Updated: A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to Neowin: "we are aware of reports of activation exploits that attempt to circumvent activation & validation in Windows 7, and we can assure customers that Microsoft is committed to protecting them from counterfeit and pirated software. Microsoft strongly advises customers not to download Windows 7 from unauthorized sources. Downloading Windows 7 from peer-to-peer Web sites is piracy, and exposes users to increased risks – such as viruses, Trojans and other malware and malicious code—that usually accompany counterfeit software."
this probably means that at some point they will fix the ability to emulate a slic on the boot partition, which will make loaders no longer work. as to the oem keys that have leaked, i highly doubt they will do anything.
Neowin reporting it Windows 7 has yet to even be released officially to the general public, and already the dodgy folk on the Internet have fully cracked and activated the Ultimate version, with help from a leaked Lenovo OEM DVD .ISO file. The news comes from various Chinese forums who state that you can already pass Windows Genuine Advantage validation offline, OEM style. The leaked .ISO was originally posted on a Chinese forum, which was then downloaded in order for people to get hold of the boot.wim, and in turn retrieving the OEM-SLP key, plus the OEM activation certificate. Microsoft uses the same digitally signed OEM certificate, which has an .xrm-ms extension, as that in Windows Vista. Another point to note is that the key is a master one, which can be used to activate other OEM branded installations, like ones from Dell, HP or indeed Lenovo. This is quite concerning; as mentioned, Windows 7 has yet to even be released, and it can be fully activated. This demonstrates the risk such a huge company as Microsoft takes when distributing a product as significant as an operating system, but this was essentially inevitable, regardless. It's interesting that a product can be pirated and activated before it's properly released to customers. Microsoft was not available for comment at the time of writing. Updated: A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to Neowin: "we are aware of reports of activation exploits that attempt to circumvent activation & validation in Windows 7, and we can assure customers that Microsoft is committed to protecting them from counterfeit and pirated software. Microsoft strongly advises customers not to download Windows 7 from unauthorized sources. Downloading Windows 7 from peer-to-peer Web sites is piracy, and exposes users to increased risks – such as viruses, Trojans and other malware and malicious code—that usually accompany counterfeit software."
They should have known about this for a long time already cause of Vista. They're just trying to look good in the blind's eyes. Nothing to see here.
This remark about "viruses, Trojans and other malware and malicious code" is alredy boring and not even funny anymore, i mean almost everyone knows about SHA1/MD5 of iso these days. Thus, to figure out a clean untouched iso isn't any kind of a problem. And no. they will not do anything with this activation bypass methods because they know about it for a really long time (2.5 years since first lo*der's appearance) and they could've entirely fixed it in NEW OS, either adding some kind of signature to some unique BIOS component, like DSDT ACPI table for instance, or inventing completely new SLP3. If they didn't do anything this time, means they don't want to do it. Probably they calculated that if they'll fix it, they wouldn't get any additional $$, these "pirates" will just use other methods to avoid giving money to MS, and thus it's not worth any efforts.
Hacked windows make good business those with a set will scream our great it is which will be the best advertising that microtish will get and the cost to them is a lot less than tv/mags internet advertising
M$ was aware of that. They knew that OEM_SLP2.1 activation will be mimicked. Why do you think they did only slight changes to the activation process? It's the best promotion for W7 ever! And W7 is really good, but Vista was a flop. And the ***************************** key is IMO a ordinary SLP_2.1 key. To blacklist them they have to make sure that it's not officially used in some way. It activates offline against SLIC. To blacklist the serial, they have to update the WGA!
Obviously they know, ur using THEIR system which can be filled with tons of code that tells them everything they want to know. The point is, what are they gonna do about it?