News
Microsoft Goes After Piracy Hacks with Vista SP1
It's no "reduced functionality mode"; still, Microsoft has other tricks to encourage those using pirated copies of Vista to upgrade to legitimate versions.
"
Reduced functionality mode" isn't coming back but Microsoft has other tricks in the pipeline to encourage those using pirated copies of Vista to upgrade to legitimate versions.
With Vista SP1 expected to be released to the public next month, the company
is going to "disable two of the most common exploits to our product activation
technology," aka OEM BIOS or Grace Timer, wrote Senior Product Manager
Alex Kochis on the company's Windows Genuine Advantage blog last week.
"This means that users who have the exploits loaded on their systems will find those exploits disabled by SP1, and they will be asked to activate their copy of Windows Vista," he wrote.
Kochis added, "It's important to note that this update does not disable
the exploits it finds -- it simply alerts customers that exploits exist. When
we first release the update that enables Windows Vista to detect the exploits
we will also make available a separate removal tool as a download. In the future
we will integrate the removal of the exploits with the detection."
According to Kochis, the fix will be pushed out to Vista users via Windows
Update "later this month."
For more details, read the blog post here.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is the vice president of Web & Digital Strategy for 1105's Converge360 Group, where she oversees the front-end Web team and deals with all aspects of digital projects at the company, including launching and running the group's popular virtual summit and Coffee talk series . She an experienced tech journalist (20 years), and before her current position, was the editorial director of the group's sites. A few years ago she gave a talk at a leading technical publishers conference about how changes in Web browser technology would impact online advertising for publishers. Follow her on twitter @beckynagel.