acrossthestars
Posts: 314 +300
Microsoft is allergic to long-term planning, it seems. In their quest for digital supremacy, they forgot to make a product worth buying...or selling.
Microsoft is using TPM chips to crack down on pirated Windows activations
- Thread starter Alfonso Maruccia
- Start date
Next step in the M$ plan to rule the world!
Okay a bit melodramatic, but I've seen this coming since Windows 8. M$ is totally pissed that they didn't think of the Google and/or Apple store. They're cash cows. And M$ has always seen Windows as a vehicle to drive users towards other products. At first M$ thought that capturing mobile users would drive them to a Windows store. That's why they came up with the "One OS" concept and we got Win8.
But Windows users didn't start buying windows smart phones, nor did they start flocking to any sort of Windows store. In fact most users rejected the touch centric first version. That's why M$ back tracked and released Win8.1 to increase the adoption rates. Which lead us to Win10, more like Win7 but still with all of Win8's underpinnings. But it still didn't drive users into the welcoming arms of the store, nor increase mobile users by any major sort of margin.
That's when some one smart at M$ (yes they do exist) realized that the reason Android and iOS users use the respective stores is because they're locked in to them. They're deployed on locked down systems and unless the end users circumvents it they have no choice on where they get their "apps" from. So if M$ really wants to capture those windows users and drive them to a store? Yup, need to lock those systems down.
Attestation is their solution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing#REMOTE-ATTESTATION
It has many uses like a much more robust DRM ability. But the one that IMHO M$ is salivating over is the ability to monitor and white and/or black list software sources from suppliers. Which at first glance would be a really good way to prevent users getting malware. But it could also be used to lock users into any store M$ wants to.
The M$ store? Sure if they want, and is there any question? Steam? Well maybe, if Valve coughs up a modest licensing fee. In fact I'd suggest it's why Valve is working so hard to produce a Linux based alternative to windows. Gaben is a smart cookie, and remember he worked for M$ for 13 years, so he knows how they think. In the end if we do get a SteamOS that works on every PC, it might be a good thing. Let those that want a cell phone locked down experience have it. And people that don't, like a gamer (me) have a open platform instead. But I'm not going to have any false hope on that one.
Okay a bit melodramatic, but I've seen this coming since Windows 8. M$ is totally pissed that they didn't think of the Google and/or Apple store. They're cash cows. And M$ has always seen Windows as a vehicle to drive users towards other products. At first M$ thought that capturing mobile users would drive them to a Windows store. That's why they came up with the "One OS" concept and we got Win8.
But Windows users didn't start buying windows smart phones, nor did they start flocking to any sort of Windows store. In fact most users rejected the touch centric first version. That's why M$ back tracked and released Win8.1 to increase the adoption rates. Which lead us to Win10, more like Win7 but still with all of Win8's underpinnings. But it still didn't drive users into the welcoming arms of the store, nor increase mobile users by any major sort of margin.
That's when some one smart at M$ (yes they do exist) realized that the reason Android and iOS users use the respective stores is because they're locked in to them. They're deployed on locked down systems and unless the end users circumvents it they have no choice on where they get their "apps" from. So if M$ really wants to capture those windows users and drive them to a store? Yup, need to lock those systems down.
Attestation is their solution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing#REMOTE-ATTESTATION
It has many uses like a much more robust DRM ability. But the one that IMHO M$ is salivating over is the ability to monitor and white and/or black list software sources from suppliers. Which at first glance would be a really good way to prevent users getting malware. But it could also be used to lock users into any store M$ wants to.
The M$ store? Sure if they want, and is there any question? Steam? Well maybe, if Valve coughs up a modest licensing fee. In fact I'd suggest it's why Valve is working so hard to produce a Linux based alternative to windows. Gaben is a smart cookie, and remember he worked for M$ for 13 years, so he knows how they think. In the end if we do get a SteamOS that works on every PC, it might be a good thing. Let those that want a cell phone locked down experience have it. And people that don't, like a gamer (me) have a open platform instead. But I'm not going to have any false hope on that one.
LordVile95
Posts: 572 +324
If you want to use software pay for it or just run it without a key.
Squid Surprise
Posts: 7,995 +8,266
Or… run it without paying and without any “non-activation” annoyances… yeah.. I’ll choose that option thank you…
acrossthestars
Posts: 314 +300
Editing the registry is "hacking", like making a copy of a Blu-Ray YOU bought is piracy. "Hacking" implies you don't own it, which is only true if you're editing the registry on a remote Windows PC you're not authorized to access. Hacking your own registry is not a thing. Every program that interfaces with the kernel makes edits to the registry, when it installs, repairs, uninstalls or in some other way modifies the operating system. That IS how Windows works.
It's not black magic and it's not a computer crime, to edit your own registry. It's a bad idea, if you don't know what you're doing, because an improperly-configured registry is 1 second away from putting Windows into an unusable state, but it's not analogous to theft of IP. All the Windows activation process does is check if Windows' activation state is validated against an authentic license. That is what makes it a legitimate copy. If the license is not valid or the key has been forged, then it's a pirated copy.
Microsoft used to prefer you use a pirated copy of Windows over no copy at all, because at least then you are inside of their ecosystem, but that has changed. Now that Windows is becoming less of a platform, in and of itself, and more of an advertising vector, they prefer to advertise to legitimate users instead of pirates.
yRaz
Posts: 9,474 +16,705
It's a pain in the *** is what it is.
Squid Surprise
Posts: 7,995 +8,266
Yes, I only called it that as the person posting before said it… I meant “registry editing”… and it’s WAY easier and safer to just download the activation bypass from GitHub than to mess around with your registry…
acrossthestars
Posts: 314 +300
It's more convenient, sure. I don't know about safer.
The benefit of the KMS activation bypass is that you can read the source code on Github. But, just like with manually editing the registry, that's not going to do you a lot of good, if you don't understand what you're reading.
yRaz
Posts: 9,474 +16,705
There are things we call hack jobs in the construction industry that have nothing to do with software or hacking. Messing around in the registry isnt an easy or clean solution. It's kind of sad when pirating is easier and gives a better user experience than the legal way. It's faster, too. I met someone who used pirated copies in his business but kept a legitimate key for every PC in his office.
I know people probably look at me as the weird linux guy with a penguin wifu pillow, but if you are going to go through the work of learning registry edits to have the windows experience you might as well just learn to use Linux. I dont hate windows because I love Linux, I love Linux because windows spent years getting in the way of what I was trying to do. In my opinion, what makes a good OS is not even knowing its there.
acrossthestars
Posts: 314 +300
What makes Linux so great is the opaqueness of its functionality, the clarity of utility you can achieve if you know what you're looking at. Neither Windows nor macOS, and certainly no commercial smartphone operating systems, provide that level of transparency.
Like, if the operating system isn't so bug free and effortless to use that you forget its there (which, let's be honest, no modern OS is currently capable of), then the next best thing is verbosely explaining what's happening, rather than just saying "oops, we ran into a problem" and that's it. No explanation, no obvious way to solve the problem―just a vague awareness that "something is wrong, but we're not going to say 'what' or 'why'."
Squid Surprise
Posts: 7,995 +8,266
Messing around with your registry without knowing what you’re doing can really mess up your PC… using the activation bypass from GitHub won’t hurt you at all…
yRaz
Posts: 9,474 +16,705
For some, those reasons are valid. For me, it's not harassing me every 30 days to make edge my default browser, I don't want to subscribe to one drive or use copilot. I don't want to worry about whether or not updates will break something.
Im an Ubuntu guy on the 11 systems in my home lab, all my personal computers use Mint and my work laptop is W11. well, my wife has a MacBook, my daughter computer runs mint but her school required us to buy a chrome book. Keep in mind, she's not evenhigh-school yet.
I dont know what point I was trying to make when I started writing this. Linux isn't hard and the inconvenience I have to go through to keep using windows has gotten unreasonable
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Everytime MS tightens the noose, it just makes it a stronger case for people to abandon the OS. It is not so much about blocking piracy, but the fact that MS introduces so called security measures where they can easily lock users out of your system. Their clients are basically at their mercy.
You cannot pirate something you do not own. Buying is now owning we were told ages ago...
This is what disappoints me when I think about Windows: technically, its foundation is excellent, but not listening to user concerns have shot the OS in its foot.
dangh
Posts: 1,859 +2,921
Grey market is often offering keys bought with stolen cc. It is actually better to use pirate software than buying them from thieves. And no, buying an oem code is not changing a thing.
But, it is ms product and they can do whatever they want with it. Pirating is not a solution, switching to Linux is.
hahahanoobs
Posts: 5,827 +3,525
Squid Surprise
Posts: 7,995 +8,266
There’s a consumer version of Windows newer than Windows 11? Please explain…
Theinsanegamer
Posts: 8,867 +18,100
Old hardware is not invincible. Stuff fails eventually. Oses run out of security updates. Life happens.
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