Pirates crack Windows 7 activation

Barely a week since it went RTM, Microsoft has confirmed that pirates have cracked Windows 7 activation. As I understand it, what made the Windows 7 activation possible was the leak of an OEM disk image from Lenovo, one of Microsoft's major OEM partner. The disk contained a master OEM key and the requisite activation certificate to enable the release version of Windows 7. Microsoft gives OEMs the ability to pre-activate its operating system in the factory to ease the hassle for end-users.

Activating Windows 7 using the leaked resources is no simple matter though, since it uses an advanced version of the activation software that first premiered in Windows Vista. In a nutshell, a hack of the BIOS is required to support the activation technology--which is definitely not for the faint of heart. However, a number of users have apparently activated their Windows 7 Ultimate successfully.

A company spokeswoman for Microsoft reiterated standard warnings about piracy, saying, "Microsoft strongly advises customers not to download Windows 7 from unauthorized sources." It is not known at the moment what Microsoft intends to do, or if there is anything that it can do at all about the cracked version.

Despite the lackluster response to Windows Vista, the reaction to Windows 7 to date is extremely positive. In fact, I am personally looking forward to getting the final version of Windows 7 on my laptop on October 22. Pirated edition aside, subscribers to Microsoft TechNet and MSDN services will be able to download the final code starting next Thursday.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World

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