‘Blackouts’ for users of pirated Windows

nozomi_yamata

‘Blackouts’ for users of piratedWindowsBy STEVEN PATRICK

PETALING JAYA: StartingWednesday, users with pirated copies of Microsoft Corp's Windows XPProfessional operating system (OS) on machines that are Internet-capable couldfind their computer displays going black and with no screen icons visible.

There are 8.6 million users ofWin XP Pro in Malaysia and about three million are expected to suffer the“blackouts,” according to Microsoft Malaysia.
To continue working, the userwould need to reset the machine’s desktop background. Everything will return tonormal. But when 60 minutes are up, the black screen will reappear and the usermust go through the whole process again. This will keep happening untilthe user licenses the copy of Win XP Pro on the machine by going to a Microsoftreseller or getting a licence online at the www.microsoft.com/malaysia/genuine.Each licence costs RM580. This initiative is part ofMicrosoft’s antipiracy campaign, dubbed Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), aimedat educating users on the benefits of using genuine software, K.T. Ng,Microsoft Malaysia’s director of client business group, told The Star onTuesday.

Win XP Professional was chosenfor the antipiracy blitz because it is the most pirated version of Microsoft’sWin XP operating system. The other version is Windows XP Home, which is forhome users. This is the second time thatMicrosoft is needling users of pirated copies of its operating system to golegitimate. Two years ago, it sprang its WGA initiative on local users of WinXP Pro and Win XP Home. That time, a pop-up messageshowed up whenever the PC with a pirated Windows OS was switched on, with theintention of shaming business and home users into getting legitimate copies.The message said “This copy of Windows is not genuine.”

It was quite successful. At thattime, there were about 5.1 million pirated copies of Windows XP Pro and afterthe exercise, about two million of the copies were validated, said MicrosoftMalaysia. “We are encouraged by thatresponse,” said Ng. "So this time, we have escalated the penalty to ablack screen that reappears every hour until the user validates his or her copyof Win XP Pro.” Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, chiefexecutive officer of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), lauded the WGAcampaign.

MDeC is caretaker of thecountry’s MSC Malaysia initiative, which is working to build up the nation’sknowledge economy. “MDeC respects the rights ofcompanies to protect their intellectual property. It’s a reminder that softwarepiracy doesn’t pay, especially when Malaysians are themselves putting a lot ofeffort into creating original software,” he said.

Not clear
Several users and industry pundits that The Star spoke to believe Microsoft isusing its WGA campaign to herd business users into upgrading to its newestoperating system, Windows Vista, which hasn’t garnered interest among companiesbecause of its higher hardware requirements. “Microsoft has stopped sellingWin XP in the market, so you have to wonder why it is spending time and moneyto take down users of pirated copies of this OS,” said a PC user, who asked foranonymity. “Why isn’t it also targeting users who have pirated copies ofWindows Vista?” “So if I’m using a pirated copyof Vista at this time, I won’t be hassled? Got to wonder about that.” Ng replied that the concern nowis XP Pro, which is widely pirated. “Vista isn’t pirated as much. WGA iscontinuous and should there be a Vista piracy problem, we will address it downthe road,” he said.


[ Last edited by  bzzts at 27-8-2008 12:40 PM ]

bzzts

sumber mana nih?
kasi link plisss

dah la latest hardware almost vista mandatory
nak block xp lak
kalo org yg guna installer pirate coz ilang ori cd, cemana ek.
kesiaaaaaan

[ Last edited by  bzzts at 27-8-2008 12:58 PM ]

farishaziqi

tu la pasal korang

dah lama aku suruh pakai ubuntu ganti windows pirate


aku windows ori pon aku dah buang

arnabkiut

dhtu pc kt umah pon blekout jugak ke??

bzzts

current issue : http://forum.cari.com.my/viewthread.php?tid=372560

bzzts

Originally posted by farishaziqi at 27-8-2008 07:50 PM
tu la pasal korang

dah lama aku suruh pakai ubuntu ganti windows pirate


aku windows ori pon aku dah buang

kot ye pun benci ngan M$, jgn le buang.  ada cash value tu wei.
tolak le memurah kat sesapa yg bertuah tu.

apa yg aku nampak, ini smua hanya gimmick marketing, dia nak push smua org guna Vista je.
oleh sebab vista gagal mengatasi XP, maka diorg guna tektik kotor dgn cara ini dan jugak wajibkan hardware yg vista driver (or atleast compatible).

faris, kan aku dah kata... LiNux tak perlu di promote. BillGates sendiri yg tolak pengguna ke arah Linux.

farishaziqi

windows aku OEM ler nak bagi kat orang bukan boler pon

saper newbie nak conver ker Linux bole pm ak

aku bole tunjuk jalan  ok

ultra78

Originally posted by bzzts at 28-8-2008 12:59 AM

kot ye pun benci ngan M$, jgn le buang.  ada cash value tu wei.
tolak le memurah kat sesapa yg bertuah tu.

apa yg aku nampak, ini smua hanya gimmick marketing, dia nak push smua org guna Vi ...

selagi org masih pakai ms office, selagi itulah org akan stuck dengan windows..:re:

aziz79

aku tak kesah..
windows aku ori..
diulangi windows ajer yang ori..

bzzts

itu la, kena paham, aplikasi windows masih boleh diguna dalam Linux.
even game pun buleh main.

windows compatible program masih boleh di install dan run dlm linux environment.

paling cikai pun, guna virtual machine kat linux

bzzts

eh eh... serupa la kita...

ultra78

Originally posted by bzzts at 29-8-2008 04:28 PM
itu la, kena paham, aplikasi windows masih boleh diguna dalam Linux.
even game pun buleh main.

windows compatible program masih boleh di install dan run dlm linux environment.

paling cikai ...

bergantung kepada application apa user tu pakai..kalau setakat nak browsing internet,tgk movie dan check email,bila2 masa boleh convert ke linux atau os lain..kalau aku yg keje kena pakai visual studio,.net, sql server,IIS tu semua boleh dikatakan mustahil utk migrate ke os lain..

metalique

x same ngan aku... aku windows ori, firefox ori, thunderbird, unlocker ori, memacam lagi la







lesen xp pakai opis punye

bzzts

cehh... barang free mmg la oriii :@

sixfullbar

hari tu updates ada notify kena download WGA (lama dah tak kena 'offer' download menda ni) so aku decline..hum..kalaulah aku tekan download (yg sepatutnya aku tidak buat hehehe) baka blackoutlah komputer aku

pendek kata, berhati2 di jalan raya

que_hunny

eh aku rasa problem sama kene kat pc aku kat umah tapi bukan blank screen la, dia kuar message suh masuk password, hotak dia, sepanjang aku guna tak penah letak password, ku sangka kan virus mengganas. agak2 simtom sama ke

bzzts

"blackout" ni akan masuk pc ko tanpa perlu update.

pc aku mmg off update. tapi tiba2 je ada folder windows genuine check kat drive C.

nnt aku tembak screen (kat pc lagi satu)

btw, pc ni ori...

bzzts

so, pc ko takleh guna la? atau ko dah dapat masuk guna ... apa-apa?

sixfullbar

wow..ini kira macam hantar trojan kat pc user

sampai begitu sekali m$ ni ya..

cluesan

da terdesak kot. da ramai kata vista sucks. so diorang paksa users utk migrate ke vista.

p.s Aku guna ok je vista ni. takde apa2 masalah setakat ni.