Here is another great reason to hate WGA...check this forum post over at Broadband Reports. After reading the main post as well as all the replies and additional stories...if you still support this service...you must either work at MS or are the mega fanboy looking to get in on the next free laptop deal. All I have to say is when you loose control of the hardware that runs the software that WGA is supposed to secure...you have lost the whole rig. When ANY software looses it's authentication or security check when you change the RAM, the video card, and so on...then that is a security check or authentication method that goes beyond it's own good. People have reported at nausea um the problems they have had with WGA and yet it is still the program of choice for authentication from MS.
My problem with WGA stems from a recent bout of adding more RAM to my PC...my computer kept asking to authenticate...so I did...then I got the report that my OS was not genuine. After being on the phone for what seemed like an eternity and transferring on a merry go round and talking with some people twice at MS...I was finally given the opportunity to verify my license via info from the box label and license...then it was reset. Then my nephew replaced a video card...boom same issue...same process and these are just the cases that I have had an experience with. The true depth of the problem is more than likely FAR WORSE than most could imagine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Its funny, all these security upgrades and attempts to stop crackers is merely pissing off regular users. Do you really think a cracker is mad when he finds a new scheme put out by Microsoft to stop (read: delay) him? Nah. It only gives him more practice and something fun to do. In the end, it takes about a week or so to find a way around it. Microsoft isnt going to win, they should stop wasting time and money.
Good point...which actually is something I totally agree with. Why sink all this money into software security, when in the end...within hours or days of any softwares release it will be cracked by someone somewhere. The futility in doing so is ignorant on the side of the software company, however it might just be a means to keep the price of their software up.
Now when I say lose the focus on security I don't mean leave holes in software that would leave a user wide open to attack or exploit, but to lose so much focus on the security efforts to stop piracy...NOT GONNA HAPPEN.
Yeah. You've probably read that Vista's Patch Guard has already been cracked, and that was suppose to be one of its greatest selling points. Piracy and cracking is always going to be an issue, not just for Windows but games, music, movies, etc, so they should worry more about bringing a better, less expensive product. I think part of the reason Windows is now being cracked is because it costs too much. Same goes for CDs, some people just want a single song and letting them buy individual songs has actually shown to increase CD sales and sales of full albums.
In regards to music...I see USB kiosks in the future...hehe...take your usb drive into a music store...load it up...stick in your stereo (home or car) and your set. Beats the heck out of buying an album for that one song as you pointed out. Piracy is just another part of all industries...for every step the industries make...there is someone or a group that has the ability to circumvent any protection they can think up.
The price of software is a whole other subject all together. Several reviews have been made regarding Microsoft and it's prices. The reviews that support MS pricing say in essence that "the prices are consistent with the past costs of windows". My argument to that is...if it were overpriced then...then it is still overpriced :P All software companies can do more to bring down the cost...ESPECIALLY in Microsoft's case.
Post a Comment