Cracking Windows has never been that easy

I read the story at connected internet who got it from cybernetnews. who got it from tgdaily. Someone apparently bought a copy of Windows Vista in a store in Thailand for $3.50 and was astonished when he read the sticker that normally contained the product activation key.

The sticker told him to set the time of his bios to 2099, install Vista and set the time of the desktop to the current time. This should have the effect that Vista would not ask the user to activate the system after 14 days of usage, heck it will never ask for activation in the next 93 years. It is not sure if this method works with every version of Vista that will be sold but it surely sounds to easy to be true.

Microsoft got never tired of mentioning that the developers did a lot of concentration on security aspects – makes one wonder if those can be bypassed that easily as well. Is it illegal to do this ? I’m not sure but it does not seem to be, you are not tinkering with the software at all. Time will tell, if you try this one out let me know.

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Tags: cheap vista, microsoft, windows-vista
Categories: Hacking, Operating Systems, Windows

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10 Responses to “Cracking Windows has never been that easy”

1. z says:

   December 11, 2006 at 10:28 pm

   eh… why would anyone buy it for $3.5 when it’s floading all over newsgroup and torrents. old news…
2. Martin says:

   December 11, 2006 at 10:32 pm

   I don’t think so. The news is not that you can buy it in Thailand for $3.5 but that you can activate it for a lifetime by simply changing the date in the bios to 2099.
3. fraz says:

   December 12, 2006 at 2:19 am

   does anyone know if the vista versions available on the torrent sites proper versions or should they be avoided?
4. booster says:

   December 13, 2006 at 12:13 am

   Bios date change not works.
   Confirmed.
5. Martin says:

   December 13, 2006 at 9:03 am

   Which version of Vista did you try to install ?
6. olenolenko says:

   January 24, 2007 at 11:33 am

   bios date change $WORKS$

   You just don’t get it

   Loser
7. backfire_11 says:

   February 7, 2007 at 3:57 am

   it really works!!!on home premium and ultimate edition.
   i never expect this kind of easy stuff works on a multi-million $
   “masterpiece” of microsoft!!!!
8. x083 says:

   May 28, 2007 at 8:21 am

   Microsoft Windows Vista = NSA backdoor.. besides that its slow
9. Alex says:

   June 4, 2007 at 8:38 pm

   Can you still download updates if you get around the activation this way?

   Thanks

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