Vista to Allow "One Significant" Hardware Upgrade

fiorenza writes "Ars Technica spoke with Microsoft concerning the controversial changes in Windows Vista's licensing, and they have learned that Vista will permit one 'significant' hardware change before requiring users to either appeal to Microsoft support or purchase another license. Automatic re-activation online will fail after one use. Microsoft is using a new algorithm to monitor hardware changes and enforce licensing compliance, and the company says that it is more forgiving now than it was with Windows XP."

Shoot themselves in the foot.

[d3am0n]

So now the only reasonable option for the OS you purchased after you do something common like toss in a new video card, is to go out and get a pirate version? Well whatever, if MS wants to drive more people towards using superior pirated products, so be it. This seems to be part of a larger industry trend of artificially limiting products when there are uncrippled products out there if people look around, which just makes people want to look around. These sorts of tactics are going to bloat the pirate population, pass the rum me-hearty, y'aarrrrrrr.

Re:If it looks like a sale, it is a sale, right?

[moronoxyd]

So the use of Mac OS is not limited to Apple hardware? Since when? (No, don't tell me about hacks -- there will be hacks for Vista as well) The rights of users of Mac OS are just als limited as those of Vista users.

Re:New Hardware Found.....

[NerveGas]

That isn't as far-fetched as it sounds.

Last week, our phone guy decided to reinstall the OS on our main voice mail server. Since it was running a "lowly" copy of Windows 2000 Pro, he decided that it needed a "server-grade" OS, and bought Microsoft Windows 2003 Server for Small Businesses. He installed in near the end of the week, and then took time off to put a new roof on his house.

Well, this morning, the machine in question shut itself off. I turned it on, it shut itself off again in a couple of hours. I looked in event log, and found that the machine was turning itself off because we violated the EULA by not setting it up as a domain controller.

Yep. Just because we didn't need to authenticate users, the machine keeps shutting itself off. Isn't that user-friendly?

Re:New Hardware Found.....

[TheUnknownCoder]

Agreed. It seems that MS forgets that end users are, albeit slowly, getting more educated about computing in general. For a lot of people, though, computer is Windoze, the difference is not clear enough... For those, I like to put it this way:

You just bought your family a nice new car. As usual, you fill up the tank weekly at the gas station down the corner. But their gas isn't that good, and causes your engine to malfunction, for no apparent reason. But you're used to it, since the station is there for over 25 years, you grew up with it. It was actually the only gas station around until a couple of years ago.. Besides that, they just issued a notice that says that you can no longer install that nice CD player you want on your car, because the CD player is not supported by them, and your engine will stall after 10 miles, if you insist in installing the player. Now, why the hell would you put up with that gas station, knowing that there are many, many other gas stations around, with better, cheaper gas?...

You wouldn't. It's your car, and you do have a choice of what gas you want to fill up the tank with!

Re:One significant change of hardware

[drakken33]

I used to be an avid gamer but I got fed up of the constant upgrade cycle to play new games. I got tired of new games looking or playing like shit on otherwise perfectly good hardware. I either couldn't afford or couldn't justify a high end games rig. I suppose getting older and getting into a steady relationship also helped wean me off of PC games.

Now if I want to play games I go for consoles. I can play in my living room and it's a more relaxed and social environment to play in than the home office. My girlfriend will play console games but not PC games for this reason. It leaves me free to choose to use a Mac and Linux. I'm not tied to Windows just for games any more.

Unfortunately that won't work for everyone and there will always be PC only games or games that work better with a keyboard and mouse. I was one of the lucky ones.

Re:New Hardware Found.....

[aaronl]

MS has this ridiculous system service called "SBSCore" that exists only to turn off the computer every hour if you aren't running as a DC. Install SysInternals' Process Explorer, suspend/pause sbscrexe, go into the registry to set the service to disabled, then remove all read permissions for every account from the actual file. The file is in \windows\system32\sbscrexe.exe. Then you can terminate the process. Don't delete the file, though, that really got Windows upset when I tried that.

Reg key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\SBCore

In regedit, right click, give Administrators permission to the key and all child nodes. Then change the Start DWORD that will appear undernearth that to 4.

Just so I'm clear

[UnknowingFool]

If I read the EULA correctly, I only have the ability to install Vista twice? According to MS, any significant change would require activation? Significant meaning a new video or a new hard drive. Screw that. I've had at least 4 or 5 hardware failures in my machine since I installed XP. 2 HD failures (requiring full reinstalls), 2 MB failures, 1 video card failure. And that's not counting the number of times I had to reinstall XP just because it got bloated (I'm not the only user on my machine). Is it me or does it seem like MS wants me to "rent" their software?

Difficult by Design

[MLopat]

The process to do this is intentionally difficult, and should be even more difficult than what it is. Microsoft has put the pricing of Small Business Server at a point where a small business can actually afford to own a server. By having others take advantage of lowered pricing for all their server needs really defeats the purpose, and cheats the little guy out of software that he couldn't otherwise afford.

But your post is +5 funny in my books none the less.

Recent experience

[UttBuggly]

I was more than a little concerned that I would run into a license validation issue recently.

The motherboard in my son's PC went tits up, so he ordered an ASUS barebones box and an Athlon 64 CPU from NewEgg. We took everything else from his old eMachine chassis. (hey, it was a gift from his uncle)

Anyway, we booted from an original XP CD we've owned for years. The PC it was originally installed on has long since been salvaged for parts and is no more. We installed the OS, an SP2 CD I keep handy, then connected to the net to get another 68 updates and such. Windows Update did it's "Genuine Advantage" update and....validated the XP license with no problem.

I was prepared to browbeat an MS employee into realizing the original PC the license was installed on was like the snows of yesteryear, but it a non-event.

The box has been running for 2 weeks with no issues. It's been through at least one Windows Update pass since then with no alarms or MS Gestapo banging on the door, black helicopters circling, etc.

I would think a completely new system build (the eMachine came with a restore CD that only works on an eMachine) would have tripped an alarm for MS but that's apparently not the case.

Hopefully, Vista will be as well designed! LOL.