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Windows 7 Activation Bypassed (Yes Again) for Keyless Activation

Justin Kerr — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:15:45 -0600

It has long been said that software activation merely inconveniences and punishes honest customers, while pirates rarely have to deal with the same restrictions. It was true in the past, and it has been proven true again today with new reports from the pirate community claiming that the Windows 7 online activation has been successfully bypassed (yet again). Not only do those using the new crack not have to activate, but they don't even need a CD key at all. The crack apparently nullifies sppcompai.dll, and even takes care of those pesky popup reminders that would normally keep nagging you to activate.

The most unfortunate part of this story however, is the fact that the crack seems to take advantage of the leniency of the activation mechanism which was tweaked in Windows 7 to try and reduce false-positives or accidental activation errors. We can only hope that Microsoft's response to this hack will be even handed, and not encourage them to tighten up the activation process so much so that it makes it harder on legitimate purchasers or upgraders.

Have you had any "unfortunate" experiences with online activation? Feel free to share them below.

Windows 7 RTM Cracked Already

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:24:42 -0500

A week after Microsoft released Windows 7 to OEMs, crackers have cracked Windows 7 RTM Ultimate. Tech website Softpedia was the first to report on the matter, though it stopped short of linking to websites and forums where the proof-of-concept of the crack can be found. You don’t mind, do you?

The OEM copy of Windows 7 RTM Ultimate being blamed for the crack is said to have been stolen/leaked from Lenovo’s safekeeping (or un-safekeeping). The crackers also managed to get their hands on the OEM-SLP (System-Locked Preinstallation) product key and the OEM certificate for Windows 7 RTM Ultimate, both of which are enough to crack open Windows 7 RTM Ultimate on a system posing as an OEM machine.

Image Credit: Hexus

Whoops! Asus Ships a Software Hack on Recovery DVD

Paul Lilly — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:05:01 -0500

If you ever wondered what constitutes an epic fail as opposed to a regular fail, here it is. According to UK based news and reviews site PC Pro, one of its readers claims to have received a recovery DVD with his Asus notebook purchase filled with various software cracks and several confidential documents. Oops!

The reader says his antivirus software discovered a key crack for the WinRAR compression software, and upon further investigation, he uncovered a folder labeled 'Crack,' inside which are what he claims are serial numbers for other software. But that's not all that was included. Another directory is said to contain confidential Microsoft documents for PC manufacturers, complete with program files and key codes. PC Pro says that yet another directory contains internal Asus documents along with source code for some of the company's software.

Apparently this isn't an isolated incident, prompting an Asus spokesman to issue an apology to affected customers, saying "We will be investigating this at quite a high level. Once the investigation is complete, we will ensure it doesn't happen again."

All aboard?

Image Credit: Failblog.org

No BS Podcast #6

Maximum PC Staff — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:15:46 -0600

This week, we return to an all Maximum PC podcast! Join Will, Gordon, Katherine, and Dave as they celebrate Jeremy's triumphant return and discuss:

AMD's Barcelona CPU
Department of Transportation bans Vista, IE7, Office 2007
Vista activation cracked using brute force
Music executives hate DRM now
Streamburst sells movies sans DRM

All that, plus Ask the Doctor, a live update on what everyone's testing in the Maximum PC Lab, reader questions, and Gordon's Rant of the Week, in the Maximum PC Podcast!

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Comment on Podcast #6

Links: Send audio questions!