Hackers claim to have cracked Microsoft's software licensing protection almost entirely
A team of hackers claim that they have cracked "almost the entire Windows / Office software licensing protection". The breakthrough allows them to activate "almost any version of Windows and Office" permanently.
Windows and Office installations require activation. This may happen behind the scene or when users enter product keys.
Workarounds and hacks have been available for a long time. One popular choice requires running a single line of instructions from a PowerShell prompt to activate Windows 8 or later, or Office.
The creators of the solution claim now that they have found ways to extend this to even more Windows and Office products.
Related content:
The new method works on any Windows client or server version and includes Extended Security Updates (ESU) and Microsoft Customer Specific Volume License Keys (CSVLK).
The method used up until now could not activate everything permanently. The following Windows versions, editions, and license-types are now supported for the first time:
- Windows 7
- Windows 8 and 8.1
- Windows Server (any recent version).
- Add-ons.
- Extended Security Updates.
The hack enables support for Windows 10 ESU, once it starts in October 2025 among other things.
The hackers claim that the discovered method is simple. It does not require third-party file installations or system file modifications according to a post on X.
An example screenshot of a fully, permanently activated version of Windows with Extended Security Updates has been shared as part of the post.
The methods have worked for years, according to one of the follow-up posts. The hackers claim that the digital license (HWID) method worked since 2018 and the KMS method for at least 17 years.
The discovered hack will be made available in the coming months, according to the original post on X.
Closing Words
The discovery is a serious blow for Microsoft, provided that the hack is indeed as foolproof and easy to apply as claimed. It is unclear how, or if, Microsoft will react to the hack. For now, it seems that the hackers have, at least temporarily, won the battle.
Excellent. I no longer believe that any Microsoft product is worth the money. Software and services are complete rubbish. The company is full of idiots.
Once a long time ago a different Microsoft made it very easy to legally activate and run any and all versions of Windows for developers. Not so much now.
In that spirit, how exactly can we get “how to” for this new hack so we can actually run VMs activated.
I am not too concerned about it and neither is Microsoft. Their biggest concern is maintaining market dominance in their space and that can only be achieved by having as many users on it as possible. They may not openly admit it but they benefit greatly from piracy too as without it many users would consider a free alternative.
Usually when you buy a laptop for example then the cost of an OS is already factored into the laptop itself therefore the lose is greatly minimized not mention that much of the OS is built upon your data as an end user through spyware (telemetry for the newer age safe word they tried to use to try to take away the negative stigma from what it essentially is… spyware)
The absolutely do not want corporations running “pirated” versions though as it is not only a loss to the their bottom line but also may create an issue liabilities if the company is perhaps an innocent party to a dodgy installer/IT guy. (not very common)
Honestly, they should just make everything open source at this point anyway.
I am relatively sure 90% of us would be running a different build of Windows if we could. I thoroughly believe that Microsoft could benefit from the community.
Rather than working to crack windows people could be spending their time to improve it in other ways. This is really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the untapped talent that is out there.
I cant find a single discovery in this article. Sounds like it was just written poorly by someone who doesn’t understand tech. We’ve had one click permanent activation with a single terminal command for years now with hwid and kms. On all products from windows 7 to present versions of windows. Microsoft office as well. These hackers discovered that they could just say “We made this” and get an article written.
@Zed
Please share the the command and steps.
The real piracy is cloud+subscription for something as stale as Word and Excel. And Windows 11.
Windows users are subject to “Nice PC you got there…shame if something were to happen to it.”
This information is readily available if you actually go look for it. Sharing it widely is not advisable.
…when a private invention becomes a public good… not the first time this happens…
Most Windows users in the world are on pirated version of Windows and or Office. Microsoft will likely lose at least half of its market share if they were to crack down on developers of Windows/Office Activators. So Microsoft wont.
What battle?
M.$ gave away win 10 and 11 for free. They make their money off your personal data, a method they learned from google.
Licensing fees are a secondary source of profit intended for customers who most likely won’t generate enough personal data to profit from.
Massgrave are doing the Lords work. Remember when Microsoft lied that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows and you would never ever have to worry about upgrading? Updates were supposed to be free and ETERNAL. Well, now they are. This takes care of roughly 300 billion gazillion tons of e-waste that would have been a reality very soon. Microsft would of course like to stop this, but they can’t. Why? They fired everyone who knows how to code. The DEI and Woke troops at Redmond have zero skills. Maybe they should ask AI what to do..?
I honestly look forward to the death of windows 10 and end of hardware support if that means I can get some fairly new enterprise grade, business class, professional grade desktops and laptops at a discount on ebay. Maybe companies should consider moving to Linux….
> Remember when Microsoft lied that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows and you would never ever have to worry about upgrading?
No, we don’t.
Microsoft has never made such a public statement (although some fairly high-ranking MS employees have said so, but it was also never an official statement).
THANK YOU DOR BRINGING UP THE EWASTE ISSUS!!
Thank you for seeing this BIG problem right on the horizon! Ewaste counts on as a portion of their income, but with no way to redeploy these devices, they will have no value.
That leaves recycling, which has fewer and fewer legitimate certified locations doing this work. And the process uses way more energy than reconditioning usable devices. That is going to drive up the pricing with heavier wait times.
There will be companies that, if they can, are going to ship to less legitimate ewaste options. With higher volumes and lower profitablity, companies are going to cut corners intentionally or not. More hazardous waste, more dumping.
Data risks are likely to increase as well. It’s more and more older devices go out because they cannot be updated, inevitably more and more hard drives will end up out in the field. It is not difficult to hook up a hard drive yank all the data and be able to extract personal and business credit or banking data.
It’s not a matter of who is going to class action Microsoft on this as much as it is how many.
Open PowerShell
Copy and paste the code below and press enter
irm https://get.activated.win | iex
If the domain ‘activated.win” ever expires, I will purchase it and serve PowerShell malware with it to any stupid user that ever runs this dumb command in their PowerShell.
Stupid ‘HWID-Gen script authors’ telling users to fetch a random URL then execute it in PowerShell are the reason trojans exists.
Very likely the owner of “activated.win” knows this and just wants to increase the domain name’s net worth for auctioning it later.
Such domains regularly being used by ignorant people can reach pretty high auction prices due to the malware capabilities offered by people like him who tell people to run these dumb PowerShell commands.
@Franko–Won’t work if one has PS 7.4 installed and set as the default PS program. Worked and worked with one of the developers; for whatever reason, their recent scripts don’t run for me using PS 7.4. If I go back a few versions, 2.4, everything works as it should. The developers are good at updating, but it may be a few versions in the future on my Windows 10 computer.
Is the Version 2.4 able to be installed along with version 7.4, at the same time?
I went back through the older versions when I ran into trouble with 2.8; I discovered 2.4 would work with PS 7.4 set as default. The developer asked a rather curious question: “How did you set PS 7.4 as the default?” I answered: “I didn’t purposely set 7.4 as default; I think when it’s installed it sets itself as default.”
I never could figure out a simple way to reset Windows PS as the default. Windows Terminal has a neat drop down menu that is supposed to reset the default, but it didn’t work for me.
Other programs like FIDO work fine with PS 7.4, so I hope Mas will eventually come out with scripts that work with 7.4.
When I asked the developer why PS 7.4 works in an older version, he said they had to change the script for a reason I didn’t really understand or appreciate fully.
@VioletMoon, please do buy legal software. Piracy is bad and cruel.
This guys are behind the best MS activation tool out there, they know HWID and KMS works. It is always good to have alternatives.
The alternative is not to be a robber, and using Linux instead.
Since HWID has worked for years and it is an official version by Microsoft. Sounds like just someone trying to get 5 seconds of internet from whatever discovery.
When you can easily upgrade Home editions from your laptop to Windows Pro for free, for years thanks to HWID, then who cares about this? Microsoft allowed, now they can’t do anything about it and Microsoft has gotten less money from upgrades for years thanks to their own ‘kindness’ because it is so easy to ‘switch’ editions and then make the computer ‘upgrade’ licenses that is now impossible for Microsoft to know who is legal and how isn’t.
And windows 8 was always part of the deal, if you used Win7 and the whatever patch that used the motherboard and upgraded to 8, you got Windows 8 Pro for free, from an illegal installation because it was good enough to ‘cheat’ the Windows 8 activation servers.
And then HWID is able to even activate IoT enterprise LTSC and all that.
About office, it has been pretty easy for years, even without KMS.
So, who cares? this is nothing that anyone should care, since HWID has been exploited and Microsoft’s kindness has turned against them so people have not had paid the $100 to legally have Windows Pro in their computers and will not change anytime soon.
Read the article, many things can’t be activated.
I don’t like M$, but I dislike this kind of thing (Warez) even worse. Any development costs that Microsoft encounters during the process of overcoming this hack will be passed along to end users, rest assured.
Microsoft has been profiting from default installations of Windows for years. It has amounted to free money for them. In contrast, neither Linux nor Apple charges for their OS. Windows has become an advertising platform as well as a system that tries to lock you into a shitty browser and a cloud storage system that’s part of a shitty office suite. I don’t know who’s worse scum, Microsoft or the hackers.
Don’t cry too much, they are watching you.