(no subject)

[theducks]

So I'm reading http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/Stories.aspx?displaylang=en -

It all brings new meaning to "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt". Let's look at some of the comments from people who've "gone genuine":

I discovered I had a non-genuine copy of Windows when I called the support center with some issues I was having
...
I was also frustrated because the program was for a computer my son had built at his school, and he was experiencing some software conflicts with other programs he had loaded. These were most likely the result of the counterfeit software, because there were no problems once we loaded the genuine software on the system
...


Here's the thing.. 99% of pirated copies of XP will be copies of the real installer discs! The only possible issues your systems has because the software is pirated is because windows update hasn't applied patches. If you reinstall and apply patches, of course it's going to fix itself! Pirated copies aren't any more bug ridden than legitimate ones. I for one have not heard of any pirate releases of XP that contain backdoors or additional bugs (although, it is certainly possible).

Hmm that does bring up a cute idea - someone planting on p2p a patched installer ISO which automatically installs spyware after installing windows. It's fairly easy to make new install cds.. heh

Comments

[firvulag.livejournal.com]

yeah, of course re-installing is such a bitch of a job that i put it off for over 12 months just to get directx9.0c installed because my copy of xp wasn't legit. if it was legit, it would(should) have been a simple update and install, but because they built some anti-piracy stuff into it, and then started to get the games developers to make their games require it even when it didn't (I have at least 1 game that requires directx 7 sound, directx 8 graphics but for an unknown reason min reqs (to even install the game) are directx9.0c).

It isn't hard to get a new, up-to-date pirated copy of xp, a new one is released every month with all the latest updates in it. It's really a larger issue to reinstall windows (and everything else that doesn't like just being copied accross) than just have automatic updates take care of things itself.

On your cute idea, spyware that installs windows...

[(Anonymous)]

It's an attitude I run into on a fairly regular basis. A little humorous, but who am I to encourage piracy?

[silne.livejournal.com]

LOL n00bs are clueless by nature. And only the n00bs are going to rush out and buy a legit copy of windows 'just to get the latest updates'. Anyone who knows their stuff knows how to safeguard themselves from attacks that the updates 'prevent'.

That said, I do own 2 legit copies of winxp. One I bought while I was contracting as it was an expense I could claim, and the other copy came with my laptop (aka the microsoft tax). If I didn't need to be able to run activex stuff for my uni course I'd install ubuntu on the laptop and use the legit key for a desktop system. In another month or so when our bank account recovers from hubby having to replace his system (the motherboard died) he plans to purchase a nice brand spankin' new cd of winxp to use on his new system. It's a simple matter to change the key and activate the installation.