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WGA possibly a kill switch?

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Interesting. Not entirely surprising, but interesting.

I think that microsoft WILL have a lot of backlash, especially if they accidently turn off legal machines.

I remember a whole bunch of backlash when cable companies decided to "spike" the lines to blow out pirate chips.

It blew out the pirate chips, but also blew out about 3/4 of the VCR's that were plugged into the cable (without a cable box). Ouch. That little mess up cost them quite a bit of money, as I recall.

Microsoft had better think of the ramifications of what it's doing.

I can see them denying upgrades and support (did I say microsoft and support in the same post? That's an oxymoron in itself).... but to actually "shut down" a working OS would be lawsuit city, I would think.



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg
 
Linux is looking better and better... Downfall to a MS dynasty we shall see.
 
Wow, talk about playing god of the OS. "You WILL update or ELSE!!!" LOL.

Anyhoo, I agree with Greg, MS will see a lot of backlash, especially from the legal consumers that get shutdown.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Vista being launched this fall though.
 
I like some of the comments though

"I purchased a SEALED OEM copy of XP Professional. WGA said the license key was already used. I called MS and they said I should uninstall and buy another copy. I told them I wasn’t made of money and hung-up."

Soo you bought an illegal copy and wonder why it doesn't work....

"I sent my Compaq Presario notebook for service repair, and it fails the WGA check. I have a legal version of windows xp professional on it. But I have no way to correct this problem."

Err take it up with Compaq or however did the repair...

Also the friend of a friend blog. Sorry, but I really don't trust articles written by people who are stupid enough to put their (and other peoples) email adresses in plain text on a blog site.

MS have already revised WGA, so I doubt this will happen...


Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
stu, you can purchase a sealed OEM legal copy, as long as you puirchase with the hardware it is intend to stay on.

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant
 
Well to be fair, they have carte blanche and can do whatever they like. It's their product and if they don't want people tipping it off, that's quite right.

If people don't agree with their methods they should simply use another operating system. I know I do!


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.
 
Grenage is right.....in their licence agreement, it has a blanket policy that says they can do anything to the product in the future and complience with future changes to the agreement will establish the users compatability with it.

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant
 
Stu,

I agree that piece is hearsay, but MS has actually specifically denied the rumor instead of the initial "no comment".


I have a hard time also believing that they would put a kill switch in WGA. That would be corporate suicide in many ways. The whole thing sounds like a tech support guy shooting his mouth off.

_____
Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]
 
I don't have a problem with MS enforcing their license agreement, especially since the US could probably cut our trade deficit with China in half if China would just pay for their software like most US businesses do.

My issue would be the false-positives, and the heavy-handed way they have been known to deal with these type's of things--lacking any understanding of what a true paying customer might be going through and not listening or trying to help.

Microsoft still reminds me me of Ernestine--Lily Tomlin's Ma Bell operator who famously said "We don't care--because we don't have to.".
--Jim
 
Heh.

Microsoft: "Of course we won't use WGA to turn off or cripple your computer. We'll just refuse to patch any of our gaping security holes, so that viruses and hackers exploiting shortcomings in the operating system can do it for us!"



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg
 
I'd have thought the big electronics/IT chain stores should be scared stiff of the false-positive problem.

If you've bought a PC from a reputable big supplier, with WinXP preloaded, and then it gets zapped by Microsoft on the grounds it's a pirate copy (false positive), you have a very straightforward complaint against the shop using all the normal consumer protection law: you didn't get what was advertised, a legal copy of Windows (the box probably had a hologram windows logo on the front of it, so no one can claim it's the purchaser's lack of attention!). Microsoft have even provided you with "proof" of the supplier's "misdeed".

The shop must prove that what they sold you isn't a fake. They therefore have an argument with Microsoft. And since it's their entire business that's at stake, they're likely to take it seriously. This is the sort of fiasco whose compensation claims and lost business knock-on effects can ruin quite substantial high-street chains, particularly when they're operating in an increasingly competitive market with the supermarket chains joining in the fun.
 
Actually I can tell you how easily so many legitmate copies get flagged as stolen / Pirate.

Go into shop

Find Laptop / PC, take photo of License sticker. Go home register. When it gets blocked, repeat above.

This is why I belive so many are getting hit. They need to somehow stop this happening, without making it a pig to find when you genually lose the info.

Stu..


Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
I doubt that Chinese users will feel any effect in WGA or other - they don't update their hacked OSes anyway !

Pascal.
 
Question: I have a PC with removeable main hard drive. I have multiple hard drives, so I can use the PC to run Windows, Linux and Solaris 10. If I want to have a "hardened" Windows environment (no networking, fire wall etc.) to run my accounting program, and also need to have a more open Windoes environment to play games, for example, do I need two licences? I can only have on operational at a time.



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!
 
Why two licenses ? You only have one PC, right ? And with removable drives, the only time you can use Windows is with the Windows disk in it.

When the Windows disk is in, your license is valid. When it's not in, you can't use Windows. I don't see a problem there.

Pascal.
 
While I agree that you should only need one license, to play devil's advocate:

What if he has two or more PC's that can all use the removable drives? Any given software publisher has no proof that he can only use one copy at a time.

_____
Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]
 
Two PCs will most likely generate different hardware IDs for Windows, which will force the user to re-authenticate Windows every time he boots on the disk.
You do that once before clearly labelling your disk for the specific PC it goes on ;-).

Pascal.
 
The solution for the problem StuReeves identified is to put the label with the paperwork for the application rather than on the case of the PC/laptop.
Either that, or for demo machines in shops to get their stickers removed before going out on display.

I beleive that the reason Microsoft started including OEM license keys on stickers for the case (rather than on paper certificates on the manual) was that they started enforcing the fact that OEM licenses are not transferrable, whereas if it is on a sheet of paper supplied with the computer, it can be easily transferred.

John
 
Of course, what of the 10's of thousands of licenses in circulation, that have been paid for, but not required. For example, many companies will buy pc's with OEM licenses already installed, only to blow them away and reinstall their own image using a Corporate license number.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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