this is just a confirmation of MS long standing that they really don't care much about a few individuals who install illegal copies, and only care about the mass pirates and corrupt retailers.

Well considering Microsoft just admitted that they really could care less, might as well get the hack installed before they fix it.

Even you managed to get the hacked version of Vista installed Microsoft will get around to incorporate this in their monthly "Geninue Windows Advantage" program that looks for stuff like this. Go ahead and get the hack, reason Microsoft isn't too concerned about it at the moment is they figured the more users install Vista the more they will eventually want to go legit once the patch is in place to prevent the hack from working.

Here's a few catch:
1) if you can produce a copy of a US$10million Picasso painting by your own hand and experts can not tell the difference (assuming you are that good), is it still piracy?

2) Let's do a simple math:
a) a genuine Windows XP for US$324.99
- activation is required or else blocked
(what if you only wanna do offline gaming, no internet, and your phone is way beyond comfort zone?)
- you can update for free
(only if you have internet)
- nearly zero after sales service

b) a hacked copy for US$1.50each
- no activation needed at all
- no free updates, instead, buy hacked copies once every 6 months @ US$1.50/month
- lifespan of windows xp is 2001-2007:
= 6 years * US$1.50/6months
= US$18.00
- If you are very demanding:
= 6 years * US$1.50/3months
= US$36.00

3) If a genuine Windows XP is US$70, I'm sure there will be zero demand for hacked windows xp.

Do the math.

-ND

Microsoft isn't stupid to miss something like this , they want people to run vista , but at the same time , illegal copies will not run an update with microsoft , and people will need this option after all , the illegal copies are targeted to home users , not corporate users , sooner or later you will get a legal copy and vista will become the most popular and desirable O.S. and thats one of microsoft goals i guess.

They realize that the number of pirates is very small in proportion to the number of legitimate users. Like everyone who buys a new computer buys Windows. And the OS won't run well on old computers. So who's really gonna be running hacked versions?

With one of the hacks for vista you can download the WGA plugin and its says you are legit......You can even go to windows update and run it there and it still lets you through.....so they can try all they want but someone will always have a way around it.

Microsoft is approaching a time of reckoning. I recently bought a new computer - one of the last to still have XP onboard. And the user forums for its manufacturer are FILLED with people downgrading from Vista to XP. So when you hear Microsoft crow about Vista sales activity, remember that this includes pre-installed Vista - and that many people are so frustrated with it that they've backing away from it. Right now, I'm running a dual-boot system - XP on one drive, Win98SE on another. The lion's share of my work is still done in a Win98SE environment, with XP relegated primarily to video and audio work requiring more space than FAT32 allows. And, I plan to keep things this way. So, when I hear about all these Vista hacks coming out, I can't help but wonder how many others don't do Vista and never will ... making such hacks a moot point.

Although Microsoft makes a significant portion from home users, I beleive the bulk of their customers are from legit businesses who are obligated to pay for software (and pay heavily for support). They seem to let private users slip through the cracks. I've never heard of the random hacker kid being prosecuted for using a hacked version of Windows. Am I wrong?

Also I purchased Vista Business OEM and have yet to have a problem. It installed smoothly and predictably, and runs fine. My only complaint would be the constant disk thrashing (which i stopped by turning off the page file, with 2.5G of memory I havent had a problem yet).

Windows can be cracked no matter what Microsoft develops to prevent it. So I can see why MS has this at the bottom of their list of things to take care of. I myself bought a Legit version of XP for my primary system because I didn't want the future hassle. Now I wouldn't have a problem with buying Windows if MS dropped the price, as Andy stated, by at least 100 bucks.

Oh, and I did run Windows Vista for a short time in a dual boot setup with an OEM crack. I wasn't really happy with Vista and eventually just cleared off the extra hard drive I installed it on.

Windows has grown completely out of control. No wonder it's impossible to keep track of all these holes people keep finding. The simplest solution would be to bring the OS down to the bare minimum needed to run the computer, run software you need, and use networking. An OS should be a hardware-software interface, not an all-inclusive package of everything you could ever want to do with a computer. That's what we have software packages for. As an added bonus with this more stripped down OS, consumers wouldn't need monster computers to run the OS alone, development time would decrease drastically, update cycles would be quicker, patches would be easier to create with simpler code, and, oh yes, that ridiculous price tag could be lowered a bit. Of course, M$ wouldn't want any of that and since we let them run a monopoly in the OS market, I guess that gives them a blank check to work with.

If anyone is interested in an alternative, may I suggest Ubuntu? It's the friendliest Linux distribution. It'll run right out of the box and 99% of home users will find it has all the applications that you're used to in Windows. Also, it's even cheaper than buying a pirated copy of Windows every 6 months!

A couple of things: First you people need to get better hacked copies of XP. I'm using the same cracked XP copy that I've used for 2 years now and I didn't pay for it. (Who pays for cracked software?)It is pre-activated and there is a simple registry hack out there that allows you to pass validation for things like IE7, WMP11. etc..

Second, the cool part about the OEM activation hack is that it pre-activates Vista so that you don't phone home to M$. The only way for M$ to disable it would be through a WGA update or validation. I chose Dell as my OEM, so if M$ disables copies activated in this manner, they will block all the legitimate Dell customers that are dialing with the same OEM activation.

It's supposed to be crap, but everyone wants to hack it and download it.
Curious, isn't it?

I understand that MS could deploy and update down the road that will prevent you from performing this hack, but can they undo it once it's done? Since it's an OEM BIOS activation, they could beef up the way OEM's activate in the first place but I don't think they can retroactivly disable it once it's been performed.

In most poor countries, new systems have linux preinstalled. Probably from those people buying new systems, 10% installs a bought version of windows, 10% keeps linux or reinstalls a new version of other free OS, and about the rest of 80% ... guess what ? pirated version of windows. So, microsoft really thinks that they will make an unbreakable OS ? No chance. I don't even know why they keep trying. Waste of time

fint it works trust me i use it to

Where can you find the hack

I have 3 desktops and 1 laptop. And I don't want to puchase 4 copies. I already purchased one vista ultimate.

Help me

Many of you talk about how MS can't prevent people from hacking Windows, this and that. But you have to know, neither MS nor anybody else ever claimed that they could. It has been mathematically proven that in any large scale software applications (OS included), it is impossible to completely eliminate bugs. In a sense, it is impossible to build a foolproof computer so hacking or cracking is always possible. The only difference is the level of skills required.

try torrents.