Download Squad

...And so the epic struggle of Microsoft versus pirates continues.

Last week Microsoft and Lenovo went tag-team on the first activation workaround, which utilized a leaked OEM product key. "Nice try, pirates!" said Microsoft. "Your key has been blacklisted and will never see again the light of day! Ha HA!" The also touted the fact that Windows 7 has improved methods of detection of hacks like these.

If you listened very, very closely, you could hear a collective yawn from the cracking community.

A week later, and torrent trackers everywhere are awash with...er...alternative activation methods, and they're being used with varying degrees of success. The bottom line: Microsoft can try, but they're going to face an uphill battle against pirates yet again.

It might take a little longer with Windows 7 for a really solid workaround to appear, but it's bound to happen. And once Microsoft figures out how to thwart that method? There will no doubt be another one waiting in the wings.

No post like this would be complete without the usual disclaimer. As you friends in Redmond will tell you, you should never, never download anything that activates Windows by illegitimate means. Doing so puts you at serious risk - the files could be infected and terrorize your system, increase your car's carbon footprint, make your mattress lumpy and uncomfortable, and cause your all your toilet paper to turn really, really rough.

First you got your hands on a leaked copy of the Windows 7 RTM. Bad idea, says Microsoft.

Then you tracked down 7loader, which took advantage of a leaked Lenovo product key. We know it's out there, came the nonchalant reply from Redmond.

And now, thanks to a cooperative effort, the workaround has already been defeated. The official blog post touts improvements in Windows 7, which "already includes an improved ability to detect hacks, also known as activation exploits, and alert customers who are using a pirated copy." The post continues, stating that no systems will ever be sold using the particular OEM key that was utilized by the exploit.

So what's Microsoft's real goal here? "Our objective isn't to stop every "mad scientist" that's out there from dabbling; our aim is to protect our customers from commercialized counterfeit software that impacts our customers' confidence in knowing they got what they paid for."

Sure...There's absolutely no reason it would have anything to do with crippling the biggest Windows competitor on the market - pirated copies of Windows.

Getting your hands on the WIndows 7 RTM build isn't really that hard at this point. It's all over torrent trackers and other file sharing networks (including the meatspace "can you burn me a copy" network).

That's only step one, of course. Without a valid key to activate your copy, you're dead in the water eventually.

However, just as it happened with Windows Vista, there's already been a Windows 7 crack created utilizing a major OEM's volume license pre-activation key. Instead of Dell, this time the key in question belongs to Lenovo. The key and OEM certificate were simply extracted from the Windows 7 Ultimate .wim files.

Reports from various other sites and forums indicate that the crack will only work for Windows 7 Ultimate, though both 32 and 64 bit versions can be cracked. What about Genuine Advantage? Passed with flying colors. That doesn't mean Microsoft will never sort this out, but I have my doubts - it was never blocked with Vista.

We're not linking to the actual crack or any of the proof-of-concept posts, of course, so don't ask. If you're already running the RTM, you'll be able to figure things out for yourself anyway.

[via Softpedia]

Product activation is something that's been bugging computers users for years now, and whilst the inconvenience to users has been somewhat minor, it appears that the Doomsday-esque scenario of activations being impossible due to a technical fault seems to have struck. Of all the companies that it could have hit, BoingBoing is reporting that it has hit a rather large and dominant player in the software activation world: Microsoft. Redmond's own Windows Genuine Advantage systems apparently failed, causing any activation requests to fail, resulting in the (legitimate) copies of Windows being marked as counterfeit and reducing the feature set to users.

If that weren't bad enough, the article also mentions that Microsoft is recommending people refrain from retrying activation until Tuesday the 28th of August. If you're unfortunate enough to get caught in this let us know in the comments.

It's not secret that a lot of folks are less than pleased with Windows Vista. And while Windows XP has been on the shelves for more than 5 years, Microsoft's longest-reigning operating system still suits the needs of computer users.

But it turns out that there's a downside to having an operating system that's been as popular as XP for as long as 5+ years. You eventually start to run out of working product activation keys.

Microsoft has created a new build of Windows XP Professional called SP2c. It's virtually identical to Windows XP Professional SP2. But it includes new product activation keys. SP2c will be available to computer makers and resellers within the next month, and will help support the availability of Windows XP Professional through January 31, 2009.

There's no word of updates for Windows XP Home, Media Center Edition, Tablet PC edition, or Professional 64-bit edition.

[via Computer World]

Across two posts, Charles Miller describes an unfortunate experience with re-registering NewsFire, a popular Mac RSS client. NewsFire's developer, Dave Watanabe, implemented a registration system that simply asks for the email address used to register the software, which the app then checks against a central server Watanabe maintains.

The problem arose when Miller tried to re-activate NewsFire after switching Macs and wiping Mac OS X a couple of times (he goofs around with OS seeds and a lot of software). After one too many activations, NewsFire eventually told him that his email was no longer valid, in which case Miller emailed Watanabe to see what was going on. Check out Watanabe's response:

While you may now activate your software again, the evidence suggests that you've activated your single-user license from a suspiciously wide variety of locations. An explanation would be appreciated. I don't want to have to presume this is breach of license.

This 'interesting' response prompted Miller to explore the many and unfortunately ugly faces of product activation (as well as the fine line between customer service and disservice), and plenty of questions have resurfaced in the ongoing discussion of software and licensing. Is replacing a registration name and key with nothing but an email address a good idea? How about tying a key to specific hardware? Can we trust users with activation systems that *don't* phone home? Should these complications force product activation in the nether-regions of our hard drives, or is there a better idea on the horizon?

Despite proud boasts that Vista was the most hack-proof version of Windows to date, Microsoft Senior Product Manager Alex Kochis has written on a developers' blog that Microsoft has recognized two ways that hackers have cracked Vista's product activation.

Basically the hacks affect OEM copies of Vista that are meant to run on a specific piece of hardware. The first hack changes some code in a computer's BIOS to make Vista think it's installed on the correct PC. The other hack does something similar, but with software.

Basically, Kochis says Windows XP was vulnerable to the same sort of hack, but Microsoft never paid much attention because there were far easier ways to obtain a bootleg copy of Windows XP.

And it turns out Microsoft isn't going to place much priority on combating this hack now either. Since it's a relatively tricky and dangerous way to get an illegal copy of Vista running, the company figures most users won't try modifying their BIOS. Microsoft will instead focus on "organized counterfeiters and protect users from becoming unknowing victims."

[via CNet]

Last month we told you how to extend your Windows Vista 30 day trial period for as long as 120 days. The process is 100% legal, and was put in Vista by Microsoft. All you have to do is enter a rearm command every 30 days or so.

We thought you could only do this 3 times, but now sites are reporting that there's a registry hack that allows you to rearm your system an indefinite number of times.

Of course, if you want a fully supported version of Vista, you're going to have to activate it. And if you want to avoid the hassle of having to reenter a key every thirty days or risk losing all of your data, you should activate your software. But if for some reason you might have a copy of the operating system and a reason not to activate it, this hack may come in handy.

The author of the program that allegedly generates activation keys for Windows Vista (if you let it run long enough) is back. And now he says the key generator "is a joke, I never intended for it to work."

Further, he never actually got the program to work himself, and he says anyone who claims they have is either mistaken or lying.

Here's the thing. In theory, the brute force kegyen could work. It basically generates random combinations of 25 characters. Sooner or later, it's bound to come up with a valid product key. But while initial reports suggested that you could get a few keys by running the program for a few hours, there's little evidence that anyone has succeeded yet.

Of course, you can still extend your Windows Vista trial period from 30 to 120 days and run Vista for 4 months before purchasing an activation key.

[via Slashdot]

When you first install Windows Vista, you can run it for 30 days without entering a product key. This is the evaluation period, but what happens if your thirty days runs out before you buy an activation key; if you're not sure you want to buy one; or if you were only trying out Vista and don't plan to buy it, but have some files you need to get off of that computer?

Well, as Dwight Silverman found out the hard way, on day 31 Windows boots up and gives you a warning message that you're running a version of Vista that's not "genuine." Then Internet Explorer opens up and asks if you'd like to purchase an activation key. Silverman was able to figure out how to open a few programs and move a few files around through the Internet Explorer interface, which was necessary because he wanted to clean up the PC before returning the evaluation computer he'd been using.

But it turns out there's an officially supported way to turn that 30 day evaluation period into 120 days.

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Jay Hathaway	111	6
2	Lee Mathews	76	34
3	Sebastian Anthony	51	163
4	Brad Linder	37	7
5	Jason Clarke	31	0
6	Grant Robertson	8	8
7	Dolores Parker	7	2
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	7	1
9	Nik Fletcher	3	0
10	Matt Heerema	3	3
11	Paul O'Brien	2	0
12	Download Squad Staff	1	0
13	John Burke	1	0

Download Squad

activation posts

Windows 7 activation crackers undeterred by Microsoft's muscle-flexing

Microsoft and Lenovo quickly swashbuckle Windows 7 pirates

Windows 7 activation already cracked with OEM volume license key

Windows Genuine Advantage validation servers down

Microsoft creates new product keys for still popular Windows XP

Does product activation suck?

Microsoft admits Vista OEM hack works

Can Windows Vista be run indefinitely without activation?

Vista brute force hack update: it might work, if you let it run for a year

Run Windows Vista for 120 days without activation key

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