Comments on: Are you using a pirated copy of Windows XP?

By: Angioplasty

Angioplasty — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:16:29 +0000

I always thought that Microsoft is a little too strict with its activation policy, especially their “one time install” deal. It gets to be such a hassle if you have to reinstall.

By: Scott Kane

Scott Kane — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:01:55 +0000

Can’t agree with dexter. It’s not Microsoft’s fault as such – the operating system is the most used in the world. It attracts the most number of malware writers because of that. The Mac is starting to see more since it gained a little market share. Linux is certainly in many ways more secure, but the reasons aren’t as simply as “more money being spent by Microsoft”. When you’re the biggest, and they are, you have baggage to carry. You have to support older code from older OS’ written by programmers, particular in large coporate IT depts, who should know better. Given these same companies by most of the licenses for Windows it’s understandable Microsoft has to be backwards compatible. I’ve been running Vista since last March. It’s a beautiful OS, works like a charm and a huge improvement on XP. Where Vista tends to have issues with consumers and companies is where it does indeed break backwards compatibility. Microsoft is attacked for not being secure and attacked for tightening security (which is where most of the Vista problems come in). You can’t have it both ways, and I’m not talking about UAC here, but the very core of Windows itself.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:50:26 +0000

I haven’t heard of any caught individuals being fined, no. Businesses, yes.

However why would you want to use a pirated Windows license? You’ll not be eligible for updates (and Windows is an oft-targeted platform for malware) or fixes and you might be using one of the “cooked” versions of Windows that come with trojans and viruses pre-installed.

If you’re struggling for cash, I suggest as Dexter helpfully points out – use LINUX. It’s free and you’ll probably pick up some good technical skills along the way, learning how to use it.

Alternatively, if you’ve got the money, why not try OSX?

So: other than being illegal, you have to trust the pirates and you won’t have any windows or office product updates, security patches (of which these are one or more a week!) or fixes. You won’t have service packs.

I’ll put it to you this way, is a pirated windows licence worth the money?

By: lister

lister — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:47:36 +0000

if this does happen do you get caught and fined??

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:46:27 +0000

When I needed to replace my failed HDD the shop I bought the HDD from offered to reinstall XP for £30, I had my original XP Home OEM CD and key, so I asked them to use that. For some reason they decided to install a pirated copy of XP Professional instead, which incidentally passed all WGA tests including this latest WGA tool, and so it wasn’t long before I was having problems installing drivers, BSODs, slow browsing speeds and so on.
I soon tired of all this and formatted my main HDD and reinstalled XP Home from my original backup CD and product key, and luckily I was able to reactivate my genuine OS again, despite changing my videocard and installing a Gigabit LAN card before reactivation.
Needless to say my PC is running better than ever now, and after all this there’s no way I’d use a pirated OS. That said I can understand the motivation for doing so and agree that Microsoft should stop being so greedy.

By: dexter

dexter — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:41:30 +0000

The problem is that Microsoft want to make money and they dont care about the users…

Now just think about it.

You have a legal copy of winxp pro that you bought for 200$ + tx.

you buy antivirus that slow down couputer, make the 100 + updates and guess what, you got a nasty virus and you have to get windows reinstalled… cost another 100$ + taxes and you lose your computer for a week or so :\

If Microsoft really wanted to get rid of thoses problems, they could do it, but instead, they spend million on anti-piracy mesure (DRM, wich make computers difficult to work with) and close to none on security and fonctionality, what do you get, WINDOWS VISTA. It just does’t work well

So if your not a gamer try linux, you will save a LOT OF MONEY and microsoft will have to help out the little people

By: Scott Kane

Scott Kane — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:36:23 +0000

Timely article, Mike. I read about this coming up a few weeks ago in a tech alert. Having been bitten once by OEM I now refuse to use OEM software and purchase full retail licenses (It was convenient at the time to use the license, however the OEM in question had a staff member who went whoopeee! with the license codes and handed a few thousand of them out to all his buddies – XP and Office). I’m working on an article related to Windows piracy that I’ll publish sometime this week. Indirectly it’s related to Genuine Advantage validation and why I think we’re still being plagued by having to support “old” technology when in a sense in doing so we’re supporting Jolly Rogers.