News Latest WGA deletes wallpaper

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/08/28/latest-wga-deletes-wallpaper/1

The latest revision of the anti-piracy 'user education' tool Windows Genuine Advantage will remove your desktop wallpaper if it believes your copy is pirated.

 

As if any pirate will care about backgrounds and 'text" appearing in some corner. they know they have a copy.
As if any legit user will care about the "your windows is genuine" msg when doing a ms driver upgrade.
As if anybody cares if you have a honest or pirated windows.

 

It's true though - it seems to be all stick and no carrot when it comes to getting people to shell out a fortune for an OS...

 

A fortune is relative... People don't bother dishing out €350 for JUST a GFX card, but when it comes to one of the key components, the OS, then every € is one too much...

 

£60 OEM.

I'd rather build my system with a trustworthy OS version rather than struggle with a dodgy pirate version.

 

that's just plain irritating! hehe! have M$ dropped the price of XP with the advent of Vista? I'm planning on a new PC soon, a basic media pc, and was wondering if the ol' XP dog was a cheaper option

 

I know, that's what I paid for it - to me, that's a fortune, no matter what you spend it on.

 

Yeah, with a quad core and a 8800GT it does seem you don't have a lot to spend on your PC, and certainly not on key components like for instance an OS

 

I paid £96 for my copy of Ultimate, OEM, and while it's well over what I want to pay for it, it's not a fat lot more expensive than XP was/is (£73 (OOS) on Ingram Micro), or even Leopard (£85).

I don't ever recall them being 'cheap', and when people are spending hundreds on a homebuild (I've yet to see a prebuild come without a license), it's hardly unfair to ask them to pay for the software that they're going to use day in, day out for the next few years.

Complaining about the cost, even though it seems pretty damn extortionate, isn't going to change anything. If it's that much of a bind, get a copy of Linux, they're nearly all free.

Admittedly, Windows does a very bad job of being 'nice' to users, but hey, that software is pretty much the base of everything we do. Not like we can change that too easily.

 

No Not really.

My PC was for christmas.

Ninja Edit:

This is more like what the point of my first post was - all stick, no carrot.
There's no "Advantage" to having a genuine copy of windows, we just don't get crippled like the detected pirated versions.

They should probaby have called it "WCD" - Windows Counterfeit Disadvantage

 

Well, if you don't get an OS you end up with a pretty expensive door stopper... Maybe you should have asked Santa for a bit less excessive CPU, and an OS to actually use your system.

I just love it how people prioritise hardware over software, while software is actually more important than hardware... Bleeding edge hardware without software is useless, software without bleeding edge hardware still works, just a bit slower...

 

So, what flavour of Linux are you using?

 

I did buy my OS, but it doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.
It's exactly the same as buying petrol at the price it is, I have to pay it, but I don't have to be happy about it.

 

I have 4 comps, 3 with XP and one with Vista and ive never seen this WGA ?

 

I've never seen it getting in my face, I assume it has itself a mug or two of 'sit the **** down and shut the **** up' within legal copies.

 

Gentoo

That's exactly my point... You are perfectly happy to dish out for a quad core and gaming GPU, yet you complain when you have to pay for an other core component, the OS (which probably costs even less...)? To me that's flawed reasoning... That makes about everything too expensive...

And in case you didn't know, if you hate MS so much, or dislike their practices, vote with your wallet... There are (free) alternative OSs... But live with the consequences of your choices. IMHO you should either STFU and pay the price, or do something about it and deal with the consequences. But that is most peoples problem, they whine and whine, yet they take the easy way out... But that's an other discussion I guess...

 

look at it this way, apple OS's are cheaper, but you get a new every year.
Windows costs more, but they update it all the time for free.

essentially you are getting a deal with windows.

 

am i the only one getting Vista (bith 32bit and 64bit) for free?

 

I bet you're getting it through Uni, yes?

Apple OS's are barely cheaper, though, there aren't any annoying license codes to put in, which is nice.

 

lol so in essence pirates get the better looking and performing Vista experience. Hahahaha!