A Note To All Illegal Windows Xp Owners

I am a long-time Free/Open-Source software user/administrator for this exact reason. I have friends constantly telling me in a condescending tone that it's much easier to just install crackz/warez/whateverz on Windoze (and feeling cool because they know how to use the letter Z, and probably don't even know what l33t-speak is anyway...). Then a few months down the road I am always the one they call in despair when their Windows machine grinds to a screaming halt because it is so bogged down with trojans (and their pirated Norton AV has been hobbled by all of them), or I'm the one who has to un-crack their Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account because some trojan keylogger has recorded and sent their passwords - as they type - to a blackhat. Recently I heard about a case of someone whose details were stolen by trojans and ended up the victim of identity fraud, where the cracker created a chain of false ID-information and ended up taking a bank loan of several thousand Euros in their name and disappeared. Last I heard, the person will have to pay, because as far as the bank can see - the only way it could have happened was if the victim had disregarded the conditions of registering for web-banking (keeping the computer reasonably secure). And the bank *want* their money... Think of it this way. If you download and install a closed/compiled executable and allow it unlimited access to your system files, do you explicitly know and trust the author of *every* line of code that went into it? Do you trust *every* source of every function library that was compiled into it? Have you used checksum safeguards every step of the way, to guarantee that *everything* that was sent wasn't intercepted and transformed maliciously en route? If not, then what makes you think that the world is full of Robin-Hood-esque crackerz who spend all those endless hours stepping through executables with debuggers and sidestepping Longjmp commands, etc, purely for the "good of the people", and to save money for people they will never meet? Newsflash - they are usually two types of people. The first (majority) type are bored "script-kiddies" who get a kick out of downloading and running some perl-script they don't even know how to read, and feeling they are somehow rebelling against their overbearing mothers by messing with proprietary software. The second type are the computer-science grads who are peeved at the authorities for some personal reason, and know what they are doing. In the first case, usually the script they run is written by one of the second type. In my experience, of the people who "really know what they are doing", generally all the ones dedicating their time to blackhat-style cracking are doing it for personal gain... And if they are savvy enough to side-step registrations and protections, then they are definitely savvy enough to hook in some trivial but deadly trojan functionality. I really wish people could just install an infinitely superior and FREE system like Debian GNU/Linux (or Ubuntu, or Open Solaris, or Free BSD, etc..), dump proprietary bloat like Windows and MacOS, and then they wouldn't need to waste so much of my time rescuing their email accounts from rebelious kids who are exploiting their own naivety.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Running 3 pc's with illegal copies of xp. Want to become legal. Is there a cheaper way than buying 3 complete os's? Such as buying the 3 pc upgrade to w7? Or will that not upgrade an illegal copy?

-question by bert

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I use xp black and it is the greatest os I have ever used. EVER. And if you need to update any thing you go to microsofts web site and search for the update you need not every thing they have and the sp you need.  they make just the single update for mass pushes for bussneses to there client pcs. Just wanted to add this

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Most updates for XP specifically, are pointless.  While its true there are security issues that get fixed, the reality of these issues is so obscure,  99% of hackers wouldn't even know or need to understand them,

To create a working XP, you only need Service Pack 2 - nothing more.  Then deactivate all updates beyond that.  People update for the sake of it, afraid of what they do not understand.  Microsoft wanted to make the world use a single operating system,  well they got what they wanted (nearly), but if pirated copies are all blanked out now,  the world would be in a mess as I have nver once needed to purchase an expensive XP legal copy  and I've built PC's of all types since 1993.  About 2500 of them by now (wrk has dramatically drpped off now, its no longer a viable business).

I don't use pirate copies because I hate microsoft or anything - they are in business same as me.  But no customer will pay for a legit copy - they could have issued cut-down versions.  Many users bought XP Home,  and got stuck when its WPA activation error messed up, so I only ever use the Pro copy, supplied from college.

Basically tho,  just get a magazine cover disk of Service Pack 2 (absolute safest way yet),  use that, and never update directly - sorted.  All my frinds didn't listen here,  and now they al have that latest ILLEGAL COPY message popping up - I told them, but  they knew better   so I guess they all think they're PC engineers too  LOL .

If you must update,  as one writer here has mentioned,  you can use the non-standard website access for microsoft,  and it links you thru to all the individual downloads as FTP files instead of forced online  installations.

Microsoft knows - they cannot afford to destroy such a big customer base.  If they cancel XP completely too fast,  the worlds business will be harmed in some very odd ways.

Anyway,  time to go play a hacked HALO 2 game

(joking)

Oooh,  one last bit,  the idea of slipstreaming is awful.  Every copy tried has had faults,  crashes,  slower, unstable under stress etc.  It's all nonsense.  Wasted time downloading & creating.  Bah.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I just enter some registry infomation to activate mine.  I don`t need to use any hacking software, serial key generators or legitcheck.Dll hacks.  I just click on my registry entry to install it into the registry and hey presto.  An xp machine with service pack 3 and all updates downloadable and also passes the genuine advantage check online at microsofts servers.  However, I paid for my copy of windows, I only do this so I don`t have to keep phoning up microsoft evertime I reinstall my operating system and ask for a sodding long key.

Oh yeah, I got lots of OEM copies of  Vista for Dell and Gateway machines which are already activated when installing.  Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with those.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)