Run Vista legally for at least one year/ Vista Activation doesn't stop Piracy
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Microsoft has built into Vista a function that allows anyone to extend the
operating system's activation deadline not just three times, but many times.
The same one-line command that postpones Vista's activation deadline to 120
days can be used an indefinite number of times by first changing a Registry
key from 0 to 1.
This isn't a hacker exploit. It doesn't require any tools or utilities
whatsoever. Microsoft even documented the Registry key, although obtusely,
on its Technet site.
But dishonest PC sellers could use the procedure to install thousands of
copies of Vista and sell them to unsuspecting consumers or businesses as
legitimately activated copies. This would certainly violate the Vista EULA,
but consumers might not realize this until the PCs they bought started
demanding activation - and failing - months or years later.
The following describes the Registry key that's involved.
Step 1. While running a copy of Windows Vista that hasn't yet been
activated, click the Start button, type regedit into the Search box, then
press Enter to launch the Registry Editor.
Step 2. Explore down to the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ SL
Step 3. Right-click the Registry key named SkipRearm and click Edit. The
default is a Dword (a double word or 4 bytes) with a hex value of 00000000.
Change this value to any positive integer, such as 00000001, save the
change, and close the Registry Editor.
Step 4. Start a command prompt with administrative rights. The fastest way
to do this is to click the Start button, enter cmd in the Search box, then
press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If you're asked for a network username and password,
provide the ones that log you into your domain. You may be asked to approve
a User Account Control prompt and to provide an administrator password.
Step 5. Type one of the following two commands and press Enter:
slmgr -rearm
or
rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows
Either command uses Vista's built-in Software Licensing Manager (SLMGR) to
push the activation deadline out to 30 days after the command is run.
Changing SkipRearm from 0 to 1 allows SLMGR to do this an indefinite number
of times. Running either command initializes the value of SkipRearm back to
0.
Step 6. Reboot the PC to make the postponement take effect. (After you log
in, if you like, you can open a command prompt and run the command
slmgr -xpr to see Vista's new expiration date and time. I explained the
slmgr command and its parameters in my Feb. 15 article.)
Step 7. To extend the activation deadline of Vista indefinitely, repeat
steps 1 through 6 as necessary
Read full story and other tricks at source:
http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070315/#story1
Microsoft allows bypass of Vista activation
By Brian Livingston
Microsoft always says it opposes "software pirates" who sell thousands of
unauthorized copies of Windows.
But the Redmond company has made things a lot easier for pirates by adding a
line to the Registry that can be changed from 0 to 1 to postpone the need to
"activate" Vista indefinitely.
Activation doesn't stop true software piracy
As most Windows users know, Microsoft has required "product activation"
since the release of Windows XP in 2001. XP must be activated by
communicating with servers in Redmond within 30 days of installation. By
contrast, Microsoft Office XP, 2003, and 2007 require activatation before
the package is used 5 to 50 times, depending on the version, according to a
company FAQ. If a PC has no Internet connection, a user may activate a
product by dialing a telephone number in various countries.
The activation process will complete successfully only if the software has
not been previously activated, such as on a different machine. If activation
isn't completed within the trial period, Microsoft products temporarily shut
down some of their features. MS Office loses the ability to edit and save
files. After Vista's activation deadline runs out, the user can do little
other than use Internet Explorer to activate the operating system or buy a
new license.
Microsoft describes its product activation scheme as a way to foil software
pirates. However, as I previously described in an InfoWorld Magazine article
on Oct. 22, 2001, activation does nothing to stop mass piracy. The Redmond
company actually included in Windows XP a small file, Wpa.dbl, that makes it
easy for pirates to create thousands of machines that validate perfectly.
Far from stopping software piracy, product activation has primarily been
designed to prevent home users from installing one copy of Windows on a home
machine and a personal-use copy on a laptop. As I explained in an article on
Mar. 8, buying a copyrighted work and making another copy strictly for
personal use is specifically permitted to consumers by the U.S. Copyright
Act and the copyright laws of many other countries.
For example, courts have repeatedly ruled that consumers can make copies of
copyrighted songs or television programs for personal use (not for
distribution or resale). This principle is legally known as "fair use." The
home edition of Microsoft Office 2007 reflects this principle, allowing
consumers to activate three copies of a single purchased product. Microsoft
Windows XP and Vista, however, allow only one activation.
Surprisingly, Microsoft has embedded into its new Vista operating system a
feature that makes things easier than ever for true, mass software pirates.
These tricksters will be able to produce thousands of Windows PCs machines
that won't demand activation indefinitely - at least for a year or more.
Leaving the activation barn door open
I reported in a Feb. 1 article that the upgrade version of Windows Vista
allows itself to be clean-installed to a new hard drive. The new Microsoft
operating system completely omits any checking for a qualifying previous
version of Windows. This allows the upgrade version of Vista to successfully
upgrade over a nonactivated, trial version of itself.
After my article appeared, ZDnet blogger Ed Bott summarized the secret in a
post on Feb. 15. He flatly states, "You satisfied every condition of the
license agreement and aren't skating by on a technicality. The fact that you
have to use a kludgey workaround to use the license you've purchased and are
legally entitled to is Microsoft's fault."
In my own piece, I had speculated that clean-installing the upgrade version
of Vista "probably violates the Vista EULA (End User License Agreement)."
But more and more computer experts are saying that the procedure is fully
compliant with the EULA and, in any event, is perfectly legal.
I wrote a follow-up story on Feb. 15. I reported that Microsoft includes in
Vista a one-line command that even novices can use to postpone the product's
activation deadline three times. This can extend the deadline from its
original 30 days to as much as 120 days - almost four months.
PCWorld.com posted a report on my story on Feb. 17. The magazine quotes a
Microsoft spokeswoman as saying that extending Vista's activation deadline
as I described it "is not a violation of the Vista End User License
Agreement." I'm glad that's clear.
The feature that I've revealing today shows that Microsoft has built into
Vista a function that allows anyone to extend the operating system's
activation deadline not just three times, but many times. The same one-line
command that postpones Vista's activation deadline to 120 days can be used
an indefinite number of times by first changing a Registry key from 0 to 1.
This isn't a hacker exploit. It doesn't require any tools or utilities
whatsoever. Microsoft even documented the Registry key, although obtusely,
on its Technet site.
But dishonest PC sellers could use the procedure to install thousands of
copies of Vista and sell them to unsuspecting consumers or businesses as
legitimately activated copies. This would certainly violate the Vista EULA,
but consumers might not realize this until the PCs they bought started
demanding activation - and failing - months or years later.
The following describes the Registry key that's involved.
Step 1. While running a copy of Windows Vista that hasn't yet been
activated, click the Start button, type regedit into the Search box, then
press Enter to launch the Registry Editor.
Step 2. Explore down to the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ SL
Step 3. Right-click the Registry key named SkipRearm and click Edit. The
default is a Dword (a double word or 4 bytes) with a hex value of 00000000.
Change this value to any positive integer, such as 00000001, save the
change, and close the Registry Editor.
Step 4. Start a command prompt with administrative rights. The fastest way
to do this is to click the Start button, enter cmd in the Search box, then
press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If you're asked for a network username and password,
provide the ones that log you into your domain. You may be asked to approve
a User Account Control prompt and to provide an administrator password.
Step 5. Type one of the following two commands and press Enter:
slmgr -rearm
or
rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows
Either command uses Vista's built-in Software Licensing Manager (SLMGR) to
push the activation deadline out to 30 days after the command is run.
Changing SkipRearm from 0 to 1 allows SLMGR to do this an indefinite number
of times. Running either command initializes the value of SkipRearm back to
0.
Step 6. Reboot the PC to make the postponement take effect. (After you log
in, if you like, you can open a command prompt and run the command
slmgr -xpr to see Vista's new expiration date and time. I explained the
slmgr command and its parameters in my Feb. 15 article.)
Step 7. To extend the activation deadline of Vista indefinitely, repeat
steps 1 through 6 as necessary.
Any crooked PC seller with even the slightest technical skill could easily
install a command file that would carry out steps 1 through 6 automatically.
The program could run slmgr -rearm three times, 30 days apart, to postpone
Vista's activation deadline to 120 days. It could then run skip -rearm every
30 days, for a period of months if not years, by first resetting the
SkipRearm key.
The program could be scheduled to check Vista's activation deadline during
every reboot, and to remind the user to reboot once a month if a deadline
was nearing. The buyer of such a PC would never even see an activation
reminder, much less be required to go through the activation process.
If you happen to buy a Vista PC from a little-known seller, and the price
was too good to be true, use Vista's search function to look for the string
SkipRearm in files. You may discover that your "bargain" computer will
mysteriously start demanding activation in a year or two - but your product
key won't be valid.
I asked Microsoft why SkipRearm is included in Vista if it can be used to
create machines that appear not to need activation for long periods. A
Microsoft spokewoman replied, "I connected with my colleagues and learned,
unfortunately, we do not have information to share at this time." (I can't
identify the speaker because the policy of Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft's
public-relations firm, prohibits the naming of p.r. spokespersons.)
In my testing of Microsoft's back-door loophole, I've found that the
technique can be used to postpone the activation deadline one year or
longer. It may or may not, however, work forever, as I describe below.
Why does SkipRearm even exist in Vista?
The Vista development teaam apparently inserted the SkipRearm loophole to
help major corporations work around Microsoft's new Volume Licensing
Agreement. This new program, which the Redmond company calls "Volume
Licensing 2.0," requires buyers to set up a Key Management Service (KMS)
host, as described by a Microsoft FAQ. Companies must choose from two types
of digital keys and three different methods of activation to validate
thousands of individual Vista machines within the corporate LAN.
Activation of Windows XP, by comparison, requires merely that volume
purchasers use a single product key. Corporate buyers obtain a unique key
when signing a Volume Licensing Agreement. Microsoft has said, however, that
most Windows XP piracy involves stolen product keys that are used by others
to activate unauthorized machines.
The new KMS requirement is intended to discourage such piracy, but it places
a heavy burden on corporate IT administrators. For example, Microsoft
provides a tool called System Preparation (sysprep.exe) to prepare Vista
machines for use. If a system can't be completely prepped within 30 days
after installation, an admin can run the command sysprep /generalize to
postpone the activation deadline another 30 days. However, like the
slmgr -rearm command, sysprep /generalize will only succeed three times.
To work around this, as a Technet document states, "Microsoft recommends
that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple
times on a computer." This is echoed by Microsoft Knowledge Base article
929828.
Contributing editor Susan Bradley points out, "The good guys have to go
through this stupid implementation of a KMS deployment because of bad guys
abusing the system." She strongly feels that users should comply with
Microsoft's EULA provisions. "The operating system license has always been a
one-machine install. ... Many of us forget the multiple-install rule [for
Microsoft Office] since we are so used to the one license, one install
rule," she adds.
In its TechNet documents, Microsoft recommends the repeated use of
SkipRearm. How many times is "multiple times"? My testing revealed that the
answer is, well, indefinite.
.. On a copy of Vista Ultimate that Microsoft released in New York City on
Jan. 29, I found that changing SkipRearm from 0 to 1 allowed the command
slmgr -rearm to postpone Vista's activation deadline eight separate times.
After that, changing the 0 to 1 had no effect, preventing slmgr -rearm from
moving the deadline. The use of slmgr -rearm 3 times, plus using SkipRearm 8
times would eliminate Vista's activation nag screens for about one year (12
periods of 30 days).
.. On a copy of the upgrade version of Vista Home Premium that I bought in a
retail store on Jan. 30, slmgr -rearm also worked 3 times and SkipRearm
worked 8 times before losing their effect. This combination would, as with
Vista Ultimate, permit a one-year use of Vista without nag screens
appearing.
.. On a copy of the full version of Vista Home Premium that I bought in a
retail store on Mar. 14, SkipRearm had no effect on extending the use of
slmgr -rearm at all. This suggests that Microsoft has slipstreamed a new
version into stores, eliminating the SkipRearm feature in Vista Home. That
could mean that changing the key from 0 to 1 will now work only in the
business editions of Vista - Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate - so
corporations can use the loophole.
Where is the usage count of slmgr -rearm stored? Where is the usage count of
SkipRearm stored? These bytes won't be hard for expert users to find. The
use restrictions may be easily lifted. If so, this would allow crooked PC
sellers to truly create machines that would never need activation, ever.
The financial impact of SkipRearm on Microsoft
I'd like to repeat here that I'm not advocating that anyone use the above
technique to violate Microsoft's EULA or avoid paying for Vista. Any company
that used SkipRearm to install Vista on multiple machines for as long as
possible would have little defense against a surprise inspection by the
Business Software Alliance. This coalition of software makers, which
includes Microsoft, investigates reports of unlicensed software and obtains
warrants to conduct audits.
As a journalist, my job is to report the facts. SkipRearm was specifically
built into Vista to be used. Microsoft executives made Vista's activation
overly complex and cumbersome. So the development team apparently invented a
Registry key to lift the burden of Vista's activation deadline, for at least
a year and probably more.
The technique is so powerful and basic, however, that hackers around the
world may soon use the feature to install millions of extra copies of Vista
without buying them. This could have a major impact on Microsoft's revenues.
The company's employees and shareholders might want to be aware of this.
Product activation does little or nothing to stop mass software piracy. It's
become so convoluted, the way Microsoft has implemented it, that it's more
of an irritation to legitimate users than a worthwhile antipiracy measure.
In my opinion, Microsoft should concentrate on legal action against true
pirates instead of inventing more ways to drive honorable users bonkers.
I invite my readers to send me information about SkipRearm using the Windows
Secrets contact page. I'd like to thank my program director, Brent
Scheffler, for tirelessly testing SkipRearm dozens of times, and reader
Reine T. for being the first to point out the use of SkipRearm to me. He'll
receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of his choice for sending
me a tip that I used.
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