Very Good Results in Updating Vista Against Hacks and Cracks
Microsoft claims that it has seen what the company referred to as very good results in fighting Windows piracy with Windows Vista, although it has failed to elaborate on the subject.
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29.7.2008 Two Vista Registry Hacks
Thanks to rzalonis for this post in our forum. Here are two easy registry hacks for minor performance gains.
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17.4.2007 Top 10 Vista Hacks
You've run Windows Vista, you've played around with the Aero interface, and maybe you've even mucked around a little bit in Vista's innards to see what makes it tick.
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17.4.2007 All-In-One RapidShare Hacks
Several free RapidShare Hacks are combined into one and call it All-In-One RapidShare Hacks like the picture below.
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9.6.2006 Descriptions of Windows Vista cracks
Thanks to inuyasha who prepare this article for
his blog. Here is descriptions of most used Vista cracks and how well they work.
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27.5.2007 Microsoft to crack down on Vista cracks
Microsoft will feed Windows Vista users an update in the next week to finger illegal copies installed with cracks that the company will bust when it rolls out Service Pack 1 (SP1) in mid-March.
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22.2.2008 Currently the BEST and EASIEST Windows Vista Activation Cracks
There are quite a lot of Windows Vista cracks around the Internet nowadays. You wouldn't know which one actually works. There's a crack from DR CHANG and it has screenshot proof that his crack works. However, Microsoft very quickly retaliate by releasing an update on "Windows Update - Vista Validation" which makes DR CHANG's crack unusable. Here are a few methods of activating Windows Vista based on what I read on forums and websites.
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20.3.2007 The W0W Vista Cracks AIO V2
Thanks to Dharmil for this download - W0W Vista Cracks AIO V2.
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6.6.2007 Vista Update Fingers Activation Cracks
Microsoft Corp. has been lowering expectations about Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) since before it even confirmed there would be one. Numerous times, company executives and managers have told users and the press that Vista SP1 would not be like Windows XP SP2, the last desktop operating system service pack the company released.
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23.2.2008 Warning: ZoneAlarm 7.1 Reported to Kill Vista Cracks
VistaLoader and Paradox gone! The day has come, it is over the happy Vista cracking era, and no it is not Microsoft it is a 3rd party security software. Thanks to Steve Jobs who report this on his blog.
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3.7.2007 Microsoft Downplays Windows Vista Encryption Cracks
The concept behind Cold-Boot attacks on encryption keys stored in the computer's DRAM is not new. The implications of physical memory attacks, in the context of Windows Vista BitLocker Drive Encryption, were discussed at Hack in the Box 2006 by Douglas MacIver, Penetration Engineer, Microsoft Penetration Team.
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26.2.2008 Top Rated Windows Vista Cracks - When WGA Fails
inuyasha62....Is now Famous (Softpedia). There is little tangible proof of the success of the Windows Genuine Advantage mechanism. Microsoft itself has only statistics as the palpable sign of the fact that the WGA is hard at work.
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30.5.2007 Microsoft to Kill the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS Windows Vista Cracks with Vista SP1
With the advent of Windows Vista, cracks also became available being designed to bypass the activation process of the operating system.
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4.12.2007 DVD Jon hacks Media Player file encryption
Norway's best known IT export, DVD Jon, has hacked encryption coding in Microsoft's Windows Media Player, opening up content broadcast for the multimedia player to alternative devices on multiple platforms.
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Hackers find first Xbox 360 cracks
Only weeks after the introduction of the Xbox 360, hackers appear to have cracked their way into the software that runs the Microsoft game console.
A group called "Team PI Coder" claims to have found a way to extract the source files of Xbox 360 games as they get loaded onto the console.
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18.12.2005 Windows 7: The Transparent Cracks in Codename Translucency
Microsoft has been tiptoeing around Windows 7 since Windows Vista hit the market back in January 2007.
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16.8.2008 Collection of Windows 7 RTM Activation Cracks
New Win7 activation toolkit. This time it’s combined Orbit30 And Hazar’s methods into one crack. Just get yourself Windows 7 releases from GRP or WZT, choose one of the activation methods and you’re good to go. Read instructions first.
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1.11.2009 Windows 7 RTM Activation Cracks Available for Download in the Wild
It was only a matter of time before methods designed to illegally circumvent the antipiracy measures in Windows 7 made their way into the wild.
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14.11.2009 How to Install Vista Language Packs MUI on all versions of Vista + video tutorial
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, and Vista Business versions of the Microsoft licensing restrictions can only preserve a language!
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23.9.2008 The Vista Built-in Super Administrator Account Has Survived in Vista SP1
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is designed to evolve the RTM version of the latest Windows client from Microsoft, made available in November 2006 to business customers, and in January 2007 to the general consumers.
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15.2.2008 Vista SP1 Is Out, XP SP3 Old News, the Pink Edition of Vista Is In
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is now nothing more than water under the bridge, now that the service pack was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, shipping to general users on March 18.
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27.3.2008 Tell Hasta la Vista to XP - Time to Upgrade to Vista SP1
Like it or not, this is the right time not only to upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 but also to tell hasta la vista to Windows XP.
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30.6.2008 Instant Change Vista Product ID with Vista ProductID Changer
In past we have reviewed number of application to recover product key like Product Key Finder, WinGuggle, Windows product Key Finder.
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1.11.2009 Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2
Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.
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27.12.2007 Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista
32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB.
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4.1.2008 Vista Loader 2.1.3 - Windows Vista Activator 2008 Support SP1 with No Boot String
Vista Loader is one of the most successful Vista activation crack available to date, second only to physical modify (hardmod) the BIOS to include SLIC table to make BIOS Vista activation-compliant.
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15.5.2008 x64 Vista SP2 JPG Rendering Performance Inferior to x86 Vista SP2's
The JPG rendering process on 64-bit flavors of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is inferior to that on the 32-bit variants of the operating system.
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10.6.2009 New Vista OEM Activation Hack - Vista Boot by gkend
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article on his blog and to our forum members to clecha, Nighthief and fitterphil120 for most of the findings. One again the “Chinese” come up with a new method to trick out the Vista Activation. We have seen Softmode and VistaLoader, however “ Vista Boot by gkend” does promise even more.
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21.5.2007 Windows Vista on Super Nintendo, As Real As Vista on PSP
We're puzzled and confused... How can a console that's at least ten times less powerful than the acclaimed PSP cope with Windows Vista's requirements?
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15.8.2007 Vista RTM vs. Vista SP1 - Office 2007 benchmarking
Enough with benchmarking the OS - let’s see if Office 2007 is any faster on Vista SP1.
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26.2.2008Microsoft Seals Cracks
With the impending release of Service Pack 1 for Vista, Microsoft looks to slow down the pirates by cutting off two popular hacks to circumvent the
Windows Genuine Advantage Program.
Testing both these methods of circumventing Windows activation and Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)
has shown me that SP1 effectively ignores both these hacks. Systems that previously were shown to be genuine prior to the installation of SP1 then
require activation - and if the system isn’t activated it is marked at non-genuine and enters the nag state.
jcxp.net -
11.02.2008Apple's latest headache: some iPhones developing cracks
Posters to Apple's support forums are complaining of what appears to be a defect in the iPhone 3Gs casing, which is causing hairline cracks...
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01.08.2008Vista Update Fingers Activation Cracks
Microsoft has announced an update available to consumers next week which will detect two cracks commonly used to activate pirated copies of the
operating system. One of the cracks refered to as Grace Timer, extended Vista's activation grace period, upto 2099. The other called as OEM BIOS,
modified system files and the PC's BIOS to mimic the product activation done by computer-makers at the factory. If the sniffer detects an
activation hack, it will pop up a warning that includes a link to the removal tool. Although SP1 will block these two cracks, " it's important
to note that this update does not disable the exploits it finds, " says
Alex Kochis. " It
simply alerts customers that exploits exist. " However, MS will release a separate crack-removal tool at the same time that it rolls out the
detection update.
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23.02.2008Microsoft slams the door on Vista pirates
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: With the launch of SP1 Microsoft promised to put an end to two popular hacks used by pirates to allow a non-genuine install of
Windows Vista to function in the same way as a genuine install. Testing that Ive carried out in the lab today suggests that Microsoft has been true to
its word.
The two most common hacks used were the OEM BIOS hack and the grace timer hack (of which there were two flavors which
were widespread).
Testing both these methods of circumventing Windows activation and Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has shown me
that SP1 effectively ignores both these hacks. Systems that previously were shown to be genuine prior to the installation of SP1 then require
activation - and if the system isnt activated it is marked at non-genuine and enters the nag state.
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11.02.2008SP1 Unsuccessful in Preventing Vista Hacks
It seems that Microsoft has been unsuccessful with SP1 in preventing hackers from
turning a pirated, non-genuine copy of Vista into genuine copies that pass activation. The article initially looked at two of
the most popular hacks (OEM BIOS hack and the grace timer hack) but after a little digging ZDNet were able to transform a non-genuine install into a
genuine one. 'After a few minutes of searching the darker corners of the Internet and a few seconds in the Command Prompt I was able to fool Windows
into thinking that it was genuine.'
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11.02.2008Microsoft Responds to Reported OEM BIOS Hacks
The WGA team have finally
provided a written response to
the reported OEM BIOS Hacks
regarding Vista:
I
know many of you are aware of
reports of hacks that attempt
to exploit our OEM BIOS based
activation. We're aware of
this type of hack and I wanted
to take a minute to describe
how these work and how we plan
to respond.
First, what is OEM BIOS
based activation?
Here's a little more
information on how OEM BIOS
based activation works. This
form of product activation is
also known as OEM Activation
or just OA, which is how
Microsoft refers to it and how
I will refer to it in this
post. Back at the launch of
Windows XP when Microsoft
introduced Windows Product
Activation, we recognized that
as easy as end-user activation
is, it still represented an
extra step.
neowin.net -
12.04.2007Hacking Vista's Smart Cards
The recent wave of smart card hacks have been aimed mainly at the cards chip and bypassing physical security, but not this latest one: A former
Microsoft security team member has demonstrated an attack that compromises the smart cards middleware plug-in for Vista machines. (See
Black Hat Researcher Hacks Credit Cards and
'Gecko' Penetrates Building Access Systems.)
Researcher Dan Griffin, who previously worked for Microsoft on its smart card
program, has developed a custom fuzzing tool that hacks smart card and third-party vendors plug-in software that use Microsofts Smart Card Minidriver
Interface, which is built into Vista. "Im not focusing on the smart card chip," Griffin says. "If I just attack a few specific parts
, it will fall over."
Griffin says these smart cards being used for building and machine access come with Java code
that allows you to write malicious code into the card. "Writing a hacker applet on the card is not that hard or far-fetched," he says. And he
stresses that its "not Microsoft code I blow up," but the smart card or third-party plug-in vendors.
winbeta.org - 15.03.2008
Microsoft reacts to kernel hacks, updates Vista's defenses
Microsoft Corp. quietly beefed
up a key defensive feature of
64-bit Windows Vista yesterday
to better protect the
operating system against hacks
that have plagued it for
weeks.
The update to Vista's
Kernel Patch Protection,
a.k.a. PatchGuard, was issued
through Windows Update as a
high-priority download, but
not as a patch per se.
Microsoft, in fact, denied
that it was a security fix.
"While this updates adds
additional checks to the
Kernel Patch Protection
system, it does not involve a
security vulnerability," an
advisory posted yesterday by
the Microsoft Security
Response Center (MSRC) stated.
"The update does increase the
reliability, performance, and
resiliency provided by Kernel
Patch Protection."
Although the
update targets all 64-bit
editions of Windows, it's
Vista that stands out by
reason of recent events. Since
late July, a pair of utilities
have sidestepped a crucial
Vista security feature that
requires drivers to be signed
by a valid digital
certificate. Both utilities
piggybacked unsigned code onto
a legitimate driver to get the
former past Vista's defenses
and into the kernel.
winbeta.org - 15.08.2007
FTC Cracks Down on Alleged
Spyware Site
Court orders operator of
alleged spyware sites to stop
offering malicious downloads...
pcworld.com - 11.11.2005
US Gov't Cracks Down On Pirated Games
The US Goverment said
Wednesday that it had executed
32 search warrants in 16
states as part of a crackdown
on devices and chips which
allow pirated games to be
played on gaming consoles...
betanews.com - 02.08.2007
New virtualized sandbox, Vista SP2 and other PDC-week leftovers
With so much attention on Windows 7 and Windows Azure last week, a few Microsoft announcements slipped through the cracks during the week-long
Professional Developer Conference (PDC) onslaught.
A few noteworthy announcements...
winbeta.org - 04.11.2008
Windows Vista Grace Period Extended to 120 Days
Every Vista DVD includes the
ability to install any edition
of Vista without a product
key. When you install without
a product key, you get an
automatic 30 day evaluation
period. This probably isn't
news to anyone.
What may be news
to you, however, is that you
can easily extend the 30-day
Windows Vista grace period to
120 days. No hacks required.
This is an official, supported
operation directly from
Microsoft.
To extend the grace period
another 30 days, simply start
a command prompt as
Administrator, and issue this
command:
slmgr -rearm
Reboot for the
change to take effect, and
voila, you have 30 more days.
You can only extend three
times, so the total grace
period for a Vista evaluation
is 120 days.
jcxp.net - 01.02.2007
SlySoft's AnyDVD cracks BD+...again
SlySoft, a software company located in Caribbean nations Antigua and Barbuda and maker of the AnyDVD ripping utility have announced a software upgrade
that defeats the BD+ protection used on some Blu-ray discs...
betanews.com - 21.03.2008
Colossus Cracks Codes Once More
For the first time in more than 60 years a Colossus computer will be cracking codes at Bletchley Park. The machine is being put through its paces to
mark the end of a project to rebuild the pioneering computer. The Colossus machine will be pitted against modern computer technology that will also be
used to decipher and read the transmitted messages. Tony Sale, who led the 14-year Colossus re-build project, said it was not clear whether the
wartime technology or a modern PC would be faster at cracking the codes. "A virtual Colossus written to run on a Pentium 2 laptop takes about the
same time to break a cipher as Colossus does," he said.
neowin.net - 15.11.2007
Microsoft removes another one of WGA's fangs
This morning Microsoft announced another noteworthy change to its flagship Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program - an update to be rolled out later
this month to all Vista users that will display a WGA warning dialog box when it detects either of two common Vista activation cracks. In the same
announcement, they also for the first time showed screen shots of how WGA changes debuting in SP1 will take some of the bite out of a longstanding
Windows product activation rule as well.
Now-departed Microsoft marketing chief Michael Sievert announced last December that Service Pack 1
would drop Vista’s “reduced functionality mode” (the notorious “kill switch”) in favor of a series of notifications and
nag screens. WGA senior product manager Alex Kochis posted the details of today’s changes, with screen shots, on Microsoft’s Windows
Genuine Advantage blog today.
Read
full story.....
neowin.net - 22.02.2008
Senate Cracks Down on Net Gambling
In a move engineered by Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R
- Tenn.), the United States
Senate on Saturday passed
legislation that effectively
makes it illegal for a bank or
other institution to transfer
funds to organizations that
are involved in so-called
"unlawful Internet
gambling."..
betanews.com - 03.10.2006
Security Firm Cracks Sober
Worm
Finnish security firm F-Secure
said on Thursday that it had
cracked the Sober worm, and
could now warn of what URLs it
would check to update itself.
The company claims it had
cracked the code back in May
2005, but chose to stay
silent, only alerting German
authorities...
betanews.com - 09.12.2005
Microsoft Denies PatchGuard Update, Kernel Hacks Link
Tuesday's update to Windows
Vista's PatchGuard, a kernel
protection scheme designed to
keep malicious or unproven
code at arm's length, had
nothing to do with recent
hacks of another Vista
defense, Microsoft said
Thursday. The update to Kernel
Patch Protection (KPP), also
known as PatchGuard, was
issued Tuesday to Vista 64-bit
users, but the description of
the enhancement was
inscrutable. All Microsoft
said at the time was "this
update adds checks to this
protection for increased
resiliency in Windows."
Third-party
researchers filled the vacuum
with speculation about the
update's purpose, with much
of that speculation centered
on a possible connection
between the update and
multiple disclosures that
Vista's kernel code signing
defense -- another barrier
Microsoft set up to protect
the kernel, but separate from
PatchGuard -- could be easily
circumvented. Among the
end-arounds was a utility
written by Alex Ionescu, a
Canadian college student
interning this summer at Apple
Inc. Ionescu's "Purple
Pill" used a flawed, but
legitimate and signed ATI
Technologies video driver, to
slip unsigned code past
Vista's protection.
neowin.net - 17.08.2007
Jobs says Apple will fight iPhone unlock hacking
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said today that it's his company's job to stymie hackers who try to unlock the iPhone -- the first time the company has
officially said it would fight attempts to use the popular device on unauthorized networks.
At a London Apple retail store where
he announced the iPhone's Nov. 9 U.K. debut, Jobs responded to a question about whether Apple would put a stop to the unlock hacks that have
mushroomed recently. "It's a cat-and-mouse game," said Jobs. "We try to stay ahead. People will try to break in, and it's our job to stop them
breaking in."
Several unlock hacks have been unveiled in the last few weeks that let users swap the iPhone's included SIM card
with one from another cellular service provider so the phone can make calls on that carrier's network. With the iPhone limited to domestic sales
until November, unlocking is the only way consumers living outside the U.S. have been able to use their phones.
winbeta.org - 19.09.2007
Microsoft 'taking security risks'
Microsoft is taking
security risks with its
forthcoming Vista operating
system, says software firm
McAfee.
The
security specialist has taken
out a full-page advert in the
Financial Times to alert
readers to its concerns.
It feels the tech
giant is increasing risks of
hacks and viruses by locking
out third-party software firms
from its in-built security
system for Vista.
The row also involves the
European Union, which is
watching Vista's release for
signs of monopoly abuse.
"With its upcoming
Vista operating system,
Microsoft is embracing the
flawed logic that computers
will be more secure if it
stops co-operating with the
independent security firms,"
wrote George Samenuk,
McAfee's chairman and chief
executive in the advert.
neowin.net - 02.10.2006
