Microsoft Denies the Windows Kill Switch 513
WindozeSux writes "Microsoft has denied that WGA will kill pirated copies of Windows. According to Waggener Edstrom,"Microsoft anti-piracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer." Microsoft also says that WGA is a necessary part of its campaign to catch those illegally using Windows XP which leads one to think what WGA really does then."
"We can't turn off your computer" (Score:5, Funny)
I know what WGA does! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Please, this was never going to happen (Score:5, Funny)
One can but hope.
Slashdot tends to shake your faith a little.
It's all in the name... (Score:5, Funny)
Well duh. It's not a "Kill Switch"
It's a "Happy Sleepy Funtime Switch!"
Re:"We can't turn off your computer" (Score:5, Funny)
"Please Turn Off Your Computer (Aaaarrrrgghhh Matey)"
This is the same WGA that contradicts itself (Score:5, Funny)
When I tried to use the guest profile, the system tray spouted an icon that said "you may not be running genuine Windows." I logged out, logged in as the system administrator, and asked why.
"The product key could not be read."
Well, do you think you'd LET guest users look at the product key so they can steal your copy of Windows, even if the PK isn't attached? But Microsoft contradicted itself, and I went home happy that I'd found a bug in Microsoft software. (I wasn't off the ceiling for several hours.)
Mercifully, an update was issued that allowed the program to check the PK in the Guest profile. But note the wording of the bubble:
"You MAY not be running Genuine Windows."
May? That, translated out of marketing-speak and into English, reads:
"Oh, dear. You might well have a legit copy of Windows but we believed our computer, so we assume you're a fake. So, we're going to display consistent nag screens until you cough up two hundred pounds to buy Windows."
Or throw the (beep) thing away and use Linux or a pen and paper.
Re:This is the same WGA that contradicts itself (Score:3, Funny)
Ratboy
classic change of info (Score:2, Funny)
This is good news (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Please, this was never going to happen (Score:5, Funny)
One can but hope. Slashdot tends to shake your faith a little.
Shh... Slashdot users aren't meant to understand irony.
Re:The real question is..! (Score:3, Funny)
What color is the sky on your world? Every user needs Photoshop? Well, I say every user needs a copy of AutoCAD, which starts at, what? $3000? See, I can make up numbers too!
"switching to Macs"? MISTAKE! (Score:1, Funny)
Remember that the Mac was designed by artists, for artists. You don't speak its language. A shiny new Mac can introduce your apartment to a modicum of good taste, but it won't make you experimental, or adventurous, or avant-garde if you weren't that sort of person to begin with. That's why its interface will always mystify squares and dweebs like you.
Don't force what doesn't come naturally. You'll be much happier to stay with an OS that matches your personality. You'll be doing the rest of us a favor, too; just leave Macs to Mac users and we'll leave beige to you.
What is the WGA? (Score:2, Funny)
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison of upgrade cycles.
Morpheus: What is WGA? Control. Windows Genuine Advantage is a corporate-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.
[holds up a photo of a bank ATM]
Neo: No, I don't believe it. It's not possible.
Morpheus: I didn't say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth.
Re:Please, this was never going to happen (Score:3, Funny)