[HN Gopher] Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer afte... ___________________________________________________________________ Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer after activation fails Author : layer8 Score : 54 points Date : 2023-11-16 21:29 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.bleepingcomputer.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.bleepingcomputer.com) | FirmwareBurner wrote: | _> "It's literally easier to crack windows than to pay for it," | exclaimed Pyburn._ | | Because Microsoft doesn't care if you crack it or pirate Windows | anymore as Windows stopped being their main cash-cow a long time | ago. | | They know PC sales are slowly declining and that Windows is | loosing marketshare to Mac and Linux in an already shrinking | market, so they want as many people as possible to keep using | Windows, regardless if you pay for it or not, as that way they | maintain their OS monopoly and they can monetize users through | ads and subscriptions anyway. | | That's why they stopped enforcing DRM checks on pirated Windows | keys, and even if you don't activate it, it still works fully | functional, with just a watermark as the only deterrent, big | whoop. Or if you want to be legit you can buy a 3 Euro gray- | market CD-key online which also activates just fine. | | So unless you're a business or a super ethical user, there's | really no point in paying sticker price for Windows today when | the alternative ways of getting it range from dirt cheap to free. | joshuaissac wrote: | > They know Windows is loosing marketshare like crazy to Mac | and Linux so they want as many people to keep using it as | possible regardless if you pay for it or not. | | That has been the case for a long time. Here is a quotation | from Bill Gates from 2007: | | > "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when | there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. "Are you | kidding? You can get the real thing, and you get the same | price." | | https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007... | flashback2199 wrote: | > Windows is loosing marketshare like crazy to Mac and Linux | | The biggest change I've seen is in the stackoverflow developer | survey results and it was like a 10 percent difference over 5 | years or something like that with the gain roughly split 50-50 | between macOS and Linux | | Then in the general population windows market share looks | stable | | I'd love to have a link that shows otherwise though, I've tried | to find good data on this | FirmwareBurner wrote: | Meh, Stackoverflow is niche of devs who swing hard in the | Mac/Linux camp but don't represent the average user | worldwide. | | Seems like current worldwide marketshare is just 63% for | Windows and in the US it's closer to 55% because Macs and | Chromebooks eat into that. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7KqCbnjfw | yreg wrote: | Yeah, "loosing marketshare like crazy" probably only in the | software development / designer bubble. | candiddevmike wrote: | WSL + VScode ends up being a better Linux development | environment than most distros... | silisili wrote: | Those are a pretty big portion of people who buy and use an | actual computer anymore. Sure you still have plenty of | other desk jobs using some outdated version of Windows, but | the personal market is all but doomed. Even my 70ish year | old parents just use tablets for everything these days, and | MS has next to zero marketshare. | shantara wrote: | This and other surveys only take into account desktop/laptop | computers. For an average person their Android/iPhone or an | iPad has fully replaced their Windows PC. I'm certain that if | one included mobile platforms into the marketshare stats, | they would show a significant decline in the percentage of | people who use Windows. | cantSpellSober wrote: | > The Microsoft support engineer in this case, ran the following | PowerShell command | | If there's no chiptune accompaniment, it's not a _real_ crack | nullindividual wrote: | Something to keep in mind is that these support agents do not | work for Microsoft. They're all outsourced. I've had Azure Pro | support experiences where the "engineer" suggested to do | something that was simply not possible within the Azure service I | was using. | | Jump over to enterprise support and there's a good chance you'll | get an FTE (or an FTE after demanding an escalation). | layer8 wrote: | Slightly related, Microsoft recently stopped accepting Windows | 7/8 keys for Windows 10/11 [0], a change which now is also | causing issues when reactivation is triggered on existing | installations due to hardware replacements [1]. | | [0] https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/11/23913107/microsoft- | windo... | | [1] https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23958751/microsoft- | windo... | nzrf wrote: | Well that answers why my keys no longer work on recent re- | install. Ended up having to get grey market key. Figured after | 10 years wasn't the worst expense, but the amount of adverts | and telemetry they gather for the price not sure it's even | worth the 15 dollars. | all2 wrote: | You can get stripped down versions of windows on _ahem_ other | parts of the internet. If you 're going through the trouble | to get a grey-market key, might as well choose your | installation media with some care. | s3p wrote: | With complementary spyware of course | LordDragonfang wrote: | I mean, spyware comes standard with Windows 10 and 11 | blibble wrote: | you can get the official media from Microsoft so there's | essentially no risk in using a grey-market key (other than | you may lose your $3) | | vs. a random .iso from some dodgy forum containing god | knows what | freitzkriesler2 wrote: | Dang very good to know. I've been using a Windows 7 pro serial | for well over a decade. I just rebuilt my laptop a few months | ago too using that serialvamd activated without a problem. | Guess it's time to buy a windows 11 serial or (yuck) use the | home edition that comes for free. | all2 wrote: | _Hey kid, wanna buy a *nix?_ | | Give Linux a shot. Mint is a good easy-going distro that | debloats Ubuntu. They have a few different window managers | they offer and all of them are pretty good. The defaults are | sane and the whole thing is pretty easy to use. | layer8 wrote: | People around these parts are generally well aware of their | options. | forgotusername6 wrote: | I spent hours booting my new pc on windows 8 (with no network | drivers), manually activating by phone, only to have it be | unactivated again once I upgraded to windows 10. | WarOnPrivacy wrote: | > _who paid $200 for a genuine copy of Windows 10_ | | Ouch. I'd rather pay the far, far lower price that major PC | builders pay. | | > _The Microsoft support engineer in this case, ran the following | PowerShell command on the customer 's Windows PC [the Massgrave | activate 1liner on Github]_ | | It works as advertised btw. | | Just having one thing on the internet be not-hostile or having | something Microsoftish that isn't gaslighting me while being | malicious and exploitive - that in itself is nearly a joy. | yreg wrote: | There are resellers that are selling Windows keys (obtained in | bulk) for single digit dollar values. | | European Court of Justice has declared that it is legal and | Microsoft has to accept it. | Prickle wrote: | I wonder how this would work relative to Microsoft's 'genuine' | services. I remember having a whale of a time on XP. Our | officially purchased Japanese CD of WindowsXP got "caught" as a | non-genuine product by Microsoft. | | I assume the same/similar risk exists here for this user. | | If you purchased the legal copy, and it doesn't work. Then a | official agent uses a illegal copy and activates your account. | Then you login to a microsoft account. Do you risk losing your | entire account due to a TOS violation? | freitzkriesler2 wrote: | Probably and this is why I wish after a certain amount of time | Microsoft would just release a DRM free release for VMs and | people who want to use it on period correct hardware. | | I'm still rocking a serial I used back in 2003 for an older | machine I use for games and nostalgia. | teruakohatu wrote: | Where are these VMs? I tried to find a legitimate Microsoft | XP VM to run some old software but wasn't able to find any. | EMIRELADERO wrote: | Forget the VMs. You can use UMSKT | (https://github.com/umskt/umskt) to generate valid keys and | phone activation confirmation IDs for any pre-Vista MS | product. | bombcar wrote: | They took them down when they gave up on Edge. | kuratkull wrote: | That is why you try not to bind any important accounts to | anything remotely fishy. Goes for Google, goes for MS, goes for | everything. If you have an important account hard-linked to | something very important you are sitting on a ticking bomb. | | EDIT: Whenever you see "Login with Facebook, Google, Github, | .... or email [hidden away in smaller font]", always choose | email. | mainpassathome wrote: | fun fact: the tool used is open source | | https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts | hamhamed wrote: | the irony is that the code is hosted on github, a microsoft | owned corporation | wintermutestwin wrote: | Is this well known to be safe and trustworthy? | sandworm101 wrote: | Every bad day for windows is another great day for Linux. You | have a choice. Make it. | Lacerda69 wrote: | this is the year of the linux desktop! | vlachen wrote: | Surely this time! | wintermutestwin wrote: | Oh man. I bought a win 10 retail box and the key is valid, yet | activation just keeps failing. I have been putting off calling | support because this is for my gaming only PC. Maybe I shouldn't | bother calling whatever Indian body shop that MS uses for this | and I should just crack it myself? Seems safer? Is it? Can anyone | point me to a trustworthy crack and place to get it? | | I hate this company and I am kicking past me who spent much of my | early career gleefully switching hundreds of firms over to | windows from Novell. | SSLy wrote: | well, if you look closely at the screenshots you have all your | answers. | layer8 wrote: | https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts | | This is also the one used in TFA. | thedaly wrote: | To be fair, that activation script/crack does work really well ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-11-16 23:00 UTC)