Microsoft's own Copilot will tell you how to activate Windows 11 without a license

[Skye Jacobs]

Facepalm: A Reddit user has made an uncomfortable discovery for Microsoft. The company's own AI assistant Copilot will provide you instructions on how to activate Windows 11 without a valid license. When asked, "Is there a script to activate Windows 11?" Copilot readily offers a step-by-step guide that enables unauthorized activation of the operating system.

Since the discovery, the activation method has been independently verified by multiple sources including Windows Central and Laptop Mag. While the method itself is not new – it has been circulating since 2022 – its promotion by Microsoft's own AI tool is particularly eyebrow-raising.

The technique relies on a PowerShell command that integrates a third-party script to perform unauthorized activation. The script is typically sourced from GitHub repositories dedicated to Windows activation methods.

To its credit, Copilot does include a brief warning about the risks of executing such scripts, reminding users that unauthorized activation may violate Microsoft's terms of service.

When questioned about the dangers of using activation scripts, Copilot outlines several potential risks, including legal ramifications due to violation of licensing agreements, security vulnerabilities from potentially malicious scripts, system instability and performance problems, lack of official support from Microsoft, potential issues with updates, and ethical considerations regarding software piracy.

Furthermore, the ease with which potentially harmful scripts can be obtained and executed poses significant security risks. A recent Wall Street Journal report highlighted a case where malware was disguised as an AI tool on GitHub, demonstrating the very real dangers of blindly trusting and executing online code.

For decades, Microsoft has grappled with the persistent issue of software piracy – a challenge that has both hindered and, paradoxically, fueled the company's global expansion.

In 2006, the company reported staggering losses of approximately $14 billion due to unauthorized use of its products, despite investing millions in anti-piracy measures. However, Microsoft's approach to piracy has been nuanced – far less aggressive than one might expect from a company facing such significant financial damage.

A long time ago, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates candidly discussed his attitude toward software piracy during a 1998 presentation at the University of Washington. He acknowledged the rampant theft of Microsoft products in China, where millions of computers were sold annually without corresponding software purchases. Rather than expressing outrage, Gates remarked: "As long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

Microsoft's tolerance for a certain level of piracy appeared to persist well into the 2010s. In a move that surprised many, the company announced in 2015 that it would allow users with non-genuine copies of Windows to upgrade to Windows 10 at no cost (but they would remain non-genuine and marked as unactivated).

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Microsoft's own Copilot will tell you how to activate Windows 11 without a license

 

[The Talking Tech]

For now while A.I is in its infancy these companies will let it go rampant, but once A.I gets far smarter, I can perfectly see these corporations put some severe restraints to prevent it to tell us everything that could bankrupt other companies and big pharma, such as cures for certain diseases, and factual answers to our own health instead of just "treatments"

 

[Kirby1]

This isn't really newsworthy, but I think it's a point in CoPilot's favor that it will give you accurate information about thinks Microsoft may not like.

 

[unoficialoficial]

Windows operating systems come with a variety of fonts and the OS license covers the use of these fonts. However, if someone uses Windows without a proper license, they are not only violating the law regarding the operating system itself but also potentially violating it over 150 times or more due to the unauthorized use of the included fonts. If Microsoft were to pursue legal action for these violations, the resulting fines for an individual could be astronomical. Such a situation would likely attract significant media attention, causing widespread fear and leading many users to abandon the operating system. If you hear that someone has fined half million for unauthorized use of the Windows, aren’t you gonna scare even you have license? Because you don’t have that old paper with the cd and the shiny logo with the serial printend on it, nowadays you have a number and an invoice from a third party and how knows if those are valid enough. This situation applies similarly to Microsoft Office and certain Adobe applications that include fonts. In essence, fonts can become a significant legal liability if not properly licensed. MS should make the fonts open source. Why the users should have such heavy legal risks?

 

[Squid Surprise]

Microsoft has turned a blind eye to piracy for years as they make the vast majority of their sales from businesses - and they face audits so piracy isn’t an option.

Unlike the movie and gaming industries, who use piracy as a scapegoat for poor products and revenues, Microsoft understands that piracy doesn’t cost nearly as much as the public is told (that 14 billion in losses in 2006 was almost certainly used to help cover up financial struggles) as pirated software does not correlate to lost sales.

Those people who download a pirated copy of software xxx probably WOULDN’T have bought it if they couldn’t find that free copy… and often, if they like it, actually buy it (or buy it’s sequel) later justifying the expense as a “2 for 1” since they already got a free copy…

While I don’t tend to admire MS often, good on them for understanding this.

 

[LemmingO]

I appreciate Co-Pilot can do this, it means an unbiased AI... but who'd seriously want to install Windows 11? Are we sure this isn't an underhanded way to migrate users over from Win 10 that's losing support later this year (Oct 14th)?

 

[AndreV]

I appreciate Co-Pilot can do this, it means an unbiased AI... but who'd seriously want to install Windows 11? Are we sure this isn't an underhanded way to migrate users over from Win 10 that's losing support later this year (Oct 14th)?

Make yourself a de-bloated Win11 or install Tiny 11, both of them have their hardware requirements halved, for example under 2GB of RAM(Tiny 10 starts fully functional with around 600MB of RAM). You can also have it with most or even all tracking disabled.
If you strip Win11 of all the garbage is not that bad.

 

[Coisa]

Microsoft has to get users to upgrade to Windows 11 SOMEWAY, anyway. This is a plot to get the most intrusive OS (other than Chrome PC) to users everywhere. Next comes the OS subscription - pay to subscribe or not much will work on your local PC. I don't trust MS, period. (I've paid for Office subscription for a over a year out but now I'm told if won't work if I don't up to Win 10 by Oct, is that right? - where are the lawyers in these scams)

 

[Gars]

Another day, another job loosen to AI...
now, we have to deal with jobless pirates?

 

[MobileJAD]

I agree with others, those estimates of billions lost due to piracy are highly inflated, just how many of those who download illegally would have even paid for it if the illegal option wasnt available? Most probably would have gone without it.

 

[Gars]

Piracy is already a margin, maybe Adobe will argue, me dont care
shifting to other platform is really easy, let me tell you something, illustrator is not besting Corel Draw, at all
the industry standard is with the output (mastered by Adobe)
but is mastered too with Corel, at fairly low price
Adobe rulz, but you simply dont care, product matters, but your skills is counted

 

[LemmingO]

Make yourself a de-bloated Win11 or install Tiny 11, both of them have their hardware requirements halved, for example under 2GB of RAM(Tiny 10 starts fully functional with around 600MB of RAM). You can also have it with most or even all tracking disabled.
If you strip Win11 of all the garbage is not that bad.

Sure, but the debloated version Win11 won't update (or it'll update and restore full Win11 bloat), I think. At least that's what's put me off from doing it.

 

[acrossthestars]

Sure, but the debloated version Win11 won't update (or it'll update and restore full Win11 bloat), I think. At least that's what's put me off from doing it.

If "restoring" Windows 11's bloat was the worst thing about Windows 11 Reduced Size Edition, that might be tolerable. Unfortunately, as I've discovered through experimentation with systems like Tiny11, a lot of the de-bloating process has to do with removing parts of the web connect API--specifically Edge Webview2, which is a headless Edge client that facilitates Windows 11's WSUS features.

What ends up happening is that Windows 11 will try to download updates. If they successfully download (which is not guaranteed), they might not install and then Windows will get stuck in a perpetual installation cycle of trying and failing to update. Trying to repair the operating system does not fix things either, because parts of the deployment manager seem to have been integrated into Webview2, so what you end up with is a system that oftentimes can't install updates and sometimes can't boot either.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Legal wrangling aside, this is not that surprising or impressive. For now, Copilot is nothing but a parrot telling you what it has read online. You can basically use a search engine to get the exact same answer, maybe even quicker judging by how slow these chatbots are getting. Have you tried using ChatGPT lately? You can accelerate to 100mph in your clunker faster than it can give you an answer, but I digress.

What will be more impressive (and potentially scary) is when Copilot can figure out a new way to circumvent licensing that nobody else has thought of. This is not that far off as we have seen with recent reasoning models.

 

[AndreV]

Sure, but the debloated version Win11 won't update (or it'll update and restore full Win11 bloat), I think. At least that's what's put me off from doing it.

You can use Titus script to stop the Windows from doing feature updates but letting it do only security updates.
There are way to make the Windows how you like.

 

[Karlos95]

For now while A.I is in its infancy these companies will let it go rampant, but once A.I gets far smarter, I can perfectly see these corporations put some severe restraints to prevent it to tell us everything that could bankrupt other companies and big pharma, such as cures for certain diseases, and factual answers to our own health instead of just "treatments"

Well, AI has already started to replicate itself... Are they going to put these restraints on before it's too late is the question?

 

[amghwk]

L..L..L....Look at you Hacker!