Office XP

[Boo Radley]

Try Pantip Plaza.

[Guest]

Thank you Boo for quick answer,

will try it on Saturday

wish you all good luck and tell you if I had sucess,

see you maksim

[Boo Radley]

WinXP product activation cracked: totally, horribly, fatally

By John Lettice

Posted: 17/07/2001 at 12:35 GMT

 

Since Microsoft introduced Windows Product Activation (WPA) the crackers have gone through a series of WinXP beta builds, finding new ways to at least circumvent the protection system. But now, taking an entirely different approach, Germany's Tecchannel has demonstrated that WPA as shipped in RC1 is full of gaping holes, and can be fooled almost completely.

Tecchannel's report available in English here, or in German here) demonstrates that WPA can be compromised via numerous hardware-related routes; it all centres on the file wpa.dbl, which WinXP keeps in the system32 directory.

This file stores information on the nature of the hardware at the time of activation, and when Windows XP notices more than three items of hardware have changed, it deletes it. Then you need to activate again. You'll also, Tecchannel notes, need to activate immediately if you installed more than 30 days (or 14 with RC1) ago, as that's when the clock starts ticking. This, incidentally, is also the case if you do a 'repair' to fix a bust system - not exactly friendly.

So first of all Tecchannel saved the file then started changing hardware. Two items OK, but replacing a third - the CPU - triggered the deletion. Although you'd think the CPU is only one component, it's actually tallied up as two. Switching off the CPU serial number in the bios and therefore knocking it down to one doesn't get the earlier wpa.dbl back - this has been restored in a non-activated state.

Copy the saved version back? That surely shouldn't work - but it does. Next, Tecchannel tried a completely new installation using the same product key. This produces a new product ID, but nevertheless copying the wpa.dbl file back again works.

They also use this file on another computer, altering the computer's volume ID first, which is easily enough done. They can also use forged network cards MAC addresses, so now they've taken two parts of the hardware ID out of the picture. Next, use the hardware profile to tell the computer it's a notebook with a docking station. This works, and tells WPA to stop counting the IDE/SCSI controller and the graphics card.

That gets the differences counted down to three, hard disk, CPU and CDROM ID, which is within the limit, so WPA is effectively toast.

What does this mean? Tecchannel's investigation shows that, at the very least, you can use the same wpa.dbl file to activate as many computers as you like, provided the RAM size is the same. A 'universal' file that didn't even require the same RAM might be a possibility, but it's more likely that people will simply swap files to get one appropriate for their hardware. If Microsoft doesn't change WPA before WinXP ships, then it's pointless. But changing it when RC2 is looming, and when the holes are so obviously huge, would be difficult.

So farewell then, Windows Product Activation - for the moment? ®

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20433.html

[steffi]

How old are you? I'm extremely envious.

I use to live in Bellevue, Redmond area and had many wealthy, on paper, friends working a Microsoft.

quote:

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Originally posted by TEDBKK:

Microsoft deserves what it gets in SE Asia (and elsewhere) because of rediculous pricing policies that place its software totally out of reach for legitimate purchase by even those Thais who can afford to buy computers at home or in the workplace. The fact of the matter is that in these places, Microsoft really isn't all that concerned about a retail end-user market and probably couldn't provide adequate support were one to suddenly develop.

And don't even get me started about Microsoft Thailand.

Credibility? OK, here's my confession: I retired last August after 11 years at Microsoft. zwoel69: if you work in anything having to do with Windows XP and have been there longer than a couple of years, you'd probably know me, or my name.

A stroll through Pantip fills me with conflict. On the one hand, I really believe what I wrote in the first 2 paragraphs above. On the other, it hurts me to see product I slaved over for over a decade being sold for a sum of money that degrades it to sub-commodity level. 10 years of my blood sweat and tears being traded for 100 baht.

I do not intend to make this into a debate about piracy, etc. Realistically no one's family at Microsoft is in danger of starving because of Pantip's existence. But I do feel sorry for the smaller companies for whom having their product stolen is more significant.

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[stumpy]

Zwoel,

Does Office XP also know when it is being copied?

What does Windoes XP do when it detects it is being copied?

[Guest]

Hmmm so Bill Gates has finaly made some good software. LOL yeah right. Good for who. Lets face it he hijacked the os market years ago, and has force fed us his vision of information for years. Do you think this is going to be any differnt. Just wait till you see the smart links "HE" is going to put in "YOUR" web pages. Of course you can turn them off. Yeah right. I use linux, Mac, and windoze. and without a doubt windoze is the dark side. Use the force luke. Oh someone asked about frontpage or dreamweaver. Front page has always been full of propriotory code, it you want to develop clean and unsullied sites I think dreamweaver is the best around, although golive from adobe not bad. being as I am typing this on my windoze machine, I have to put in this disclaimer or my system will crash. "The above is just my opinion I could be wrong"