Microsoft tightens Windows 8 activation policy to curb piracy

Why would you want to pirate something as lousy as Windows 8? I doubt you could pay a pirate to use this release.

Honestly Windows 7 was the first affordable OS, OEM at least, which is how I sold it. For $120 you got Win 7 HP, $160 for Pro. The retail copies are just there for the uninformed. They really shouldn't be too concerned with piracy this time around either, anyone already running Win 7 has no motivation to upgrade to it, and if this new activation system doesn't affect current OS's even better. However at the end of the day, it will be cracked, its inevitable.

"This isn't particularly new. BIOS based keys have been around a while for Microsoft. The problem is, BIOS's can be read and modified relatively easily (not the settings, the raw BIOS). There are already many bios SLIC mods out there for Win7 alone to perma-activate without key. And those are only the relatively "hard" hardware mods.
There are software BIOS emulators called "loaders" out there too that load in after the BIOS but before windows and trick Win registry into thinking you are running a different BIOS and key."

You seriously need to learn, because obviously you don't get what has changed in this area in Windows 8.

Whoever is paying $200-300 for win 7 is a sucker. You can get oem or during sales for about $100-120 here in the US.

By purchasing your MB pro, you already given Apple plenty of $$ from their markup on hardware.

sounds like you obviously have never used OSX. they come out with software updates just like windows to patch and update. the major updates like lion, snow leopard, tiger etc are major OS updates like going from win95~win98~win2000. at least that's the closest comparison.

I can easily argue that for the price different in hardware, I get a sturdier, better material, better designed hardware. and for the record, no one is talking about OEM copies of windows. you can't migrate the OS from one machine to another with OEM copies, hence why OEM is much cheaper. I was talking about a stand alone Retail windows. and if there is one for $100 or cheaper, please by all means point it out to all of us and problem will be solved.

LOL I'm sure of that

Haha, I think they've already done enough to curb piracy. I tried it for all of 3 hours as my main OS, upon realizing how unproductive it was, I formatted and returned to Windows 7.

Don't worry Mircrosoft, maybe after Windows 8 bombs you can have a bake sale to raise money. I heard selling lemonade can turn a pretty good profit too!

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/24/ap...book-release-4-million-units-sold-in-q3-2012/ or

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/07/24Apple-Reports-Third-Quarter-Results.html if you prefer it direct from apple.

If you love Apple, thats fine. There is no need to justify it.

Well I usually skip one MS OS and buy the next release which is the better one. So I will wait for Windows 9 before getting rid of Windows 7 and skip 8. That may work out to 5 years of windows 7 use.

M$ is heavily dependent upon the profits from Windows as they currently do not make tangible profit off of hardware. This is why their is great pressure on them to coerce people into paying big bucks for it. On the other hand, OS X overwhelmingly plays to Mac owners where Apple can absorb much of the cost of the OS into the profits from the hardware and Apple eco system in general which benefits greatly by keeping users current. Because Apple makes such compelling hardware, this is a big advantage for Apple and they are doing their best to make the most of it.

OS X has become a great operating system that suffers from about 10% of the problems that Windows users often encounter. Most of these problems are exploit related but many have to do with sub-par driver and driver availability due to the fact that the hardware is largely out of Microsoft's control. The expectation of Microsoft to maintain backward compatibility with age old software does not help either.

At the moment, the Apple tax is less costly than the Microsoft over-priced OS that works so-so with third-party cheaply built, badly supported and poorly designed hardware. The Apple experience (productivity, enjoyment, life of product, support, and especially resale value) is generally significantly better for the average user compared to the MS\PC offering.

Microsoft has their work cut out for them.

Quoting the article:

"However, going forward, manufacturers will be required to write a unique Windows product key into the BIOS of each new PC, based on each particular system?s hardware...

...At this point it?s unclear what the move will mean for individuals buying OEM versions of the OS, or if the hardware based activation will somehow affect users manually upgrading their laptops? storage or memory."

I don't see it that "unclear", unless you change your OEM mobo it's clear you'll be affected, but changing storage or memory... is not like you flash your BIOS to do that.

I believe this is a marketing technique by micro soft. Release a crap version so you can apreciate a less crappy version. Same was true with malenium and the same trend is here like 6 years later. So I think 8 should be the crap version. Skip it.

if it sends thieves (they are thieves nor pirates) to butt rape jail where they belong then go for it microsoft!

so you quoted some report that apple's quarterly income was down. Bravo... anyone with any sense of accounting or finance understand that's just part of the business. or maybe because apple is now the most valuable company in the world based on market cap, but I bet you missed that piece of info. either case, you sounded pretty insecure that you actually went I dug up some quarterly report. I for one own both apple and pc and I find both have their pros and cons, and I certainly wouldn't be the first to side with either. whatever product has the best quality, design, and performance has me sold. I happen to think spending $250+ on a piece of Retail license happens to be stupid. I also happen to think spending $79 on a license that's not migratable to be stupid too. I do find spending a few extra bucks on the hardware that has solid metal casing and nice keyboard to be money well spent, as oppose to some plastic rectangle box that looks like a turd. this is why I build my own pc, do my own custom casing paint job, and fabricate my own brackets and build my own watercooling system; but hey it's just me. and just so happens the OS that comes with the SOOOOOO overpriced Macbook Pro can also be bought for less than $50 on a dvd alone that you can install on any Mac. seriously.. don't be so hateful on apple. if you're happy to spend $250 on a stand alone retail copy of windows.. good for you.. I bet microsoft LOOOVES you. but for the majority of us.. I happen to find the price tag to be ridiculous. that's my rant.

I'll stick with my 'Free' Operating System that does 99.99998% of what Windows does, and does it ... did I mention for free?

You Windows losers never cease to amaze me. Paying more than $100 for something you can get completely free is just stupid ..

and what os do you use then?

Excuse me, I don't care if you talk about Windows, Linux, or Mac as if they are the worst OS's on the planet. Before you open your mouth again and decide to call Windows users losers again, think of this. I will never call someone a loser based on the Operating System they use and neither should you. Where is that dis-like button when you need one.

I "pirated" this latest version because I was really really curious about the changes since the release preview just to run it in virtualbox and check it out, not to use it fulltime.
I`ll be buying a legit upgrade once Windows 8 is released, but I really couldn`t ignore my curiosity here.

Though there`s plenty people who feel paying for software is silly, I used to be one of them, you`re young, you don`t have any money, and you don`t "yet" respect developers for their hard work.
I found that once I finally gained some disposable income that attitude really changed.

Born with a silver spoon in your mouth huh? Must be nice.

Clearly you've never heard the song, Mr. Wendel, or engaged in an AMD vs Intel CPU discussion, or bought the cheaper brands at your local grocery store. The point is, $40 is a lot of money to some people. You'll see it too if you can ever get off your high horse.