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Thread: ..rolls eyes and shakes head.

  1. #1
    AO Curmudgeon rcgreen's Avatar
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    ..rolls eyes and shakes head.

    The Windows Genuine Advantage plan became a genuine disadvantage over the weekend when the server that verified users went down and began to disable operating systems around the world. At least, it disabled the operating systems of computers that checked into the home base to affirm their legitimacy.
    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2176192,00.asp
    I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmmmm,

    I know the feeling.............. I was trying out some new free tools at the weekend and this defragmenter told me that I didn't have enough authority to defragment my F:\ drive.

    Probably as well, given that the F:\ drive boots Linux?

    M$ have not had much luck with their DRM.................. remember when it marked anything with a system time more than 24 hours different from Redmond as pirate?

  3. #3
    Senior Member Aardpsymon's Avatar
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    its the flaw with any antipirate measure. The pirates will just crack and bypass it. Its only EVER going to hurt legitimate users.
    If the world doesn't stop annoying me I will name my kids ";DROP DATABASE;" and get revenge.

  4. #4
    Priapistic Monk KorpDeath's Avatar
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    Just like gun laws. lol
    Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
    - Samuel Johnson

  5. #5
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Apparently it was a "human error". Someone moved some development code into the production environment............. so much for their version control process

  6. #6
    Senior Member isildur's Avatar
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    I simply never allowed that update to be installed. Never looked into what benefit I didn't gain by not having it, but it just didn't seem right to me at the time.
    Only trust Pipe-smoking Penguins.

  7. #7
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    At least, it disabled the operating systems of computers that checked into the home base to affirm their legitimacy
    This didn't actually happen... Although people claimed it did... It didn't... You couldn't do certain things (install updates, etc) but the operating systems still functioned and all you had to do was go validate once they fixed it... I'd also say this affected very few people... It didn't affect my Vista box or either of my XPs (both of which have WGA)

  8. #8
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    MS say it affected around 12,000 installations.

    It does not seem to have had much if any effect on XP, which uses a slightly different WGA.

    Vista did suffer from loss of functionality: aero for example.

    Whilst re-validation did work for many users, it was not always the case. This was a balls-up, not a bug, so the outcome was unpredictable.


  9. #9
    Only african to own a PC! Cider's Avatar
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    Stupid question: what is WGA exactly?
    The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
    Albert Einstein

  10. #10
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    "Windows Genuine Advantage" which is a DRM (Digital Rights Management) system. Basically it is anti-piracy software. It tries to check if your software is genuine and properly activated.

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