy it was done. Ranks right up there with using a sharpie to break CD copy protection.

[vitualis]

I was one of those people who made a concerted effort to use OpenOffice (v1.0.x) for about 6-9 months since I didn't want to buy another copy of Office (my last one was Office 97). I was quite enthusiastic about it initially... however, it eventually wore me down.

Start up with OpenOffice is slow and it has problems parsing Word documents with even more than a slight degree of complexity, e.g., images/watermarks come out "wrong".

Eventually, I gave in and bought OfficeXP and it was like a breath of fresh air. It basically starts up instantly and most things just "work". I haven't tried v2 of OO but certainly v1 is NOT a serious competitor if you use an Office suite regularly for a living.

Regards.

[TBoneit]

I'll tell you a couple stories about the new WGA....

I've goner thru three now. The computer from Dell & HP were easy. The Clone less so. For the clone I had to put in the product key and then it worked. Plus since I was buliding it the windows had to be activated for WGA to work. Normally I would just let the automatic updates run in the background but I wanted to see what happens.

So from my perspective the WGA advantage is also a advantage to buyers of name brand computers since you don't have to enter the product key too.

And of course MS had already clobbered a whole bunch of users both legit and pirates when they stopped providing updates for non SP1 or SP2 WinXP. My guess is that those people will be so loaded with spyware the computers will be unusable.

Cheers

[Alan69]

And of course MS had already clobbered a whole bunch of users both legit and pirates when they stopped providing updates for non SP1 or SP2 WinXP. My guess is that those people will be so loaded with spyware the computers will be unusable.

Cheers

Hmm after this security exposition you expect that it's ok for people even with SP1 or SP2 XP to let microsoft provide the security? You need at least 2-3 other programs running, and preferrably not microsoft.. Zonealarm alone will keep most things from at least doing much damage, since they can't download 100 other spywares if they run. Easy enough to control things after ZA is running, even if you accidently start some attachment etc..

Alan

[TBoneit]

True a firewall will help. Spyware Blaster & Spyware Guard will help keep them out and the price is right too. (Javacool software) and Spybot Search & Destroy's teatimer program + for free beta the MS antispyware seems to work decently as protection. However when they get in to customers computer I use approx 9 or 10 programs to clean, depends on whether or not Win2000/Xp or Win9X.

The best (Worst) ones are the ones that disable the CD-ROM and printer.

Cheers

[Poppa_Meth]

Any way to disable this in Win2000, or is it even necessary in win 2000? I have an old copy on my mother's PC and I just had to download the WGA in order to get any updates. It didn't stop anything but I don't know if that will last forever.

This is a legal copy, but it's been installed on two other PCs before this one (now only on the one PC) so I don't know if that will cause future issues.

[bazooka]

The funniest story yet......Linux users using WINE pass the genuine advantage with flying colors.