Software Vista
WARNING: device driver updates causing Vista to deactivate
Something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.
Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into “reduced functionality” mode, where you can’t do anything but use the web browser for half an hour.
You’ll then need to reapply to Microsoft to get a new activation code.
How can this crazy situation occur? Read on for the sorry tale.
The idea is that Windows monitors the hardware it’s installed on, and if you create an image of an activated machine and drop it onto another system, it will re-register the hardware serial number changes (via the drivers) and realise that it’s been installed on a different system.
Volume Activation 2.0 has not yet been cracked, but now it doesn’t need to be. There’s an official workaround for OEMs and the result is that anyone with a few minutes to spare can download a fully-functional pirated copy of Vista Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit versions) which needs neither product key nor activation.
So pirates haven’t been slowed down at all, and the rest of us — the legitimate purchasers — are left to live with Windows Activation. You really need to ask the question – who’s benefiting here? Certainly not users, and given the amount of discontent this is likely to cause, arguably not Microsoft either.
In its attempts to combat piracy, Microsoft has created a system which doesn’t focus on the problem correctly. After all, how do you define piracy? At its most basic level, piracy occurs when you install software on a machine when you aren’t licensed to do so. But the Windows Activation model isn’t designed to address this particular problem – as far as Windows Activation is concerned, there’s no difference between someone who tries to image two machines with the same activated version of Windows, and a legitimate user who wants to upgrade their system.
