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Microsoft to disable eye-candy in pirated copies of Vista
A step up from Windows Genuine Advantage that is in force today, Microsoft will have an enhanced set of tools in use that will attempt to prevent piracy of their newest operating system, Windows Vista. Microsoft isn't depriving the computer of the OS, however, but just it's pretty interface. The new eye-candy that people have been fawning over, Aero, will not be started by the OS until Vista has checked to see if it was properly purchased.
"Those who are not running genuine Windows will not be able to take advantage of the Windows Aero user experience," a Microsoft representative told CNET News.com on Wednesday.
While some may wonder as to the merits and effectiveness of this tactic, it probably does go a bit deeper, and updates may be deprived for the OS as well. Or maybe it's just Microsoft's way of saying “piraters want fast machines, not pretty machines.” Interesting.
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User Comments (19)
Post a comment| fiziks on April 14, 2006 12:05 PM | hmmm... i think i'd prefer quickness over asthetics
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| coolmatt on April 14, 2006 12:38 PM | Oh yeah...they said the same thing about piraters using pirated Windows XP and not being able to run after 30 days. SOMEONE will crack whatever code they are using and pirated Vista users will get Aero.
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| nathanskywalker on April 14, 2006 2:45 PM | I guess, that is, mabye someone will. Probably as a matter--fact. But anti-piracy software is getting more complicated, and more thorough, and in the end, a pain in the neck for everyone. Would be nice if MS would stop charging so much, and people would stop pirating. but i guess that isn't happening ey? So then Pirates will do what they do, and MS will do their best to "best" the pirates. REally it's only a matter of time, unless MS does a really good job.
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| vigilante on April 14, 2006 2:51 PM | I was thinking the same, I'd rather have the OS take as few resources as possible.
It may be cool if you have decent hardware and don't play games. But if you game, I imagine the hard-core gamers will have every possible unneeded "extra" turned off, to save those few extra resources. Even XP themes now are not that bad, but I still run in "classic" mode. And I agree, I will bet that a crack to enable Aero will be out within 10 hours of release.
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| asphix on April 14, 2006 2:51 PM | I dont think Microsoft charges a whole lot for their OS.
~$200USD for an OS that will last you a good 4-6 years. I spent 200 on xp pro, and I've had it since I built my computer 4 years ago. People have just been pirating for so long so easily that $200 seems steep when you compare it to getting it for free. You put it in perspective.. its not bad. We spend $50 on video games, $500 on video cards, $5,000 on home theater setups. Whats 200 for an operating system that gets update, combines support, etc etc etc and will last at least 4 years? Just buy the damn piece of software if your financially able.. if not.. then deal with no pretty stuff. I prefer a computer thats FAST and LOOKS GOOD.
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| DragonMaster on April 14, 2006 4:27 PM |
Depends who... $0 on video games, never more than $200 on graphic card, and I DIY my HT. (Building a "copy"  Same drivers) of a $2000 pair of speakers for $400)
Lots! But my father can get M$ OSes from his job for ~$12.
Fast and looks good? Can it happen? To me, there's bad looking and fast or good looking and slow. KDE's not too bad BTW.
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| Mictlantecuhtli on April 14, 2006 4:56 PM | Originally posted by DragonMaster:
Maybe that $500 graphics card could be put to use to make it look good and be fast...
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| Julio on April 14, 2006 8:11 PM | Definitely the eye candy should be an option for those with newer and faster systems that won't be compromising performance that could be dedicated to productive applications.
I also agree that whichever prevention code they add it will be crackable but then again you have to think that some 80% of the population is not as tech savvy as the people reading these pages  .
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| DragonMaster on April 14, 2006 8:52 PM |
That's not really a graphic card question, but a better looking UI uses more computer power. No matter what computer I use, I always use the less background apps, etc. as possible. The X300 integrated in my DFI RS482 waiting for a CPU and HDDs should probably do the job for Aero, no?
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| ThomasNews on April 15, 2006 2:32 AM | I was thinking similar fiziks. A lot of power users/gamers will probably not bothering with the "new" GUI for performance reasons.
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| DragonMaster on April 15, 2006 8:51 AM | I looked at some Aero Glass screenshots... Apart from Flip 3D, almost everything was already in KDE before.
Wow! The window (Minimize, close, etc. ) buttons start glowing when you put the mouse over them. You're joking or what? And the explorer has a quick search just to the right of the address bar. Just a little bit like Firefox... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/default.mspx
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| crossfire851 on April 15, 2006 12:29 PM | You can easliy mod windows xp, I think they will be able to mod pirated vista with the Aero Glass look.
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| nic on April 15, 2006 3:37 PM | Aero will run pretty fast, in fact Vista will be quicker than XP even with Aero because your GPU engine will power the GUI. I suspect the real GUI enhancements will come third party like Windowblinds for Vista, and some nice new Apps that will use the cool new features. Microsoft will keep things simple for the standard GUI as many business users wont want fancy effects on their systems. Just don't be fooled by a few screenshots as the possibilities will really open up once Vista has been out for several months.
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| DragonMaster on April 15, 2006 3:55 PM |
Depends... I found (In a review) that an X300-integrated couldn't have more than 7 windows open. This thing is supposed to overclock like mad tho.
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| Julio on April 15, 2006 9:00 PM | Originally posted by nic:
I don't know if it will be faster but finally the GPU will have something to do while in Windows... and anything decent should give you pretty good performance depending on how much you abuse of the system and how well it scales.
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| crossfire851 on April 15, 2006 11:52 PM | I read that beta 2 is very system hungry, a P4 3.4GHZ 1.5gb of pc3200, 7.2k 200 gb hdd.
Anyways it was using 40% of the cpu when idel and when running IE 90% +. I hope that the new OS is not that system hungry, and it is only the beta's fault.
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| Phantasm66 on April 17, 2006 12:17 AM | Originally posted by crossfire851:
One of my machines is running those specs with Vista just great. What its like with anything lesser I have no idea.
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| DragonMaster on April 17, 2006 8:30 AM |
WHAT ?!?!?
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| glazi on May 15, 2006 12:31 AM | build 5381.1 or beta 2 is certainly not resource hungry:
I'm P4 3.2GHZ 2G PC2-4300, U320 SCSI RAID, SATA RAID it'll certainly eat all the memory you can throw at it, (as always) but CPU is never above 15% even with 7 IE windows open, 5% at idle.
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