Glaswegian

Hackers are sidestepping Windows 7's activation process, winning their battle with Microsoft, which has blocked such tactics in the past. However, the company said that it knew about the hacks and was looking into ways to block them. "We're aware of this workaround and are already working to address it," said a company spokeswoman.

According to an article in My Digital Life, hackers have devised a pair of methods that circumvent the new operating system's product activation, a key component of Microsoft's antipiracy technologies.

Two utilities, called "RemoveWAT" and "Chew-WGA," remove the activation technologies or prevent them from running, said My Digital Life. Both hacking tools trick Windows 7 into reporting that it has been properly activated, preventing the nagging on-screen displays and other visual cues from appearing that Microsoft has built into its software to mark counterfeit software.

With Windows 7, Microsoft dropped the "Windows Genuine Advantage" (WGA) name for its integrated antipiracy software, and replaced it with "Windows Activation Technologies" (WAT). The end result on users' screens, however, remained similar to what Vista displayed. The most evident change to Windows 7 was the discarding of a delay during log-in on a machine with an inactivated copy of Windows. Under Vista's scheme, users had to wait 15 seconds before clicking the "Activate Later" button to proceed to the desktop. In Windows 7, users can click that button immediately.

Microsoft made dramatic changes to Vista's illegitimate software warnings nearly two years ago, then followed those with nearly identical modifications to the older Windows XP. In both operating systems, the company dumped the reduced functionality mode that essentially made the machine unusable, and instead boosted the number of on-screen messages and planted a black background on the desktop.


http://news.techworld.com/security/3...trols/?olo=rss