In order to get around the activation info. You would have to spoof the software on the client end but if you could make it so it runs without any licensing then anything is possible. The simple matter is that I don't trust Microsoft for a variety of reasons around the context of what meta data can be used for. Unfortunately this is one of the downsides of slowly converting to a cloud centric OS. Anyone with a brain knows that the issue with using cloud is the fact its not very secure.
So now, the technology is sophisticated and powerful enough to penetrate our tinfoil hats. We are doomed!
We need to get some sort of Privacy Firewall program going. I don't trust the default MS Firewall not to block their own sh**.
I never ran M$ firewall / defender or their 'security' stuff. But why to fiddle with M$ OS at all? The only reasonable behaviour for someone who really cares about security / privacy is to avoid any M$ product where one can! There are different persons / opinions -People who don't care at all / trust M$ (no evidence for them that they might have measures to spy) -People who are worried and think there could be some truth in that, but still continue to buy / use their products -People who are aware and convinced that monopolies such as M$ cooperate with the NSA and work hand in hand with govt AND have changed their own behaviour. They do not spend one cent anymore and use alternatives such as Linux. Have a look at the history of M$! How many laws they have broken! How is / was their market politics? How do they behave at the public! The only way to change the situation is to stop buying / using their products.
@Yen What ever you said above is true, but thing why people buying M$ products? according to me first reason is ease of use & second support & support documentation. Last Hardware compatibility, software compatibility.... Windows comes preinstalled on most computers. Linux works great on older machines. Newer hardware has issues. Linux will work, but not necessarily with 100 percent of the available features of new hardware.
I'd say M$ support documentation is bad. I mean especially when you need help for their OS / office. Let's say one needs info how to perform a special operation at Excel. Even some of their own given examples do not work the way documented. Their 'help' is useless! Why does one need windows? I myself need it because in the company where I am working most scientific devices are running windows today. My employer provides all licenses / training I need. In the past scientific applications ran on Unix / alpha CPUs. Intel / M$ combinations had a poor performance and had not the power to calculate the data in time (for instance live fourier transformation of an NMR FID). Also all the company's documents are made with M$ Office. But at home does one need windows? Actually if you are not a gamer? How many percent of work could be done with Linux? And which hardware performance do you really need for it? Those who say that people are not willing to migrate to w8 because they are too conservative to deal with 'a modern UI' are wrong. I ask who is really conservative? Those who ditch M$ and are running real new OSes such as Android or those who stick to the same lame company all the time? If I change to a more simple and cheap looking UI then I go straight away to Linux. I don't need apps on my workstation, I have apps on my mobile device(s) M$ had to go for a 'new' UI which looks cheap and plain because its performance was very poor. It has to run now also on devices which have lower HW performance hence it is plain 90s. W8 approximates now Linux. The touch ability has been included to advertise it as modern UI. But actually nobody needs touch on a workstation. I have one workstation left with M$ OS (W7). The phone runs Android, the router and the server a Linux distro. Here @work anything runs w7.
My only real problems with Win8.x over Win7 are the price and privacy problems. The introductory price was good because it was fairly low and there wasn't very much of an upgrade software-wise. Now that they're going back up into the 100+ dollar range, I just shake my head and think "For what? Are they going crazy?" Don't get me wrong. I don't hate on Win8. They actually did make some significant file system improvements in 8.1, but there's nothing in 8.x that you couldn't do in 7 besides the Modern UI apps. For those of us that don't like to shell out money for Modern UI stuff, it just seems pointless to put up a bunch of money for something you don't use. Really though, besides the rising price, the only thing I don't like about 8.x is the privacy problems and the possible NSA meta data collection about all of the websites I visit. There's gotta be a damn connection to the meta-data and the drone strikes... I don't buy it that the gov't all of a sudden got really good binoculars and can find bad guys half-way across the world. If they're doing it for bad guys, who's to say I won't end up on their kill list some day. I just don't like this big brother crap...
If only that was true all the time. My old PC with a P4 and ti4200 disagrees. New kernels are painfully slow, no decent video driver available. On the other hand, Windows XP flies on it. I wish linux did as well.
M$ doesn't even know what to do with their own OS, they created a tablet OS for desktop computers, how dumb can they get? I see a lot of Linux users in the future, you can do everything in Linux that can be done with Windows anyway. Plus, Linux is open-source so no surprises for the end-user, no activation and no grief from the monopoly.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that what we've found out about the NSA so far is just the tip of the iceberg. In the USA, we don't even know what our own government is doing anymore. They take away our rights little by little since most people don't pay attention anyway. One day we'll wake up and it won't be the USA anymore.
With each new issued OS by M$ their will to take control has increased. Most people have lost awareness already. Remember XP as they introduced online activation? First some complain (if at all) and then anything becomes forgotten! The measures are sold as technology which protects the end users. W8 is worst, ELAM, Secure boot, UEFI, TPM 2.0......online storage / accounts...
Man the sh** is gonna hit the fan with privacy reviews when cloud OS hits... People will jump ship in droves...
Honestly, in my experience for the past 3-4 years ever since Windows Vista and later Windows 7 was released. People come here to find the Crack/Activator/Loader tool, which was very popular by Daz when he started with Windows Loader. Microsoft is aware of these but still they couldn't find any solution to prevent these methods of activation? The problem is if these tools are only used by Students/Home Users/Unemployed/Senior Citizens/Kids/Gamers/Non Corporate Users, then it's fine but ultimately this tool is used by many corporates like Web Hosting Services / Small Business Organizations/Small Schools/and many more places which is actually quite wrong and Microsoft couldn't stop it especially in some countries where they can't stop piracy because of the population, 90% of the people using Non-Genuine Microsoft product. But still Microsoft doesn't worry about it because they only concentrate in their country and corporates only. Recently they have taken the following measures, which makes things hard for the people those who use Microsoft Products and their services like, Windows Live ID, MPN, VLSC, MSDN, Technet, anything which uses the Microsoft Account. I never heard about "Your account is temporarily blocked" which means (The account is closed for violating their rules) but i have seen this problem with many Microsoft account holders recently due to suspicious activity. Try yourself by creating a Live ID and leave it idle / try to use the same Live ID in another PC or in another country, the account will get blocked. Even worse, they have done this restrictions to the Microsoft accounts formerly called (Live ID) Most of the Microsoft accounts doesn't show the "Security Option" in order to reset the password instead it only shows the recovery email. All the above taken place after the situation where people started to leak the Microsoft keys in some forums and MS started to block the keys too and they are still taking the necessary steps to prevent this activity but they can't because it's hard to take control the world right?. If I am wrong with my above words please do correct me or add if you experience anything like above. Because I am going to talk to Microsoft about these changes and expect them to modify it. Let's see what can we do in order to make Microsoft services more secured. M$ growing and will grow along with the problems. Let's see
The problems don't necessarily have a name. But when M$ cooperates with the NSA and provides them infos how to circumvent their own 'security' measures / invites them to be a part of decrypting / store traffic / data as they obviously did with skype...then....I wonder why there is always a new IE but no enhancement of encrypting standards of web traffic. We still have SSL /TLS...
I can just about guarantee that what we've been allowed to learn so far is not just the tip of the iceberg, but also a diversion so nobody looks at what is really going on. The things Snowden revealed, were already known but not substantiated by fact. Now they are. I wonder what he did not have access to that is still secret. Over the years, people have been lulled into a false sense of security, and forgotten a very important fact. The government are our servants, they work for us, we are their boss, so to speak. Instead, they act like they are kings and we are their subjects. The USA has this exactly backwards: - We are supposed to know everything they are doing, that's why they are called "public" servants. - They are supposed to know nothing about us, that's why we are called "private" citizens.