“Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled anti-piracy plans for Windows Vista that take tougher measures against users of counterfeit software, including limiting protection against spyware and incapacitating the PC. Not everyone welcomed the measures,” Gregg Keizer reports for TechWeb. “Windows Vista, which Microsoft has said will ship to business customers in November and to consumers in January 2007, will be the first operating system to include technologies that the Redmond, Wash. developer called ‘Software Protection Platform.'”
Keizer reports, “Under the new plan, counterfeit copies of Vista will not run the Aero interface, the OS’s much-touted updated graphics look; will disable ReadyBoost, a feature that lets users add memory to systems by plugging in a USB flash drive; and will cripple Windows Defender, the anti-spyware protection tucked inside Vista. Previously, Microsoft had said it would strip some features, including Aero, from non-genuine Vista, although Defender was not among those mentioned.”
Keizer reports, “Product activation, which debuted in 2001 with Windows XP, but is now part of Software Protection, will also be dramatically revamped. If a copy of Vista is not activated within 30 days, the operating system will only let the user run the default browser, and then only for an hour at a time before logging off. Legitimate copies that for some reason later fail the ongoing validation tests will have another 30 days to re-activate or purchase a new license before the PC slips into what Microsoft dubbed ‘reduced functionality,’ while copies detected as fake during the validation process will also be downgraded after 30 days. In addition, users of genuine Vista must reactivate within three days of ‘a major hardware replacement,’ said Microsoft, or face a crippled computer.”
“‘This is actually a little more open in Vista [than in Windows XP],’ said Cori Hartje, the director of Microsoft’s Genuine Software Initiative. ‘Today, if you don’t put in a key [within 30 days], you can’t use the computer at all,'” Keizer reports. “‘But is she talking about validation or activation?’ asked Joe Wilcox, analyst with JupiterResearch, who thinks Microsoft is making the wrong move at the wrong time and giving legitimate users another reason not to upgrade to the new OS.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Microsoft to impose harsh crackdown, debilitate PCs with Windows Vista that it believes are pirated – October 04, 2006
Infoworld: Microsoft’s WIndows Vista not so revolutionary after all – September 11, 2006
Pirillo: Windows Vista RC1 disappointing, schizophrenic, disordered, inconsistent, and sad – September 07, 2006
Key Microsoft exec exits as clock ticks down on oft-delayed, much pared-down Windows Vista release – September 06, 2006
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Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista: If you can’t innovate… try to impersonate Apple’s Mac OS X – August 10, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Symantec researcher: At this time, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X – July 13, 2006
Sophos: Apple Mac OS X’s security record unscathed; Windows Vista malware just a matter of time – July 07, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Microsoft’s greatest trick: convincing the public that the Wintel PC platform is open – March 06, 2006
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
I don’t have a problem with activation schemes, as long as they are not draconian and don’t inconvenience paid users. The issue here is this is almost guaranteed not to work right.
This is Microsoft we’re talking about. You just KNOW there are going to be issues, and legitimate users are going to have their PCs screwed up. This is especially bad when it’s the OS that’s being disabled. If your copy of Shoot Zombies ’06 gets shut down, you do something else. I can’t imagine the fury I’d feel if I sat down to balance my books and found the Microsoft had shut down my entire PC.
With all the fanatic DRM advocates here at this site, I was expecting much more support for what Microsoft is trying to do.
To maczac:
While I agree with you, we currently have a government “of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation” with Bush et al. So any attempt to slap M$ on the wrist for this will quickly be stopped by the Bushies.
I had heard that OSX was not pirated and that no one has been able yet to get a copy, even of the x86, to run on anything but Apple hardware.
Isn’t that true?
Train Wreck –
Real:
Lego: http://www.vimeo.com/clip:18147
I just downloaded the RC2 of Vista, burned it to a DVD in Mac OS X, restarted, held down ‘option’, selected the Windows DVD to boot from, and I installed it effortlessly into my Boot Camp partition. I didn’t have to install any drivers, everything works perfectly except for sound – the 3D effects, networking, native resolution detected on my MacBook Pro. I have to admit, it looks damn good. The alt-tab switching is really cool because it shows a little picture of what each switched view looks like – I hope Leopard gets that.
Don’t get me wrong – I still prefer Mac OS X – but Vista is (visually, at least) a really nice improvement over Windows XP, and it is a snap to install natively with Boot Camp and play with on a MacBook Pro.