Another Vista activation bypass: for reals this time?
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted March 4th 2007 1:10PM
posted March 4th 2007 1:10PM
Considering that as recently as a couple of days ago lots of people (including us) were potentially duped into believing that someone had created a keygen utility that churned out working serial numbers for Windows Vista, you'll forgive us for being a little hesitant to recommend the latest Vista crack on the block. Apparently the result of a combined effort by an application cracking group called "Paradox," the utility is actually a "BIOS Emulation Toolkit" that skips the activation process entirely. As always, these kind of programs are an extremely gray area, so we're not going to maintain any illusions here: this utility will be used by individuals to pirate copies of Vista. That said, these kinds of hacks -- if this one actually works -- does a service by pointing out the ineffectiveness of "activation," a process which has caused an enormous amount of annoyance to a lot of consumers that have purchased software legally. Just like every other form of piracy prevention, the only people that really suffer in the end are the innocent users stuck in the middle. [Via digg]
Has anyone tried the Paradox crack with Parallels on a Mac?
@Daniel and others,
You don't get it. When someone cracks Windows (or any other program) and doesn't purchase the retail product, then that product's manufacturer DOES lose something. Maybe not in the traditional sense of having something physically stolen, but they're losing money that they were entitled to BY RIGHT for use of their services. It's no different than if your employer refused to give you your next paycheck. You didn't LOSE anything... they didn't take anything that you had before, but I'm sure you would consider it to be morally reprehensible and *gasp* possibly theft.
The problem is that people consider themselves ENTITLED to the new programs. If the company doesn't price it within a range the pirates consider acceptable (typically $0), then that supposedly justifies their theft. It doesn't. If you don't want to pay the money for the software, don't use it.
LOL, and to think that I'm reading this running Mac OS X on my Dell laptop.
Really, though, people do have a point when they say "if you hate MS so much, why even bother with their products?" There are countless alternatives to Windows that function the same way.
At the same time, however, using pointless analogies about bricks and cars obviously don't apply in the case of software. Hold a "Get 1000 HOURS OF AOL FREE" disc next to a Windows Vista Installation DVD. There is no visible difference except the press-on labels. A brick wall and a car both intrinsically serve their purposes. There are no activation keys for cars and brick walls. Think of the differences between purchasing a brick wall, a car, and a Vista Installation disc. In the former two, there is a relationship between the buyer and seller. I can't run down to the Office Depot and run a car or a brick wall through the check out line, whereas most of us go through life without ever seeing Bill Gates in person. Hell, the closest I've gotten to Microsoft was when I touched my XP install disc that was made in foreign country that happened to be supervised by a liason of Microsoft. When a company breaks down ties with its customer base, piracy and other misgivings are bound to happen. A more appropriate analogy is the fall of the Roman Empire through boundless expansion to the point where there is no relationship between Rome and the outer limits of the empire.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/02/07/timerlock-automated-batch-install-script-for-timerstop-driver-v2a-and-windows-vista-activation-2099-crack/
this works for sure :>
If Microsoft hadn't spent 2 years screwing around in development adding worthless DRM to vista, the laptop i bought 6 months ago that says vista ready might have actually COME with vista.
And because i didn't buy it within one month of vistas release, I'm supposed to spend $259 MORE on something i already paid for.
Why $259 and not $99? Because ultimate is the only one that retains all the new functions microsoft has been bitching about. I'm tired of Microsoft trying to create artificial price points by removing parts of the system so they can charge more for them. There is no excuse, its called gouging the market.
Consider:
Most of the new security features that would be useful for a laptop, like bitlocker, aren't even available unless you get ultimate, and considering how far MS has gone out of their way to make sure the system is not really in my control, its not worth $259, because they don't deserve it.
Even if you have a legal copy of Vista (which I do) and running Vista on my Mac Book Pro using Boot Camp, I have to have an additional activation for each VM running Boot Camp on top of OSX - eventhough its the same machine. This is unacceptable! And its not a matter of piracy Joshua.