From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Pirate!!!!




"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
news:44a7ef3f$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>I tried the keyfinder.exe program that supposedly shows your windows
>product key and it showed a key that is completely different from the key
>on the sticker on the bottom of my laptop?
>
> Gary
>
> "/m"  wrote in message
> news:1ldfa29d9rlnc0hnha6tapske44m61vju7{at}4ax.com...
>> On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 09:45:30 -0500, "Geo"
 wrote:
>>
>>>"Adam Flinton" 
wrote in message
>>>news:4221a503$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>
>>>
>>>> Esp if the virus makes it so no new number will work. Imagine the
>>>> "phone
>>>> queues" of a global nature where people are calling
to re-init winxp.
>>>
>>>all it needs to do is change the serial number to a random number. I
>>>don't
>>>think anyone realizes just easy it would be to completely hose the whole
>>>product activation thing. Microsoft has designed windows to watch to see
>>>if
>>>it was tampered with (that setting that changes workstation to server)
>>>and
>>>they have now designed their strategy for updates to depend on stuff that
>>>can be changed by software that executes on the users machine.
>>>
>>>I've always thought this was a really nasty security issue, first they
>>>wanted the stupid serial number stickers on the outside of the computer
>>>where anyone can see them, write them down, and post them to the internet
>>>thus getting your key blacklisted. Second even if you remove the sticker
>>>there are programs like http://www.nthelp.com/40/productid.htm which can
>>>simply read the number and display it so you can copy it down.
>>>
>>>Imagine what would happen if the next big virus changed this setting to
>>>one
>>>of the blacklisted serial numbers. It would basically mean users have to
>>>reinstall to fix the problem and if you happen to have an OEM version
>>>which
>>>now isn't going to let you reinstall without calling well...
>>>
>>>So when is MS going to realize that software piracy is a law enforcement
>>>issue and why it's a bad idea to take the law into your own hands? It's
>>>so
>>>easy to frame users so that MS thinks they are running pirated windows..
>>
>>
>> I don't think they are ever going to realize that.
>>
>> /m
>
>

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