WGA Bug Flags Legitimate Users as Pirates; Locks Them Out of Vista

[zekrahminator]

One of the major changes between the Windows Genuine Advantage software found in Windows XP and the version found in Windows Vista is the Vista's version's ability to "phone home". Unfortunately, this caused a disaster when a bunch of copies which did "phone home" recently phoned a faulty server. And so, what did hundreds, perhaps thousands, of legitimate Vista copies do? Flag themselves as pirated, and dip into "reduced functionality mode". Most of the victims were none too pleased at this. A common feeling of most of the users:

This is inexcusable, I am not a software pirate, I paid good money for both my copies of Vista, and due to poorly implemented anti-piracy measures, I am prevented from using my own PC!

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Do you reckon I could get an illegal copy of Vista, say that my copy was affected by this and get a free key from M$

j/k, but it would be funny.

 

[mullered07]

lol m$ does it again, btw my system information reads "Dell" im sure as hell my pc aint dell tho lol

 

[insider]

lol m$ does it again, btw my system information reads "Dell" im sure as hell my pc aint dell tho lol

Same here , take note of above people!

 

[Mad-Matt]

Even if you own Vista, cracking it seems to be the best way to go.

A company having the power to turn your os on/off regardless if your a legitimate user or not is one power too much.

 

[freaksavior]

what funny about this is, all the people who actually did pirate it are running it night and day, all updates, and all that good stuff and they have no problems. Now the people who actually bought it get screwed and can't use there real version of windows.

good job m$

:shadedshu

 

[zekrahminator]

Yeah, really...lol. People generally don't pirate because they're evil little pricks. People pirate because the software is overpriced, because they NEED it, and now because anti-piracy measures are killing the legitimate versions of software. It's like locking your car...if someone wants something in your car, they're going to get it, you'll just get a lot less damage if you leave the thing unlocked. Yes, you will deter some thieves by locking the car, but the true damage is done by the determined thieves.

 

[Conti027]

what funny about this is, all the people who actually did pirate it are running it night and day, all updates, and all that good stuff and they have no problems. Now the people who actually bought it get screwed and can't use there real version of windows.

good job m$

:shadedshu

not only did people that bought it get shut out but i bet alot of priates did to.

 

[Ketxxx]

Doubt it. As far as I know Vista cracks kill off the WGA.

 

[mullered07]

Doubt it. As far as I know Vista cracks kill off the WGA.

mine *cough* i mean i know some that doesnt, that have wga and installs/runs fine inc all updates, just recognises the pc as a dell oem lol

 

[Jimmy 2004]

what funny about this is, all the people who actually did pirate it are running it night and day, all updates, and all that good stuff and they have no problems. Now the people who actually bought it get screwed and can't use there real version of windows.

It's always been like that... I have to phone M$ every time I activate my legal copy of XP and be made to feel like a criminal, whilst the real pirates skip passed their activation process without blinking an eye.

 

[freaksavior]

not only did people that bought it get shut out but i bet alot of priates did to.

Afaik the crack for wga bypasses it and tricks windows in to thinking its real so i doubt the pirated version of vista got killed with the real versions

It's always been like that... I have to phone M$ every time I activate my legal copy of XP and be made to feel like a criminal, whilst the real pirates skip passed their activation process without blinking an eye.

ha ha yeah, same here. I have to call and activate my xp each time.

 

[Darkrealms]

what funny about this is, all the people who actually did pirate it are running it night and day, all updates, and all that good stuff and they have no problems. Now the people who actually bought it get screwed and can't use there real version of windows.

good job m$

Congrats you've been added to my sig ;P

 

[freaksavior]

lol, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

just curious here but do you people agree with what i said?

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

wait, DRM is an inconviencence to legit users? drm doesn't stop pirates?

SSDD.

 

[o_k_13]

serves them right buying vista...

 

[insider]

serves them right buying vista...

QFT

 

[panchoman]

pirates use a simple registry tweak and thier copies are "legit". theres litterally about 25 different ways to make your pirated xp copy legit, the favorite being a small .reg file which will write stuff into your registry, making your copy identify itself as genuine. microsuck does it again, screwing the good people, helping out the pirates.

 

[Steevo]

There are easier ways to get keys for Vista and XP.

 

[Darkrealms]

lol, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

just curious here but do you people agree with what i said?

I would call it a good thing, and yes I think we agree with you. After reading all this stuff on vista I would probably buy it legit and crack it to avoid all the issues (sry just trying to be good these days).

There are easier ways to get keys for Vista and XP.

I don't think we are talking about an issue of getting keys as much as keeping M$ from making valid == invalid with every update (ok ok every other update).

 

[WarEagleAU]

Another example of a company with overpaid idiots at the helm.

 

[insider]

Wouldn't call them idiots, if anything Microsoft wants us to keep using Windows and their office packages (pirated or bought) rather than using open source software like Linux.

It makes it harder for businesses to opt for anything else other than Microsoft software, M$ Windows Server, M$ Windows based clients, M$ Office, people are familiar in using none other than Microsoft software at home and at work/college, training all the staff to use software they don't have much clue about (mostly open source) costs time and money.

Now if all of a sudden people knew how to use Linux with Open Office etc at home...

The Corporate mass volume licenses is where the money is at, even Universities can each pay mega bucks each year to M$ for the mass site licenses.

They want to come out as being proactive in preventing end user piracy, but in truth they wouldn't want to make it too difficult for the students to crack and use their software, especially the computing/business students some who will one day will decide what their company's entire multi-million $/£/€ corporate IT infrastructure will be running on

 

[bassmasta]

you guys are completely backwards on this. the pirated versions do not work correctly. that is why they get these "updates". a working OS wouldn't need to be updated, because it is a working OS. the fact that pirates need to update simply shows that they are using inferior products.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

you guys are completely backwards on this. the pirated versions do not work correctly. that is why they get these "updates". a working OS wouldn't need to be updated, because it is a working OS. the fact that pirates need to update simply shows that they are using inferior products.

This is retarded.

Mine works fine.

 

[3991vhtes]

what?! An OS NEEDS to be updated...Security updates are the most important from microsoft. Plus bugs have been fixed in windows updates. Do some research first.