Microsoft Looking to Tighten Up Windows 8 Activation Requirements

Microsoft’s activation service has always been somewhat controversial since its debut in Windows XP, but has turned out to be a necessary evil. The process started out being very forgiving, and to be fair, we have yet to hear of a single legitimate customer being turned away. Even when Microsoft was within its rights to deny activation as a result of terms in the EULA, a simple phone call was often all it took to resolve the dispute. Pirates have been taking advantage of Microsoft’s generous nature for years now, and new reports are suggesting they are looking to close down a few of the loop holes with Windows 8.

Read more at:
Maximum PC | Microsoft Looking to Tighten Up Windows 8 Activation Requirements

 

[Gornot]

You can hardly pirate something that has not been released or is impossible to buy.

Of course you can. In all my years of constant (for example) music hunting, I've seen far too many times a finished product being leaked and spread on the Internet ilegally, and it usually doesn't go away.

Trying to activate it now is a form of piracy, it doesn't matter if it's still not available for purchase.
Also, it is true that many people did it with Windows 7, perhaps even of SF ( I wouldn't know, I don't think I was around at the time)...

You, however, like (I would assume) most others (in this community) are standing on that thin line between outright piracy for the sole reason of "stealing" ie. not paying for a product and the fact that the trial period may not be enough to suit your needs for testing, tweaking, and as you mentioned yourself, feedback.

Windows 7 was great partly because of the giant amounts of feedback given by those who wanted to test it, one way or the other (activating or not).

In the end, it matters if you actually buy the thing, not what you do before it (unless you actually spread it around ilegally). It is kind of a touchy subject that is even against the rules, I but will only dare say this: if you end up with the actual product in your hands and cough up the cash, "hacking" it beforehand is acceptable... in some cases, not all. With Windows, I both do and don't agree with you, but I understand and accept your reasoning. I guess I just still have faith in humanity xD

 

[tcman50]

Microsoft has the right to protect their product anyway they want, people who think they are completely invisible to outside forces on their pc's are just silly. That being said, Microsoft doesn't give a rats ass about your computer, hardware swap outs, what sites you visit etc, they just want to be paid for their product.

I have 3 pc's and a laptop in my home, all wired together in 1 GB network to deliver HD media throughout my house, updating for $40 is a reasonable price, why would I feel the need to handsome frog about activation and work arounds, geeze people, its $40 bucks.

TC :huh:

 

[pparks1]

You can hardly pirate something that has not been released or is impossible to buy. I will also never be using it as my main OS and more than likely uninstall after I have finished playing, just as I did with the previous builds, and if I do use it (unlikely) I will pay for it. But yes I find it exciting (not so much with windows 8) but I installed every single leak of windows 7 right up to the RTM and activated any copy possible, just like many others did on sevenforums. It does not make me a pirate. I sent a lot of feedback when testing the win7 leaks also.

I understand the point that you are making. And you are right, using the leaked releases, at the present time, don't make you a pirate. I do think though, once the official OS releases, if anybody continues to use their leaked releases then they have now crossed that line and are pirating software they they otherwise should have paid for.

I'm cognizant of the fact that not everybody takes piracy seriously or sees any harm in it. I'm biased as I have worked for commercial software vendors for my entire life and sales of the product ensure paychecks keep coming to keep me and my family provided for.

 

[gizbug]

So what does this mean for people who have the Windows 8 Enterprise x64 version and they haven't installed it? You can install it, but will be nagged to activate constantly?

Any comments?

 

[pparks1]

So what does this mean for people who have the Windows 8 Enterprise x64 version and they haven't installed it? You can install it, but will be nagged to activate constantly?

Any comments?

I think that I read with Windows 7, that after the activation period expires and you get the screens saying that you might have non genuine software that the OS would occasionally log you out (not shutdown) if you are still not activated.

I honestly don't know the answer to your question though, as I either have activated my copy within the window, or just tested for a few days on a VM and never even came close to the 30 day expiration ending.

 

[tcman50]

Also non activated windows 7 still allowed critical updates but not optional updates like media center stuff, browser updates and the like, stuff the most people would like access too. Sure one can run non activated windows but whats the point after a while, if its stripped down, nagging you all the time and becomes a burden.

It cracks me up because most people running windows 7 probably have a decent computer to run everything but won't pay microsoft $99 for an oem edition of windows 7.

 

[pparks1]

It cracks me up because most people running windows 7 probably have a decent computer to run everything but won't pay microsoft $99 for an oem edition of windows 7.

 

[win7]

You can hardly pirate something that has not been released or is impossible to buy.

Of course you can. In all my years of constant (for example) music hunting, I've seen far too many times a finished product being leaked and spread on the Internet ilegally, and it usually doesn't go away.

Trying to activate it now is a form of piracy, it doesn't matter if it's still not available for purchase.
Also, it is true that many people did it with Windows 7, perhaps even of SF ( I wouldn't know, I don't think I was around at the time)...

You, however, like (I would assume) most others (in this community) are standing on that thin line between outright piracy for the sole reason of "stealing" ie. not paying for a product and the fact that the trial period may not be enough to suit your needs for testing, tweaking, and as you mentioned yourself, feedback.

Windows 7 was great partly because of the giant amounts of feedback given by those who wanted to test it, one way or the other (activating or not).

In the end, it matters if you actually buy the thing, not what you do before it (unless you actually spread it around ilegally). It is kind of a touchy subject that is even against the rules, I but will only dare say this: if you end up with the actual product in your hands and cough up the cash, "hacking" it beforehand is acceptable... in some cases, not all. With Windows, I both do and don't agree with you, but I understand and accept your reasoning. I guess I just still have faith in humanity xD

Either way, I have brought so many copies of windows over the years, sent so much feedback on windows 7 leaks/beta and other MS products, I feel I have the right to do this until it's possible for me to purchase a key. At this point I will probably just uninstall it as other than curiosity I really see no reason to upgrade from seven on my machine. I'm sure even Microsoft would not mind. If they do, tough.

 

[alphanumeric]

So what does this mean for people who have the Windows 8 Enterprise x64 version and they haven't installed it? You can install it, but will be nagged to activate constantly?

Any comments?

The 8 Pro that I installed nagged me for activation and kicked me into a Metro enter a new key or buy a new key screen. You could exit out without doing anything though. It was an in your face kind of deal though. There were also some customization personalization options greyed out until you activate. I only ran it for a couple of hours before nuking it and installing the RP. As far as I know Enterprise does the same thing.

 

[jimbo45]

You can hardly pirate something that has not been released or is impossible to buy.

Of course you can. In all my years of constant (for example) music hunting, I've seen far too many times a finished product being leaked and spread on the Internet ilegally, and it usually doesn't go away.

Trying to activate it now is a form of piracy, it doesn't matter if it's still not available for purchase.
Also, it is true that many people did it with Windows 7, perhaps even of SF ( I wouldn't know, I don't think I was around at the time)...

You, however, like (I would assume) most others (in this community) are standing on that thin line between outright piracy for the sole reason of "stealing" ie. not paying for a product and the fact that the trial period may not be enough to suit your needs for testing, tweaking, and as you mentioned yourself, feedback.

Windows 7 was great partly because of the giant amounts of feedback given by those who wanted to test it, one way or the other (activating or not).

In the end, it matters if you actually buy the thing, not what you do before it (unless you actually spread it around ilegally). It is kind of a touchy subject that is even against the rules, I but will only dare say this: if you end up with the actual product in your hands and cough up the cash, "hacking" it beforehand is acceptable... in some cases, not all. With Windows, I both do and don't agree with you, but I understand and accept your reasoning. I guess I just still have faith in humanity xD

Hi there

just step off the horse a bit.

Imagine I'm in LA for a little bit of a Holiday (US "Vacation" - although what that has to do with Cows -- Latin -- VACCA I don't know. The word obviously came from the Latin source !!).

Say I buy LEGIT a DVD in the USA which is Region 1 -- no reason why I shouldn't.

Now if I try and play this on my laptop (no reason why I shouldn't do this either) it normally wouldn't work because of the regional encoding -- but LAPTOPS are used by people travelling all over the world.

So we have to use to "Software from dubious sites" to unlock this stuff so even though I've purchased it 100% legally in the USA it still wouldn't work on a European Laptop.

No wonder the whole DVD / Music industry is riddled with piracy. That whole B/S "Regional Encoding" thing alerted people to all sorts of "Other possibilities".

Good luck to those torrent sites still operating if they can circumvent this type of B/S where even if I PAY for a DVD it won't play on a European Laptop unless you download something like VLC player.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Dave44]

hi Jimbo get dvd region free program then you can play dvds from anywhere in world on any comp and back to topic cant wait to can buy windows 8

 

[besb]

What is more annoying to me is the RP and RTM are actually different:
am not talking about the rainbow colors, and the "metro" icons but the functionality they have removed.
gadgets are gone - glass is gone (alpha transparency on the desk top)
I have been running RP since day one and have been tweaking and customizing and debugging to get it to do what I wanted.
Happy Bunny and was quite happy to buy 4 upgrades.
RTM is leaked so just to verify everything is still OK, I installed and activated it.
No glass , themes have to be modified, no gadgets - has to be fixed.
Result I will now only consider one upgrade for support purposes.
I have been burnt in the past with ME just horrendous and the vista lack of drivers for a lot of my oddball peripherals
£200 down the tubes. Even if it is not fit for purpose you will never manage to get your cash back from MS.

 

[56kevins]

Sorry if this is a bit of a dumb question but if I upgrade for 40$ will I still be able to dual boot with linux as the hardware won't have the uefi boot locked in.