Kill switch dropped from Vista
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 5.12.2007
Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints.
The so-called "kill switch" is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.
But the tool has suffered from glitches since it was introduced with many Windows users claiming that legal copies of Vista had been disabled.
Microsoft says its efforts have seen a drop in piracy of its software.
In a statement released by the company, Microsoft corporate vice president Mike Sievert, said: "Users whose systems are identified as counterfeit will be presented with clear and recurring notices about the status of their system and how to get genuine copies."
'Take action'
"They won't lose access to functionality or features, but it will be very clear to them that their copy of Window Vista is not genuine and they need to take action."
Microsoft has described the new approach as a "change of tactics". It said efforts to tackle piracy had seen numbers of fake copies of Vista at half the level of XP, the previous Windows operating system.
The change will take effect with the release of Service Pack 1, a major update to Windows Vista.
Customers who buy a copy of Windows Vista or have the operating system (OS) installed when they buy a new PC are required to validate the OS with Microsoft.
An online tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, checks the authenticity of the OS to determine if it was legally acquired.
The tool can "lock" Vista from further use if it believes it is an unauthorised copy. But many users have complained that the system is not working because legally bought copies result in error messages.
It was introduced in 2006 as a voluntary option, but became mandatory with the release of Vista, and had problems from the day it was introduced. Mr Sievert added: "It's worth re-emphasising that our fundamental strategy has not changed.
"All copies of Windows Vista still require activation and the system will continue to validate from time to time to verify that systems are activated properly."
Microsoft said it had pursued legal action against more than 1,000 dealers of counterfeit Microsoft products in the last year and taken down more than 50,000 "illegal and improper" online software auctions. source:
news.bbc.co.uk
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Comments(16)
i doubt many would bother pirating vista even if it had no validation scheme at all!
foad vista!
vista is like a turd in punch bowl. no one wants it.
we all talk shit bout vista. but i guarantee that in 2 years, no one will be using xp!!!
vista willbe the next xp...cracked hacked and abused.perhaps mac software will be design
for pcs!! would be nice....
that may be so,but the fact is that vista doesn't impress much,besides the cosmetic
software like aero,dreams,and all that jazz,programs that now can be acquired for xp(if
you like that system hogging crap).
about the counterfeit they found,i doubt those
are really the numbers...just a round number to discourage people to download or buy
counterfeit material.
about mac,i heard a rumour that pretty soon,mac users may have
the possibility to use windows apps on osx...which would put a hold up,on mac os biggest
problem,compatibility.
peace \/
as i often said, the real problem is not the home hacker (which as, very often, paid a
oem license with his computer), but the great mafia. or did you really think that the
street-seller really burn they own dvd?
vista is officially free
this is just history repeating itself... don't be fooled. vista is a step forward, but
not for the user... it's a transition os --ms is "sandboxing" the world to allow for a
real major change to take place from xp to win7... no one will be using vista in 2-3
years. business will patientlt wait and 2010-2011 will see huge deployment of win7. now
you know.
fully agree
hate to break the bubble of everyone thinking vista will be the os in a couple of years..
i agree with the last couple of comments, it's a transition os.
you'll see.
programs aren't the reason i use vista and server 2008. its deployment features, and new
technologies like readyboost and readydrive. also the support for true hal independent
imaging, ahci support out of the box without having to reimage and without a hope and hack
with xp (see neowin on ahci support in xp without reimaging), ipv6. transition os or not,
the support for new technologies in vista are what sold me.
the next patch from microsoft is probably a free version of linux if they haven't buy
all the free project of linux or disable their versions of vista with wga (bugs, errors of
activation.). thanks god bill.
i wanted badly to like vista... i thought it was so k00l and loved the thrill of
pirating it... however, features such as readyboost are little more than a joke, and all
the eye-candy it has is in reality worthless. i finally decided it was time for vista to
go in me round file when i couldn't even run celestia on my laptop (a turion 64 x2) with
vista installed without it stuttering like it was going spastic. good riddance vista!
right again, thank you
i just switched from 2000pro to xp pro about 6 months ago. i service computers for a
living, have removed more than 30 copies of vista from new machines, mainly because of the
lack of compatibility with older programs and the fact it was slowwwww....lol...i think
most people will ship vista and wait for the next os, why try the "me" root again.....
six years in development and this is all they can come up with, what good is having
faster pc components if humans can't make code to make efficient use of them. the human
is the next bottleneck to worry about.
to hschronic: windows 95 had a partial ipv6 support(it was possible to get ipv6 working
on it with patches). windows 98 had an implemented ipv6 support(almost easy implementation
to add ipv6 support to win98). windows xp had all the ipv6 support one could want right
out of the box (start - run - ipv6 install). so why brag about ipv6 support in vista?
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Who the hell cares
By Vista SUX on 06.12.2007 - 05:12