Im sorry if I missed something here.. or the point of this post. Didn't Microsoft release WGA years ago? Even so, I distincly remember that it took pirates only hours to find ways around it. So if they are releasing something new than I am willing to bet that there will be a workaround within 24 hours.

I use the monoblack desktop all the time so what's the catch?

Then no one will pirate that version until it's cracked. Unless it's hardcoded into DX10 for XP, no one cares. They can't go out update the torrents with the new version. What are they thinking?

Silly M$, just waste your money

they have plenty money to waste

and i honestly think this will do nothing... corporate copy FTW

and ill 'upgrade' to real vista sometime this year, just need to be patient...

"According to the WGA blog, this is a feature that users requested for the Windows XP platform."

I bet they did. I think that it's great new feature for WGA. Now I can be sure my system is running an up-to-date and genuine Windows XP and not Vista.

tbh i don't get why any person would request this.... its so stupid... if you have issues you'd fix it the right way if you don't... why would you ever think about this... so pointless

It's not all about MSFT being sinister and overly protective, if you thought about how easy it is for someone to hijack your Windows OS without your knowledge you would demand a way from MSFT to be able to certify your system clean.

With all the protections in place, plus Windows Defender, System Restore (Steady State as well), Windows Firewall ... and I hesitate to add OneCare for anti-virus, but at least they offer it. the goal is to have various layers and tools in place to assure you that you have no stray drivers, rootkits, trojans, false root-level trsuted certificates or keys, key-loggers, boot-sector viruses or any other malware or hijacks on your system.

Sure, MSFT wants you to buy their products, if you can afford it and you use it, why wouldn't you? More importantly for the whole PC universe is that XP doesn't turn into a rogue OS and by locking up various versions with WGA is a pain in the ass part of that...at least I know that if my PC does get hijacked by a zero day exploit... there are several tools in place to deal with it.

Remember, not everyone is as smart and diligent about scoping out their PCs innards as TH readers are, if their machine gets hijacked they will probably never know.

Do people that use pirated copies of Windows even use Live Update? All they have to do is turn it off to prevent the new WGA from being installed.

That's kind of bs, I had issues with WGA when it was first released. Pretty much acting like an annoying piece of spyware, even though there was nothing wrong with my machine.

Honestly, I dont understand this piracy FTW attitude many people on forums have.
Especially on a place like toms hardware.
People berate XP, berate Vista, and thus justify their piracy.
When they do not berate the OS, they simply scream that windows is too expensive.
Yet, the same guys use XP, for gaming, work, email and of course porn. And again I hear rants about how proud people are for pirating windows.
Of course, Being a sucker, I bought my old copy of XP ( at a student discount ) and I also bought Vista ( for no discount ).
My work computers run practically every flavour of linux available, (managed by a Windows vmware host).
Whats the point of my rant? Windows is still the easiest and most productive OS out there for home users.
Easier to game, work and interact with the world. There are freeware alternative out there, which everyone is welcome to use , and yet pirating windows is thought of as a more noble action.
Why?
It's a commercial product.
you dont like it, dont use it.
You like it? ( therefor use it ) then just pay for it. It's not such a big deal. But dont be so freakin proud of the fact you are pirating software you use daily. It's just retarded (not you guys, those hypotheticals that pirate windows).

Didn't work on me either. Nice try MS , better luck next ti... never!

hmm maybe ill just use linux now?
i stopped buying new copies of windows after vista lmao why should i buy a new license cos i upgraded?
i say don't pirate windows just use something else, my hackintosh/linux/xb360 is serving me well. not a single crash since i set it up. even the hackintosh =D

and no spyware

Microsoft by their actions is causing many more people to turn to piracy (and hacks) because of the annoying activation issues.So it's a backlash and this WGA crap just as any anti piracy method is proving to become infeasible and counter productive.It's also making many people more aware of Linux.I had no problems with Windows 98 or 2000 (I bought legitimate versions) but I have always hated XP.I use Linux (Ubuntu) more often now.
Just face it there will always be pirates out there but when a corporation makes major annoyances to its consumers they will go elsewhere and once you lose your customers eventually a corporation will become bankrupt.

Why is micro$oft using an anti-pirate update for a End of Life product.
That just doesn't make any sense unless Microsoft is trying to push Vista on us.
If that be the case, then Micro$oft can stuff it up their back side, I'll buy a Mac before I'll install that annoying Vista joke on my computer.

Microsoft are right to continue with it's software protection - we ALL use XP, and few of us pay for it. End Of Life product, or not, THEY OWN IT!

When we re-install (often, for most of us who like to experiment with our computers), we are using Microsoft's servers / bandwidth / time. And we expect this for free.

I am ashamed to say that I did not have a legal copy of XP, going back as far as Jan 2001 until I got a Volume License Key, via work, last year...

I too tried to justify the piracy too myself [*THINKS*... well I paid for W95, W98, W2000, Vista (twice), so I am 'entitled' to use a 'free' version]. I even had the cheek to mail MS for support in 2004 with my copied version.

But alas, we enjoy fooling ourselves. It helps us sleep better at night.

So all I'm saying, like someone else said, we all use it, so consider paying for it. And if they work harder to block you - so what!?!? Get over it...

I don't mean to sound like I work for MS, but come one guys, show some common sense...

i really have no problem with using pirate M$ software. you HAVE to use it so its almost like a tax, except it goes to a big evil corporation. if M$ were losing money because of piracy, fine. but their just trying to get people onto vista. remember just b4 vista came out they released WGA. its a cheap tactic to get people off XP. if M$ cant produce a good enough OS for the masses then they will surly lose their monopoly at some point.

and i really don't think that M$ should be alienating more users after the whole vista fiasco. M$ will have a very hard time trying to get a good reputation again but i really don't think this is it.

It's easy for tech savvy people (e.g. Everyone posting here will be) to say this is dumb and they will find a way to disable it if affected...

However there are plenty of people out there who aren't tech savvy and potentially don't even understand what piracy is to begin with and that they shouldn't do it.
Even if they don't pirate it themselves, they could possibly end up with a counterfeit copy.


The thing I don't understand is I though that wga already made you aware that you had a pirated copy??

Ha ha. I love to see you rats squirm. For all the slogans (MS is crap, Windows is crap, Vista is crap, etc), you keep on pirating Windows. Linux is free and "non-bloated" and open-source, yet you all keep complaining about Windows. Just give and go away.

It only takes me five minutes to take things back. Just a simply serch in google. So wath`s ten point?

I think that what should be done instead is that the Operating System Windows should be put on ROM to be installed on future motherboards.The updates to Windows should be installable on flash memory for future motherboards too.
That way the computer will still work if the hard drive or other components had to be replaced.The advantage would be that booting up would be a lot faster and at the same time reduce piracy (although ROM's could be pirated it would be less likely as fewer people own equipment to burn their own ROM chips).In addition the specific ROM chip could be made proprietary (an example: in capacity and other tricks) and hard or near impossible to obtain as an anti piracy method (Only a semi conductor fabrication factory would have the capabilities to produce this proprietary sized ROM so any factory replicating pirated blank proprietary ROM's could easily be sued out of existance and be shut down).The Atari ST had its OS in ROM and so did the Macintosh Classic have one available.

Take Asus' splashtop as an example. May not look like much but you can look at it and imagine what it would look like if the idea was taken to the next level. Yeah it might seem a return to the old days but just imagine if it could be done with enough capacity for upgrades
etc and then having applications, user configuration data, games, internet cache, etc on other storage media. Then you'd have a fully functional, piracy resistant (obviously not immune) OS that boots extremely fast. I know it's probably not going to work but still it's an idea and idea's grow and expand with time.

Why are pirates so self righteous and stubborn. Totally oblivious to reality and the outside world.