Windows software counterfeiting

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bobcat
  • Start date Start date
Bobcat said:
This morning when I booted up my computer a message appeared saying
Windows was counterfeit. It gave a box to click on to correct this and
Click to expand...

So is it conterfeit?
 
kurttrail said:
Although it might SEEM like it, I'm really not playing a game, and
counting points.
Click to expand...


Then you should have understood that the word "point" can be used in
contexts other than keeping score.


I'm probably more respected in this group, than you are willing to let
yourself to believe, and I understand why, as I've been rather hard on
you in the past. But if you really read most of my posts, you'll see
I'm very well thought out, ....
Click to expand...


On ocassion, yes, but not consistently; and you often used what I deem
to be very poor "logical" arguments, such as arbitrarily redefining
terms, or straw-man arguments.

.... even to the point where I try to explain that
MS's copy-protection is bad not only for consumers, but for stockholders
too.


I'm sure you're not. But most of them are those that judge the book by
its cover, and not by the content of the book.
Click to expand...


Ah! But that's my point: I judge you based upon the *contents* of your
posts. I've no idea what you look like.



.... and especially when it comes from a seemingly
trustworthy source as a major corporation.
Click to expand...


See, now, this is something I simply cannot fathom. How, with
corporate malfeasance in the news every day for the past several years,
can anyone possibly consider any major corporation "trustworthy." I
just don't see how any reasonably aware adult can be so naive.

Because innately, people are trusting. The human capacity to trust is a
double-edged sword. Yep, trust tends to be eventually rewarded with
being suckered, but imagine a world where it is human nature not to be
trusting. Where everyone's natural reaction is to see the worst in
everything.

Yeah, I'm a hypocrite, and a natural skeptic, but I'm not so
hypocritical and skeptical to be blind to the beauty in the human
capacity for trusting.
Click to expand...


... Yet another area where we'll never agree. ;-} Trust should always
be *earned,* not free for the taking.


If they are gonna act like a spyware distributor, then they need to be
treated like one too. And only through people speaking out about this
will people learn to not just blindly trust MS, and to see them for what
they really are, the largest distributor of spyware in the world.
Click to expand...


If that proves to be the case, I'll agree. I'm not ready to rush to
judgment, yet, until I learn more. But, in principle, if not detail, I
agree.

I know you have voiced your displeasure about WGA in the past, for its
false positives, but this latest incarnation of WGA goes way beyond the
bounds. And as I've been saying along, the behavior modification
technology tools of the recent past isn't all that much of a big deal,
it is what they will become that is the real worry.
Click to expand...


I don't see a legitimate, if sometimes flawed, attempt at copy
protection as "behavior modification;" no more than my locking my car
when I park it as an effort to make car thieves go straight. I'm just
making it a bit more difficult for the thieves to take my property. Am
I inconvenienced by having to lock my car? Sure. But not as much as
I'd be put out by having to walk home.

In a decade from now, imagine the hoops it will take to run a Windows
OS, modeled on what has developed over the last five or so years, since
PA was first introduced to the masses. Now extend that to a 1/4
century. It doesn't take a rabid anti-MS person to see where all this
stuff is heading.

No one that believes in personal freedom is likely to see any real good
that will come from any of these behavior modification technologies.
Click to expand...


Again, we've a fundamental disagreement. What you see as "behavior
modification," I see as something else, entirely. I don't see how any
entity's efforts and techniques to protect its own property
fundamentally require a change of behavior on my part. I've no
intention of stealing the product, so I'm only mildly inconvenienced.
And I blame the thieves who make such protective steps necessary, not
the entity protecting itself.

No they aren't. Nobody wants any unnecessary hassles while computing.
Not you, and not me, and especially not the average user. They are only
getting what MS wants, as MS knows that most people are too busy and/or
too lazy and/or ignorant to notice.
Click to expand...


Didn't you just start that paragraph by disagreeing with me, and end it
by agreeing? If people are "too lazy/ignorant," they've no one to blame
but themselves; both characteristics are correctable, if people want to
do so.


One final note. Yeah, I'm a character, and I rub some people the wrong
way, but I'm trying to be entertaining too. I am passionate about
trying to educate people about how using technology to limit human
behavior is a major long-term threat to personal freedom, but I try to
do it with all good humor, rather than be preacher all the time, preying
on people's fears, or just boring them to death with the same old song
and dance. I acknowledge and accept that a some people are gonna not
like me for my manner of presentation. That's why we need as many
different voices speaking out as possible, as often as possible, as no
one can speak to all people all the time.
Click to expand...


While I rarely do agree with what you have to say, and often find your
delivery unnecessarily offensive (not that I'm one for political
correctness, myself), I will agree that different voices do need to be
heard, yours included. Now, having typed that, I'm going to go wash my
hands. ;-}


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
 
kurttrail said:
For the time being yes.
Click to expand...


Then you might want to point that out when you post the link. (Or
maybe not, depending on your level of paranoia. There does seem to be a
bit of inexplicable censorship going on lately.)


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
 
Hello Bobcat
Are you new to this newsgroup?
As Kurt has mentioned, recent groups of updates from MS have caused some
problems to many, including myself.
As a result, the general advice has been to disable auto updates and select
notify only. Then you can read, check etc to see if you want/need the
update.
Then the likes of WGA, (which was deemed as 'critical'!!!!) will not slip
onto your computer without you realising it and giving you aggravation.(if
it was the genuine WGA that is). You seem unsure.
It is not that MS updates are not important, it is that at the moment some
are of poor quality and require a further update/patch to patch the
patch/update previously.
Hope your system stays stable
Rgds
Antioch
 
Bruce Chambers wrote:

While I rarely do agree with what you have to say, and often find your
delivery unnecessarily offensive (not that I'm one for political
correctness, myself), I will agree that different voices do need to be
heard, yours included.
Click to expand...

I was gonna let you have the total last word, but I wanted to point out
that this is what I meant by judging the book by its cover. My means of
delivery is merely there for entertainment value. The cover, so to
speak.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."
 
Hello Bobcat
Are you new to this newsgroup?
As Kurt has mentioned, recent groups of updates from MS have caused some
problems to many, including myself.
As a result, the general advice has been to disable auto updates and select
notify only. Then you can read, check etc to see if you want/need the
update.
Then the likes of WGA, (which was deemed as 'critical'!!!!) will not slip
onto your computer without you realising it and giving you aggravation.(if
it was the genuine WGA that is). You seem unsure.
It is not that MS updates are not important, it is that at the moment some
are of poor quality and require a further update/patch to patch the
patch/update previously.
Hope your system stays stable
Rgds
Antioch
Click to expand...

Yes, I am new here, Antioch, and I'm impressed by how prompt and
helpful people have been, including you. I'll take your advice about
selecting "notify only". One thing that stands out about this newsgroup
is its high quality of adversaries! All newsgroups have them, but the
ones I've read here so far seem to conduct their ongoing quarrels at
impressive levels of thought and language - refreshing not to see all
those offputting four-letter words.
 
I have also had the same problem with an icon appearing overnight. I have
run the Microsoft programme and it says the software is not genuine. I know
it is genuine and I have the product key license no - have typed this in but
doesn't recognise it. Problem started with e.mail in which said I need to
run Active X - have tried installing but it still says software is
counterfeit and I should buy genuine software. If this is a virus type
application, then Microsoft should post a reply to help us get rid of this
icon.
 
I wonder just how many legitimate systems are displaying this?
Click to expand...

We've not seen this on more than 1800 systems under our control, and
we've only seen it on one machine that really did have a pirated copy of
Windows XP on it.

You have not identified the source of your computer or copy of Windows
XP, so we can't determine if your copy is legit or not.

If you got your copy from a computer purchased off ebay, from a friend,
from a friend of a friend, etc... it may not be a legit copy of XP.
 
The worst part is that MS was finally starting to get through to people
about the need of patching their OSs, which was a good thing, as a vast
majority were not doing it. But with the recent bad patch, and now the
WGA Notification spyware scam, MS is gonna get people so confused as to
what they should do, that they'll go back to not doing anything at all.
Click to expand...

Except that I've not see this WGA piracy notice impact any legit owners
of the product. Even in this thread, we don't know if the OP holds a
legit license for XP or not.

I've not seen one posting that we can confirm as a legit copy of XP
being falsely identified by this update.
 
Leythos said:
We've not seen this on more than 1800 systems under our control, and
we've only seen it on one machine that really did have a pirated copy
of Windows XP on it.

You have not identified the source of your computer or copy of Windows
XP, so we can't determine if your copy is legit or not.

If you got your copy from a computer purchased off ebay, from a
friend, from a friend of a friend, etc... it may not be a legit copy
of XP.
Click to expand...

LOL! First, I don't believe anything you say. Fools that still believe
that Saddam had massive stockpiles of WMDs in 2003, have proven
themselves to be totally beyond all reason.

Second, this group has already gotten reports of false positives.

Third, WGA technology is so bad that MS has developed a debugging tool
for it.

As a recap, you are untrustworthy, MS is untrustworthy, and those
screwed by WGA technologies are not untrustworthy.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."
 
Leythos said:
Except that I've not see this WGA piracy notice impact any legit
owners of the product. Even in this thread, we don't know if the OP
holds a legit license for XP or not.

I've not seen one posting that we can confirm as a legit copy of XP
being falsely identified by this update.
Click to expand...

Obviously you missed the guy that had the Dell computer he got from
Dell.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."
 
I too am receiving this message , after i ran disk cleanup. ran the
microsoft "fix" page and tells me it is a good version, but still have the
message and I should contact Dell. can anyone say Linux? that may be where
i end up, this is crap.
 
Please go to www.microsoft.com/genuine and click Validate Windows -
that should resync the WGA Validation files.

Afterward, please click Start, then Run, then type in "WGAtray.exe /b"
(without the quotes) and click OK, then reboot. That should fix it!

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP 2007
Windows - Shell/User

Enjoy all the benefits of genuine Microsoft software:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/default.mspx

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­---------------------------------

:

| I too am receiving this message , after i ran disk cleanup. ran the
| microsoft "fix" page and tells me it is a good version, but still have the
| message and I should contact Dell. can anyone say Linux? that may be where
| i end up, this is crap.
 
Hello...I have read all the entries and replies..I thought I was the only one
who had this problem...I thank you all for all the information that was
given...I will try this...I brought my computer from someone that fixes
computers and guess what? He did it for a living in the service. I am going
to school online and when I first started using the online classes that is
when I started seeing the couterfeit genuine sign.

thanks again for all the help
 
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