Friday, February 22nd 2008
Microsoft Makes WGA Smarter
Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage software, which was designed to prevent piracy, is doing anything but. Cracks that get around, or even shut off, WGA are easily found by true pirates, while innocents are bagged for piracy when they've never even heard of the term. Fortunately, Microsoft has figured out how to make WGA friendly. Instead of WGA trying to use fancy code to find out if the Windows copy it is attached to is hacked, WGA will now search for the presence of common hacks, and only common hacks. This will drastically reduce the number of false flaggings, and make WGA a lot friendlier. Another large change is that the Vista version of WGA will no longer feature a "kill switch", or go into reduced functionality mode when WGA calls a hacked copy. Instead, there will be a long, politically-correct stream of dialog boxes that won't go away until you've validated. Microsoft made no mention of when this new, superior version of WGA will fly out factory doors.
Source:
Neowin.net
17 Comments on Microsoft Makes WGA Smarter
scary, I would get a valid copy after that
trog
I am curious to see if it even works. As far as they know, my XP is authentic. I don't have to apply a new crack every time they update WGA, either.
ms still made a fortune.. think long term investment plan.. when u have the world hooked.. all dependent on the windows language.. u tighten the screws.. make em all pay..
all they are doing now is loosening the screws a smidge.. they really would sooner have a pirate user rather than a lost user.. they still hold control whether the controlled pays for the control method or not..
the thing they fear most is tooo many users jumping ship..
trog
Spread the OS and lock the market in, even if you don't greatly profit at first b/c you will soon.
Deamon tools uses virtual DVD drives to get around needing the original disk - securom blacklisted systems with the same ID on the DVD drives as deamon tools used. Deamon tools randomises the ID on the drives now.
Wont take long for the good hacks to beat this... but its a good step. I like the lack of killswitch, as its that kind of thing that makes users want to pirate "if its going to make me format and lose my stuff anyway, why should i buy it?"
on the other hand ms gave both of us vista ultimate and neither of us can stand it, so our keys sit in little boxes with receptts for old hardware we bought gathering dust.....
on and Mussels, you got no idea how many people i know who have been driven to that approch by ms, most even OWNED xp, but gave up and moved back to 2k or up to 2k3/x64pro corp because the got sick of having to call ms to get permission to reinstall their windows after replacing hardware........
i mean honestly, its just a load of crap.....this at least will push people who eather dont know they are pirating or who are casual pirats to buy a hopefully disscounted licence to validate their windows install.
personaly is till see people being driven as far back as 2000 due to vista and xp hassles.......and 2k has none of those hassles!!!