They've finally, really done it. Your good friends in the hacking community have apparently come up with a solution to get you
Vista -- should you want it -- activation free. According to a report, there's now a cracked, full version of Vista floating around that totally circumvents that cumbersome and costly activation process. The crack supposedly stems from OEMs (and end users) that were fed up with that process, and somehow persuaded Microsoft to pull an up-up-down-down maneuver and make the OS work, sans activation. The software utilizes System-Locked Pre-Installation 2.0, embeds OEMs BIOS files (signed by Microsoft), and passes all of the company's Windows Genuine Advantage checks. Of course, maybe it's possible that the folks in Redmond care more about users adopting Vista than they care about them paying for it. Nah, probably not.
Update: According to our suave, stylish, and clearly informed readers, this hack has been floating around for some time. So for those who know, feel free to move on, otherwise; check it out, Vista activation bypassed!
[Via
Techdirt]
posted Mar 5th 2008 12:14AM
lol. first slashdot. now engadget. ummm...
this news is 365 days old.
Title should say bypassed, not cracked.
Also this is not exactly news is it, or are we celebrating it being 2 years since this was done or something?
Great! Now I owe $15 to a dude I bet against almost a couple of years ago that Vista couldn't get hacked!
pretty stupid bet mate
if it exists it can be hacked/cracked/bypassed
Vista Ultimate x64 "permanently activated edition" ftw.
Hmm I've been using the "Vista OneClick Activator" since Vista's release and it's never been a problem (no WGA nagging, etc.) It also emulates OEM BIOS. Can anyone tell me what the difference here is?
Jeez, I've had vista business from university (MSDNA?), used this process to go to Ultimate and eventually seen the error of my ways and downgraded to XP since this first came out.
I think the only difference is that you can choose a brand, and unless you're super loyal who'll actually care?
2nd that, I also used a OEM Bios emulation program. Mine came with the copy of vista I downloaded a week after vista came out. I also reverted to XP. lol
old
Old news... SWIM downloaded this months ago. Tested it in parallels and it worked perfectly. But yeah this has been on the bay of pirates for quite a while.
Gret so Engadget is getting into piracy. Awesome! Way to promote software piracy! And, MONTHS late. Yeah you guys are like 8 months late to the story... As well, Windows Update detects this. Way to fail miserably and promote piracy at the same time.
+1
Aren't these OEM Bios bypasses the very thing MSFT is supposedly killing in SP1?
Couldn't engadget get in trouble for this? A lot of people read their blog....
yeah we call that free speech...
freedom of the press... etc...
by your logic, if i post a recipe for black powder and you set off a bomb, im to blame.
go live in a nanny state plz
Making black powder is pretty simple, people have been doing it for centuries. But, if you post plans to make a bomb and someone uses your plans to hurt someone... you ARE partially to blame.
They have freedom of speech in America? Could of fooled me.
What, you mean saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur?... oh sorry, I'll be feeling guilty all day now.
Awesome dl'ed in 8 seconds cant wait to go through driver hell for the visual heaven that is vista :P
Heh, drivers. .....we have one last company to get to before we linux folks never have to give a thought to them again.
...except for printers. Just say no to paper. (or buy HP or brother)
Yes, that's right- Creative turned nice with the X-Fi.
nVidia? You can do it...
Hey, guys. I bet you didn't know ethana2 is a Linux zealot who never shuts up.
Too bad the vast majority of Linux distros don't support Adobe apps, have terrible Flash support, are inconsistent and messy due to a lack of coordination, require a tome of knowledge to fully utilize, etc. etc. etc.
Does the comment form work now? *grr*
..I'll see.
The fact that the folks at Adobe are jerks didn't stop us from running photoshop CS2, but you can thank them for slowing progress.
Flash works fine, but they're also screwing with PulseAudio adoption.
And finally, we all know that to use windows you have to know what a virus is. To use Ubuntu? You don't have to know anything. Administering is slightly different, but if you have an IQ above 85 and don't mind learning like three things, you'll be fine.
....and when we /do/ get to where we need to be, after we've done all the submitting of bug reports and feature requests, patches, and questions on IRC channels, your legacy will be 'I sat on my *** and mocked them because they were nerds and stuff'.
I'm not making fun of you because you're a nerd, I'm making fun of you because you use an under-featured, under-programmed-for, poorly designed OS with an unusable GUI and even worse driver support than Vista, and yet you feel so superior for it. I'm making fun of you because you're undoubtedly sitting shirtless in your moldy basement fuming at people making fun of your precious OS and reacting as though they were laughing at your child for being a little slow. It's ok to not respond to comments sometimes, really!
"I'm not making fun of you because you're a nerd"(fellow engadget reader) I'm making fun of you because you use an under-featured, (?) under-programmed-for, (app availability is lacking, yes. It happens to be enough for me) poorly designed (*cough*) OS with an unusable GUI (...?) and even worse driver support than Vista, (FALSE) and yet you feel so superior for it.(Dude, I used to use windows too; it's not like I went out and got a mac) I'm making fun of you because you're undoubtedly sitting shirtless in your moldy basement fuming at people making fun of your precious OS (interesting stereotype, no?) and reacting as though they were laughing at your child for being a little slow. It's ok to not respond to comments sometimes, really! (I know, but I'm otherwise bored at the moment. Give your dad my regards.)
~further dispute can be sent to my email address: ethana2@gmail.com
By the way, sorry for that, Luis.. if you have email notifications turned on.... and search YouTube for 'compiz fusion'.
Nix whores are boring. But then so is anybody who rants on about how one OS/company is better than another. Each OS has it's good points and it's bad points.
Hey! No were not, I love my AIX 5.1 box!!
Git. =D
Aren't you using Vista Capable hardware?
Heh ya this isnt really a new news to most of us.
I've been using the Dell OEM BIOS for nearly six months. This hack has been out for a while now. I guess now Paradox decided to slap their name on it, it becomes official.
I guess one argument is that, last I checked, it was only Asus and HP bios. Now you can use Lenovo and Acer as well.
Microsoft has already stated that this type of hack will no longer work once SP1 comes out next week. I think its time to hire some fact checkers for the stories.
You're hired. You don't get payed, but you get to proof-read every post once it hits the webpage. To report any errors, just post them in the comments section.
Best Regards,
Engadget
i used this hack and installed SP1. not problems whatsoever.
SP1 as it stands does not affect this hack. Saw it in person. Maybe future SP1 iterations will?
sp1 broke the paradox crack on my machine. the vistaloader crack still works.
btw the article that the read link is pointing to is from march 2007, not 2008
As long as they stay the de facto standard, what do they care
Yeah really. To go through all that trouble for microsoft product is something i may never understand. The same amount of work could get your favorite app working in WINE.
OK - step one give Vista away for free - might help get adoption by the public up by a few percent but remember folks have this dog spade or neutered - we sure as well don't want Vista to have any offspring. Vista is a terrible disease and it can be stopped in our lifetime.
I'm pretty sure MS must have helped get this leaked - next they'll probably release a hack to bypass DRM to help get the dreadful vista performance up a little bit - too little too late MS.
Just work on Windows 7 and get it right this time - how you fell from the grace of XP to the hell that is Vista few will ever know.
This is really really old. I've been using it for over a year. The SP1 pack that's supposed to come out soon will install a warning sign for people who use this though.
But why would you want to?
Talk about living in the past. And it just so happens that the release from the screenshot just happens to be specifically targeted by a recent Post-SP1 update.
Well, no offense, I don't think many people upgrading to vista anyways... unless, it comes with the machine... I bought the damn Vista Ultimate upgrade DVD but I've downgraded back to XP due to compatibility issues.
I shouldn't be amused that it ships on a DVD, should I? It's really not that much space, right?
What a pity. Welcome back to XP, man.
(I am still using W2k on my G5. haha)
Very old news. Here is the original article... written 1 year 2 days ago!
http://digg.com/microsoft/Vista_cracked_totally_by_Paradox_Microsoft_s_in_trouble_now
lol @ a person called Paradox
IM SHOUTING TO GET YOUR ATTENTION!!!BLA BLA BLA!!!
Okay, sorry for that, anyways, this method has been released by PARADOX around Jan/Feb 2007...Wow, were have you been Engadget? It just shows how much attention you guys actually pay to stuff that isn't about the iPhone or some gay macbook.
Wow, like to hear yourself talk, don't you? If you actually read the comments you would see that you are about the 20th person to mention that this is old info. But don't let that stop you.
what the hell engadget? this news is almost a year old
in fact:
here is an article you guys wrote saying how SP1 was still vulnerable to the OEM hack:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/11/vista-sp1-still-vulnerable-to-activation-hacks/
heres an article saying the same crack was fixed by SP1
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/04/vista-sp1-kills-the-wga-kill-switch/
I cant find the original article regarding this story.. but i distinctly remember it having the exact same screenshot as this one.
For shame, engadget..