Microsoft tweaks antipiracy tech for Windows 7

[fakeasdf]

hahahhahaha... I love this sha-1 md5 discussion. It's priceless. The guys who's arguing it could be modified and return a similar hash is a little misinformed on how it works. Good luck on finding a collision that works out on 2 hash functions and is worth anything.... It wouldn't happen. You need to realize that finding a collision is significantly different than modifying code and creating something that will match a collision.

 

[Uber Philf]

Is this 7106 an official release?

Enzo.

 

[Night Hawk]

Is this 7106 an official release?

Enzo.

The present RC1 is the 7100 being the current public release. The 7106 is a stray number that's been tossed around simply being another build from the RC branch but not the officially Release Candidates now seen.

 

[xan K]

Is this 7106 an official release?

Enzo.

I'll try to answer that in as many few words as possible:
no.

 

[Uber Philf]

Hahah, thanks guys, didnt think so, i just stick to the official builds to avoid any problems, im on 7100, and ive had barley any problems

Enzo.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
This thread has probably run its course but the general consensus (and I suscribe to this as well) is that if the product was reasonably priced the whole issue of piracy would be really reduced.

If MS can't solve the piracy issue via "anti-crack" technology then perhaps MS could do something much more radical like deliberately INFECT non licensed machines with its own viruses -- that way it would have a FREE AV testing platform -- and would a user even think of logon on to Online Banking or whatever if they suspected the machine would be infected.

MS could even get away with it -- they could say "This wasn't a legally supplied copy of the our OS so we don't give ANY gurantees on how it will behave on other peoples computers".

The real issue is sensibly price the product -- at 300 USD for some people using a "Free copy" becomes tempting, at 90 USD much less so.

Also hobbling various versions so things like RDP and MMC don't work really is a stupid idea -- costs more in development, encourages Hackers to "Patch in" the missing features.

If I were CEO I'd make a "Bog standard" W7 edition with downloadable bits for the more business orientated parts of the system.

Actually often the "Business" idea is really quite stupid -- apart from specialized areas like people designing games / video etc a typical office (aka "business" user actually uses far LESS features of the OS than a normal HOME user.

In a typical office the apps used are probaby email, Internet, an office suite, and some internal applications like maybe accounting pacakages, SAP, ORACLE, etc plus of course network drive / file connectivity.

Rarely would the "normal" user need RDP or Multi-media apps or even enhanced security as this would probably be done by the corporate firewalls and servers anyway.

In the future I'd see a users desktop actually just being an "Image" loaded on to it by a corporate "Virtual Server" so again the whole idea of a "Business edition" seems entirely mis-placed.

So MS just price the OS correctly, and simplify it so a user doesn't need zillions of different editions to choose from.

It's much much easier to maintain as well (and hence combat Piracy).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Night Hawk]

Hahah, thanks guys, didnt think so, i just stick to the official builds to avoid any problems, im on 7100, and ive had barley any problems

Enzo.

The RCs are available until the end of June. Why gamble with anything else when the real deal is right there?!

Now as far as MS wanting to fight piracy the idea of activation was to make sure that people were using the genuine article and had paid for what? not which edition but the license to run the software! The same applies to any other retail software on the market.

They get their return profits for the developments they already invested in under Internationally accepted copyright laws. By making the RCs generally available MS allows everyone to try out, test, and evaluate the next version where the bug reports if any as well as suggestions, complaints are considered before the finish.

In other words MS is starting to consider what the average user not just corporate interests want to see in the new version.

 

[jimbo45]

The RCs are available until the end of June. Why gamble with anything else when the real deal is right there?!


In other words MS is starting to consider what the average user not just corporate interests want to see in the new version.

Hi Nighthawk

I wish I could believe that - but since Home Premium is likely to be the version that will be shipped by "default" it should IMO include RDP which it won't have.

RDP will only be included in "Business" type editions -- a feature that in a typical office is rarely used outside the "IT sevice" area or Tech area.

Most home users these days have a network -- at least in the West how many homes do you actually know who only have ONE computer. Some have NONE I know but if they have ANY at all the number will certainly be > 1.

All sorts of Networking over the most basic file sharing kind are actually more important on Home computers than in a typical office -- the only network connectivity an office computer typically needs is File and Printer sharing, access to an Email server and possible some "database" applications such as Oracle.

Home users these days are much more adventurous such as wanting to stream Audio / video etc etc. Decent Network connectivity is a MUST.

Actually when I'm at home I stream AV Multi-media content to next door and vice versa. ("C'mon FBI we're bound to be doing something illegal sharing video).

I know MS has come out with that abomination of Home Server -- forget it.
Just make W7 fully functional and leave (the decent server) Server 2008 for people who really need it.


Cheers
jimbo

 

[turbomcp]

i heard that they gonna ship 7 with and indian guy build-in
and thats gona be the new anti piracy technique

 

[Uber Philf]

hahaha "its fool proof" XD

Enzo.

 

[turbomcp]

they got some much indian there in dev and support
they can afford it.
if u use p;irated 7 it will get out of the box and say:
"alo, im raji your waiter, would you like to hear our anti piracy statement? or maybe just order something with carey"

 

[Uber Philf]

hahhaa, ill stab him for intruding LOL

Enzo.

 

[Snufffed]

Hahah, thanks guys, didnt think so, i just stick to the official builds to avoid any problems, im on 7100, and ive had barley any problems

Enzo.

I often wonder how many leaks are really "unofficial"
since most folks today say . 2 Official releases for Win7. then might I ask
why did MS Official Release of "7100" have 7077 in the cversion.ini to chek and only allow upgrade from that "un-official release" .

[HostBuild]
MinClient=7077.0
MinServer=7000.0

Going way back to the Win95 days, there was almost as many Official Release versions as there was also un-official versions.
PS: I love the Barley (have a brew on me) any problems.

 

[Night Hawk]

The RCs are the combined results from several builds. What works in each is then combined together from the beta stages. The cversion.ini when looked at here shows the 4/22 date in the properties.

 

[Snufffed]

That I understand, but since Windows 7 7077 was not a public release,
then why did they do that. and yes that is way I say 7100 is a mixed bag of versions. all they did was throw it together as an after thought, then rename the version to 7100 and change the dates... to what they wanted. I my opinion MS is getting very sloppy with there programing code changes... i do not remember seeing all this CRAP in Pre-Win95.

 

[Night Hawk]

The thing to remember is that the 7000 was the first public release being beta. The 7077 was the first it seems build from the RC branch being the starter or base for the public RC. When readiest the updated changes between the 7077 point and 7100 were compiled with the few updates in that brief period if any.

Once the retail/oem is out everything by that time will be uniform while the RCs are still in the last testing phases before RTM. Any last minute bug corrections, modifications will then be seen internally from that point forward.

 

[PhreePhly]

I often wonder how many leaks are really "unofficial"
since most folks today say . 2 Official releases for Win7. then might I ask
why did MS Official Release of "7100" have 7077 in the cversion.ini to chek and only allow upgrade from that "un-official release" .

Going way back to the Win95 days, there was almost as many Official Release versions as there was also un-official versions.
PS: I love the Barley (have a brew on me) any problems.

The unofficial releases were still official to the parties for whom they were intended. They happened to get leaked. To be honest, I'm sure MS has figured that the vast majority of useful feedback is coming from official beta testers. Folks who have provided plenty of directed feedback in the past. Also, ISVs who are testing new hardware and software compatability are the folks that the interim builds are designed for. I get the feeling that MS pulled back on the no upgrade policy for the beta build (7000) because they were worried that if it didn't upgrade as well as thought, it might ruin the good will that Win 7 is getting at the moment. By limiting it to folks running 7077, they had a better shot of getting feedback from actual beta testers.

PhreePhly

 

[djfirestorm]

The only reason people use pirated copies is because Windows is way to fricken expensive. Its bad enough hardware is considerably overpriced...not to mention video cards...but having even a basic version with no features costing over $100? WTF Microsoft. If say the Basic was $49 (like any other general software you pay for), Home Premium say $80-100, Business $100-125, Ultimate $125-150. That is more fair I think. Heck, if the full on Ultimate was even $175, I would buy it. Anything past $200, I would say har, get me sword and pillage a non WGA copy, I arrrr mean WAT, har this is confusing! I need me some Rum to kill this Microsoft Migraine!

 

[Night Hawk]

One of the reasons for seeing the "evalution copy" on the leaked builds and now the RCs at this time is for the developers and not internal testers and the RC being the public preview while the 7000s were specified "for testing purposes only' so people wouldn't expect the betas to run just like any other finished version of Windows.

What is seen and why the retail Vista and upcoming sees a higher price is from the 64bit version of the same edition being included in the same retail carton. That's two versions on one tab not just one of this or one of that. $200 for Ultimate one or the other, $400 for Ultimate for both 32bit and 64bit.

 

[PhreePhly]

One of the reasons for seeing the "evalution copy" on the leaked builds and now the RCs at this time is for the developers and not internal testers and the RC being the public preview while the 7000s were specified "for testing purposes only' so people wouldn't expect the betas to run just like any other finished version of Windows.

What is seen and why the retail Vista and upcoming sees a higher price is from the 64bit version of the same edition being included in the same retail carton. That's two versions on one tab not just one of this or one of that. $200 for Ultimate one or the other, $400 for Ultimate for both 32bit and 64bit.

Are you sure about the $200 Ultimate. I was pretty sure that Retail Professional and retail Ultimate would carry both 32- and 64-bit media. OEM version only have one of the media, but you can get the other bitness for like $10 from MS.

I don't get the "It's too expensive" argument. Not from you Night Hawk, I'm just addressing the meme that seems to be pervasive on the board. Vista Ultimate OEM is $179 at Newegg. If you're building your own system, you would be crazy to by retail. $179 isn't that much.

Get Real.

PhreePhly