It seems Microsoft are patting themselves on the back after releasing an update that targets the sawn off Vista release from a few weeks ago.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/12/14/6296Microsoft put an end to the humorously titled "frankenbuild" Windows Vista counterfeit today by releasing a patch that detects the mess of an operating system and requests a valid product key.
Because the counterfeit operating system was hacked together from bits and pieces of previous Windows Vista releases, Microsoft engineers decided to call it "frankenbuild". Surprisingly, the mutant managed to bypass activation. Here's how Microsoft is bringing down the monster:
Windows Vista will use the new Windows Update client to require only the 'frankenbuild' systems to go through a genuine validation check. These systems will fail that check because we have blocked the RC keys for systems not authorized to use them. In other words, the wrong key is being used. The systems will then be flagged as non-genuine systems and the experience will be what we announced back in October - including losing certain functionality (e.g. Aero, ReadyBoost) and the system will have 30 days to activate with a good product key. If they don't produce a new product key within 30 days, they will then only be able to access their system in what we call reduced functionality mode - a mode which limits their use to one hour with their default web browser. I want to be clear here that even though they can only use their browser for an hour, we will never limit their access to their data. A user can always -boot their PC into what is called Safe Mode. Safe Mode is a mode of using Windows that has limited driver, display and networking support - but allows a user access to all their files.
Because this O/S is so anti consumer I,m glad they are helping kill it dead by making sure no one is familiar with it and therefore wont use it by choice.
For those wishing to have this MS spyware and Digital Rights Management (DRM) souped up version of XP I can only advise you to give up drinking, its affecting your ability to think rationally.
