Yes, in fact they have settled for letting pirated copies be used however only the critical updates can be applied. They did this due to the numerous instances of people unknowingly purchasing computer package deals from independent dealers which were being sold with a pirated copy. I have read a full article on it somewhere and I'll see if I can dig up the link if anyone needs proof. I'm not surprised that they let the pirated copy be used because of this fact, but I AM surprised that they allow it to be updated with the critical updates.
http://digg.com/software/Microsoft_d..._pirate_checks
Here is a similar article.. not the exact one I read, but it gives you an idea:
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/...-15306,00.html
One pirated copy of XP that I worked on had been updated with windows updates and it actually locked the user out of the PC. Then I plugged the drive into a machine as secondary to get the user's personal files off of it, and they could not be retrieved this way either. I had to use ERD commander, ultimately, to recover the user's personal files. They no longer lock the user out of the machine because of the possibility of the end user purchasing the machine with an already installed eyepatch. I guess microshaft felt sorry for the millions of users (it was an estimate) who did not know they bought a pirated copy.
I wonder if Vista will be similar. I already have a pirated copy of vista that I played with for a while. It was the beta version that is cracked to the full version and it works. I have overwritten it with windows 2000 and sold the drive in a machine.
For the RECORD, I do have a pirated version of XP Pro, MCE, Tablet PC, and a few others that I use as a guinnea pig.
http://digg.com/software/Microsoft_d..._pirate_checks
Here is a similar article.. not the exact one I read, but it gives you an idea:
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/...-15306,00.html
One pirated copy of XP that I worked on had been updated with windows updates and it actually locked the user out of the PC. Then I plugged the drive into a machine as secondary to get the user's personal files off of it, and they could not be retrieved this way either. I had to use ERD commander, ultimately, to recover the user's personal files. They no longer lock the user out of the machine because of the possibility of the end user purchasing the machine with an already installed eyepatch. I guess microshaft felt sorry for the millions of users (it was an estimate) who did not know they bought a pirated copy.
I wonder if Vista will be similar. I already have a pirated copy of vista that I played with for a while. It was the beta version that is cracked to the full version and it works. I have overwritten it with windows 2000 and sold the drive in a machine.
For the RECORD, I do have a pirated version of XP Pro, MCE, Tablet PC, and a few others that I use as a guinnea pig.
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