Windows Product Activation Creator Reveals Truth Behind XP's Most Notorious Product Key (tomshardware.com)
- Reference: 0179731884
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/09/1850202/windows-product-activation-creator-reveals-truth-behind-xps-most-notorious-product-key
- Source link: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/legendary-microsoft-developer-reveals-the-true-story-behind-the-most-famous-product-activation-key-of-all-time-infamous-windows-xp-fckgw-licensing-key-was-actually-a-disastrous-leak
A warez group distributed the key alongside special corporate installation media. Windows Product Activation generated hardware IDs from system components and sent them to Microsoft for validation. The leaked volume licensing key bypassed this entirely. The system recognized it as corporate licensing and skipped phone-home activation. Users could install XP without activation prompts or 30-day timers. Microsoft later blacklisted the key.
[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/legendary-microsoft-developer-reveals-the-true-story-behind-the-most-famous-product-activation-key-of-all-time-infamous-windows-xp-fckgw-licensing-key-was-actually-a-disastrous-leak
[2] https://x.com/davepl1968/status/1975953400312606730
People would rather pirate Windows (Score:1)
Than legally use Linux, even 25 years later. The "secret recipe" of proprietary software is just too tasty for people to resist.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
> The "secret recipe"
not having to deal with other linux users
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If the smart people working on linux would actually work together in stead of doing the, "oh i don't like it this way, i'll do it my way because i think it's better". Linux could have been on every desktop decades ago, but Nooooo. They have to push their own shit through, like systemd, and remove all the old working code because,'oh no this is so much clutter and i don't feel like understanding anything of it, so It needs to be deleted'. F*ckin ID10Ts !!
Re: People would rather pirate Windows (Score:3)
Exactly. There is no Linux Operating System, there are dozens of different distros, each with their own quirks, and as a noob to Linux I'm supposed to try out each one to see which I like best, according to most advice I've seen.
Re: (Score:2)
Arbitrary complexity is the price of freedom. Some people actually like the systemd approach; others with any sensibility do not. (Yes, I'm exposing a bias; no, I don't care.) But with the freedom to choose, there comes some complications.
Which is why, personally, I use Mac, because I don't care to worry about those issues anymore. I've used Linux since 1994 or so, and have set up hundreds of systems. Nowadays, meh; I don't want to bother. I just wake up my machine and go. True, it's limiting, in a
Re: (Score:2)
It's not like I had a choice at the time. Most software was only made for Windows so if you needed get shit done (like write a thesis) you were stuck with Word on Windows.
I suspect ... (Score:2)
... that as Microsoft cracks down on [1]local-only [slashdot.org] activation, a healthy market will develop for these 'special' keys.
[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/06/2338211/microsoft-is-plugging-more-holes-that-let-you-use-windows-11-without-an-online-account
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft VL keys don't work like that anymore.
Win 95 keys (Score:3)
I remember the keys for Windows 95, along with related Microsoft products, being laughably easily defeated by the number 7. It didn't matter what the first 3 or 4 numbers were as long as the last 7 numbers, when added together, were evenly divisible by 7. That's why 123-1234567 and 1234-1111111 would work.
used to be worse (Score:4, Insightful)
[1]https://gurney.dev/posts/mod7 [gurney.dev]
[1] https://gurney.dev/posts/mod7