Whistler anti-piracy measures confirmed

[hagbard]

See:


http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=19612

 

[SmiZ]

Wow, that's annoying as hell. I understand where microsoft is coming from, but I don't think this will acomplish what they want it to. It's going to annoy the average user who wouldn't have used it illegally anyway, and it's not going to effect the hardcore warez trader because this protection will be cracked within a couple of days of its release.

 

[MrX]

Im running Whistler 2410b(pirated) with crack.

The "b" realese bypasses the need for a CD KEY, doesn't require you to register, and overrides the 180 day evaluation period.

P.S. If your gonna d/l a ISO make sure its a "b" release or spearately d/l the cracks

I personally don think microsoft is going to get anywhere with anti-piracy measures because there will always be programmers smart enough to defeat what ever ms comes up with.

 

[Castellan]

As I said in another thread about this, it's the typical user that gets screwed. Pirates will find a way around that junk. Always have, always will.

 

[Fokks]

It's just plain stupid.

It's only going to push away more people to use alternative OS's like Linux. And like it's been said, this will be nothing more than a speedbump for pirates. Already it's known that the OEM gold versions won't have the mandatory registration, so guess what will be circulating for warez.

 

[KiLLaZ]

Man oh man. Having to call up Microsoft if you want to upgrade your "main components." Good thing none of us here at Anandtech ever upgrade our systems

 

[IamDavid]

I don't see this going over very well with anyone.. Individuals don't like to be told they have to register somthin they already bought and companies won't like having to register hundreds of computers...

 

[jhu]

i think you had to do this for autocad for quite a while.

 

[Biggs]

Well, the DVD was cracked. It's only a matter of time...

 

[Maetryx]

It's true about AutoCAD. At least since version 13, I know there has been an activation code. But it wasn't dependent on hardware configurations.

Now EaglePoint (civil engineering software) has this exact solution. I repartitioned a hard drive once, and EaglePoint quit working. That sucked. Then I upgraded components and it quit again. Over the course of 6 months, I had to get 3 activation codes from EaglePoint.

I have no idea if they still do that. But it wasn't so bad, since it was a specialized, multi-thousand dollar software title. Microsoft is ridiculous proposing that consumers call an activation hotline. It'll come down one of two ways:
Absolutely no one will call it because a crack will become ubiquitous
Every clueless consumer on the planet will call it everytime their computer glitches, thinking it's related to the activation code.

-Maetryx

 

[Lowfat]

That's it! I'm definitly switching to Linux!!!

 

[gcliv]

Once again MS is taking over your life just that little bit more...

I'll just stick with 2k

 

[JellyBaby]

I agree with the previous posters. Even though MS has a right to protect it's IP and to stop piracy, this is just downright annoying for most of us. People will only be inconvenienced so far before they move elsewhere. If every piece of M$ software will eventually require this nonsense, then everytime you update your PC will you need to make a dozen phone calls? One for the OS, one for Word, one for Excel, one for Frontpage, etc, etc.? Where does it end? It's my feeling this will backlash against M$ and hurt their bottom line rather than help it.

 

[rocmonster]

will anyone REALLY NEED to upgrade to whistler?

 

[JellyBaby]

rocmonster,

I plan to but I'm moving from Win98SE. Whistler provides a somewhat new GUI, far better game compatibility over Win2K, increased stability, eliminates DLL Hell (hopefully), far better memory management over Win9x.

Basically, unless MS really screws the pooch, anyone using Win9x will want to upgrade if they don't have Win2K. Win 98 for example handles RAM poorly after 128-256 MB. Its virtual memory management is also poor. Soon software will begin to require larger amounts of RAM and disk and Win 9x won't be the optimal platform to run it.

 

[loosbrew]

soon they will be selling Windows BlowME 2002 with a doggle. thats gonna be funny!

loosbrew

 

[Asha]

Hmmmm, I red the piece but I don't get how they are going to do what it sais there. If I use a cd to intall something nothing can be written to that cd so how is it to know next time that it isnt the same pc??
With old installs on floppy's that indeed was the case but on normal cd in use with todays technology that is not possible.
Off course MS could bring out its new os on a rewritable and demand that everybody has a writer )

Anyway in the case that I am overlooking something and it is possible I'll just copy the cd before I install it.

Asha

 

[WildDreamer]

Link. I think i'll just stick with my prolific copy of Win 95 for a bit longer

 

[Murben]

Asha - The key line from the article is "designed to reduce casual copying by requiring the Internet- or phone-based registration, or activation, of Whistler before it can be used".

If you are required to register the product before the OS will work, you will be providing Microshaft with your unique product ID and your unique machine hardware configuration ID. Thus if you try to install the OS on another machine, you will not be able to register it because the product ID has already been registered.

Microshaft probably provides you with a CRC type code generated by the product ID and hardware combo ID (that you provide to Microshaft when you register) to activate the software. Since the hardware combo ID would not be the same on another machine, you will not be able to use the registration on anything except the original machine. (My guess is the CRC code from Microsoft would be cross checked by the OS to verify the hardware ID contained in the code matches the hardware configuration of the PC).

Pretty lame. You KNOW it will be cracked so what's the point? It is just another excuse for a company to profile its customers for profit.

 

[MrChicken]

I see hundreds of thousands of average americans reading 20 digit (or whatever) codes over the line to really agited MS phone techs. That would be a SNL skit in real life.
"won - ate - tree - E as in eduardo - X as in ex-wife - sex - fore - U as in you MS bastids made me read this damn code after I waited on hold for 30 minutes and I paid twelve hundred bucks to stay on hold with you Bastids."

If I worked the phones at MS, I'd quit now....

 

[Usul]

Not only americans. For what I know thay sell win all over the world. Do you image what a hussle would be to create huge phone support centers in all those nations?

 

[Davegod75]

supposedly there is a way around it now. see the register's site or the general hardware forum

 

[vfrjim]

Atleast Corporate editions are spared

Jim

 

[DavidHood]

What Sux is that I really wanted to get Whistler. But I have 2 personal computers at home networked together and there is no way I am gonna buy 2 copies, thats BS

 

[Quaggoth]

I think it's cool just because of the stupidity involved. I mean, when is EVERYONE going to learn (not just MS) that if it can be made, it can be unmade. Give me a freakin break. There will be like 500,000 people across the planet using the SAME copy of whistler downloaded from johnqwarez.com. What is MS going to do? I guess I am lucky anyway. My company uses a Site liscence and %20 of our people can use the software at home no charge (Part of the contract). I guess I'll have a fully liscensed copy, but to tell you the truth, I might just use a pirated copy just to piss MS off