If you’ve been using one of two common hacks to run Windows Vista without going through activation, Microsoft has you in its cross-hairs. It’s rolling out patches, through Vista SP1 and Windows Update, that will recognize those hacks on your PC. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the much-reviled Windows Geniune Advantage continues to get weaker, as I’ll show you in a series of screenshots.
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Microsoft wants to make life difficult for Windows Vista users who don’t want to pay, and guide unwitting users of illegal copies back to the straight and narrow. In Service Pack 1 there are hidden antidotes for two frequently used software tricks that activate Vista without a legally acquired licence key. The OEM BIOS hack tricks Vista into thinking that it is installed on a PC made by one of the big manufacturers that has a mass licence. The “Grace Timer Exploit” is used to expand the Vista trial period indefinitely.
Although Microsoft Corp. has yet to fix an update that sent some Windows Vista machines into endless reboots, today it spelled out several work-arounds users can apply to regain control of those PCs. Last week’s update — actually a pair of prerequisite files that modify Vista’s install components to prep the operating system for Service Pack 1 (SP1) — caused some systems to repeatedly reboot, while others simply balked at booting. On Tuesday, Microsoft reacted to a flood of reports on its support forums by pulling the files from Windows Update until it could determine what went awry.
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