Pirated copies of Windows. Pirated builds of Windows: pros and cons

This is the next step in the development of the Windows Genuine Advantage program, which Microsoft quietly launched last September. It lies in the fact that with the help of special software, the legitimacy of this particular copy of Windows is checked. This program will form the basis of Microsoft's campaign to increase the number of paying customers among the millions of people who use Windows.

Windows Genuine started as a voluntary program, but then Microsoft began to require legalization from more and more categories of customers who want to download the company's software. For example, in March, Microsoft said that those who wish to download the Language Support Package for Windows must prove the authenticity of their copy of Windows.

Starting Wednesday, US customers whose copies of Windows XP Professional have not been authenticated will be able to receive a free licensed copy. To do this, they will need to fill out a counterfeiting statement and provide Microsoft with the Windows disc they have and a receipt confirming its purchase.

“Our goal is to ensure that replacements are made to people who didn't really know they were being spoofed,” explained Genuine Windows Program Director David Lazar.

Those without a disc or receipt can purchase a licensed copy online for $149. It's cheaper than buying a full copy of Windows XP Pro, but more expensive than the copy of Windows that new PC buyers pay for.

"At first glance, it seems suicidal to reward pirates with free licensed copies," said Ross Rubin, an analyst at The NPD Group. However, Microsoft gets the opportunity to demonstrate to customers the benefits of using the software officially and the potential benefits that they will receive as legitimate customers in the release of future versions. In addition, it can help them identify those who lead the pirate networks. “In the fight against drug trafficking, the police bypass low-level dealers to get to the drug lords; so they probably want to get to the distributors of pirated Windows,” says Rubin.

Test program
For the time being, the Windows authentication process remains voluntary for most customers, although Microsoft plans to make such scanning mandatory for anyone wishing to download software from the company's website this summer.

For those customers whose copy is not will be tested, most Windows-related downloads will be unavailable, but they will still be able to receive security updates - either by enabling Automatic Update mode or by selecting a specific patch manually. Utility windows update, which determines all the necessary updates and offers to download them, will only work for those whose copy of Windows turned out to be licensed.

However, before the program gets that far, Lazar said, Microsoft wants to try out the upgrade process in action. Hence today's offer, which will be valid until July 30th. What Microsoft will offer next is unknown. “We knew that in order to fully implement the program, we would have to make a proposal like this,” Lazar said. "It allows us to check."

Specifically, Microsoft will test a scanning tool that confirms that a customer who wants a legitimate copy of Windows already has everything. necessary files Windows. This tool checks the presence and integrity of all genuine system Windows files XP, although Microsoft also sends CDs to customers and recommends that those who have suspicions about possible problems with their copy of Windows, reinstall the operating system.

Registration of customers
Analysts were concerned that Microsoft might force customers to completely reinstall Windows when switching to a licensed version. operating system.

So far, customers seem willing to let Microsoft test their copies of Windows. In the eight months since the program began, the majority of users surveyed did not mind this. Globally, 48 million customers visited the page with an offer to participate in the program and 27 million, or 56%, expressed their willingness to check.

Lazar did not give an exact number of bogus copies identified by Microsoft, but said that the "overwhelming majority" of the machines had licensed copies of Windows installed. The global software piracy rate is estimated to be around 36%, and Microsoft's results, according to Lazar, are about the same as they expected.

The company piloted a paid upgrade program in China, one of three countries where Windows check authenticity has already become mandatory. Lazar said that "several thousand" customers accepted the offer to purchase Windows version discounted - XP Pro is offered for about $150. The vast majority of systems in China have unlicensed copies of Windows installed.

Michael Cherry, analyst at Directions on Microsoft, commends Microsoft for being candid about the goals of the program and for having tools to determine authenticity copies of Windows. At the same time, he expressed the wish that Microsoft better inform customers, helping them to identify counterfeit copies of Windows in advance. “All this is very good, but these measures are taken after the fact,” he says. Consumers are not well aware of the cues Microsoft uses to label its own software, such as Certificate of Authenticity labels and holographic labels on discs. "I doubt my dad knows what a "Certificate of Authenticity" is," Cherry remarked.

Hi admin! I turn to you as a friend, I need advice. I am in ninth grade. My parents bought me a laptop with Windows 10, in general I am satisfied with it, it turns out that Win 10 is my second operating system, before that I used an old computer with Windows XP. But I really want to try Windows 7, I don't know it at all. Our computer scientist at school says that Win 7 is more beautiful, easier to manage, configure, and most importantly, there is no Metro interface that is unnecessary on the desktop, but the question is - where to download it?

On the official Microsoft website, they only give out, which means the choice is not great, only torrents remain, but again, various assemblies are distributed on torrents, that is, images of real Windows 7 modified (changed by craftsmen-users), I don’t want this, I want to install myself on a laptop instead of Windows 10, the original Windows 7 Professional and use it for a month, if everything they say about the "seven" is true, then I will honestly buy it in an online store. If I don't like Win 7, I'll stick with my Windows 10.

• I understand that it is not customary to give links to download operating systems on such reputable sites like yours, but at least help distinguish a real Microsoft original image of Windows 7 or Windows 10 from a non-original one(pirated assembly), say in your own words, what is the difference between a pirated assembly of Windows 7, 8.1, 10 and licensed Windows 7, 8.1, 10, what exactly is changed ? Why do you advise all users in the comments to install exactly the original images from Microsoft?
• And the last two questions how exactly the assemblies of Windows 7, 8.1, 10 operating systems are created, how the image is disassembled and how it is assembled later?
• Why didn’t you yourself, with your knowledge, download Windows 10 with an activator, but go to a simple store and buy a licensed Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit Rus (OEM) in a box, and then write an article about it?

Sorry for so many questions, I'm just interested in everything related to computers and I honestly don't want to steal anything, I just want to understand everything. You have a very good site, I visit it all the time, thank you very much in advance for your answers.

Sincerely, Maxim!

In the same article, I will answer your other questions. Am I, a simple computer wizard, not to know that the original Windows is better unoriginal. Over the years, I have seen so many abnormal and skewed assemblies that I lost count.

I agree, not all builds are so bad, but I still support the original. Why? I will give a simple example of comparison, maybe a little unsuccessful, but I think you will understand the essence.

You came to the store for Levi's jeans, and suddenly they offer you jeans from another company for free, I personally don’t even agree for free, and suddenly they tear at the most inopportune moment right on the street, so I need original jeans from Levi's, Windows from Microsoft, the processor from Intel, and the cartoon "Just you wait" from Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but so far it's worked.

The original appearance and state of Windows in such assemblies is rarely preserved, because that's why it is an assembly, in order to have some differences from the original and other assemblies of the system. Laid out on the Internet Windows builds from enthusiasts - these are the results of their experiments, where they remove or disable some system functionality, preset certain settings, introduce third-party software products, modify the system interface.

From the number system settings and functionality it can be:

1. Disabling User Account Control.

2. Disable swap file

3. Removing office equipment drivers that are not used at home.

4. Removing the Metro functionality in Windows 8 and 8.1, removing the hibernation mode, etc.

5. Windows assemblies are often equipped with pre-installed programs, and after installing the system on the desktop, shortcuts are already ready to launch the browser, uninstaller, system optimizer, applications Microsoft office and other useful software.

6. Third party themes design, gadgets on the desktop, informers and other not so much useful as beautiful little things modify the boring design of Windows.

Implementations in the system, concerning the improvement of its design, are especially approved by novice users in the comments on the Internet distributions of Windows builds.

If you've come across a build of Windows where an enthusiast mentioned testing it personally, you're in luck. Collectors do not always check their creations for performance before posting them on the Internet. After all, if there are any problems during the installation or operation of such Windows assemblies, users will definitely unsubscribe in the comments. And only then the collector will begin to solve the problem.

Sometimes builds of Windows may come in Live CD format, as is the case with Linux distributions. Such Live CDs contain a menu in which you can choose to install Windows, or you can use the proposed programs for system resuscitation or quick access to the Internet.

Assemblies of Windows are "saved" from the need to pay money for using the system, which is why they are called pirated. Some assemblies are installed with already embedded serial key and are activated automatically, and some provide for the presence of an activator utility on the desktop after installation of the system, which the user needs to run manually. Windows builds may not contain an embedded serial number, do not activate automatically, may not even have an activator on the desktop. In this case, the activator utility can be downloaded separately (very often it is because of the curved activators that the operating system loading fails).

Who puts Windows builds on the Internet for free and why?

And who are these collectors-enthusiasts? And what is their benefit? Why do they waste their time and use their skills to give away the results of their labors for free?

In many cases, they are driven by the need for their own development and the opportunity to test their achievements in the conditions feedback with users. Often this is a common desire to show off your technical literacy and gather an audience around you that will thank you, ask questions - in general, increase self-esteem.

Note: Friends, if you are smart, educated and talented, put your best effort into creating a real operating system that would be a worthwhile alternative to Microsoft's Windows!

Of course, Windows assemblers can be ordinary scammers who initially inject into the system malicious codes for the purpose of profit. These points must be checked in the comments to the Internet distributions of Windows assemblies - does anyone make a claim about this.

Advantages and disadvantages of pirated builds of Windows

Click the left mouse to enlarge the image

The use of patches to change the system interface and the introduction of third-party software can theoretically adversely affect the stability of the system. But this is a very conditional drawback of pirated Windows assemblies - after all, you can choose an assembly where the assembler did not apply patches to change the system interface. However, users love various design features, and are not particularly worried about the impact of patches on the integrity and performance of the system.

Pre-assembled Windows programs is an advantage of the system rather than a disadvantage, even though assemblers tend to assemble the set of programs based on their ideas. And often, along with multimedia software for beginners in building Windows, you can find an advanced system resource monitoring manager or a utility for measuring voltage and temperature on each of the processor cores. However, unnecessary programs can be easily removed from the system, and the necessary ones can be left without wasting time searching for them on the Internet, downloading and installing them.

All of the above shortcomings, conditional shortcomings, imperfections and other trifles are offset by the two main advantages of pirated assemblies - this free use any version of Windows, any of its editions, and a huge variety of builds to choose from, unlike the standard Microsoft set.

The well-known Finnish anti-virus company F-Secure has published a report explaining why users from Russia and China were the most affected by WannaCry's actions. It turned out that most of the infected computers had a pirated version of Windows installed.

Microsoft closed the MS17-010 vulnerability that was exploited by WannaCry back in March 2017. So all legal Windows systems 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 were protected before the start of the WannaCrypt campaign.

Since the ransomware infected a large number of old computers, Microsoft decided to deviate from its rules and released the critical security patch KB4012598 for unsupported Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The company urged users of older machines to install an update as soon as possible to protect themselves from WannaCry.

Updates are coming out for licensed Windows

However, there is one major problem: users of pirated versions cannot install updates, whether they are using an old, unsupported system or a new, supported OS. Although there are ways to install latest updates on illegal copies of Windows, Microsoft is constantly setting new restrictions, so depending on the version of the system, the task of installing updates on a pirated version can be very difficult.

According to F-Secure, a huge number of infections have been recorded in Russia and China due to the fact that pirated versions of Windows systems are very common in these markets.

F-Secure reports that the size of the infection indicates the number of computers that have not received security updates. This can be caused by 3 reasons:

• the patch available in March was not installed for some reason.
• a pirated copy of Windows was used (which does not receive security updates).
• Your computer was running Windows XP, which is no longer supported or receiving updates.

On the this moment There are several ways to protect against WannaCry and similar types of malware, but the most convenient, especially if you are using genuine Windows, is to install the latest updates released by Microsoft. For users of pirated versions of Windows, infection with WannaCry ransomware is one of the risks they pay for using illegal software.

By the nature of their activity (our masters are also involved), one often hears the question: “What is the difference between a licensed Windows OS and a pirated one (Windows without a separately purchased license)?

1. What is the real difference between having a license and not having one?
2. Why Windows installation with a license costs more to the user than a version with a trial period (free evaluation copy)?
3. What are the so-called assemblies of the Windows operating system distributed via the Internet, how do they differ from the original image?

The questions are rather obscure, and in this article we will try to consider them.

First, consider the concept of a license for the Windows operating system.

So when buying a license for money installation disk, along with the storage medium itself, a key is provided Windows activation.

In addition, you are provided with a sticker on system unit or laptop, to confirm the purchased product.

If you don’t have a floppy drive or for some other reason you don’t want to use installation via a disk, you can download the operating system image from the Microsoft website and install it via a USB flash drive (if you have an oem version, i.e. pre-installed on a PC or laptop by the manufacturer, then you will not be able to download the system image). Even if you purchased the license online, you must receive a package with a key and a sticker.

At the time of this writing, the price of Windows 10 averages from 300 BYN (approximately 150 y.e.).

I would like to make a small clarification. By purchasing an operating system, you buy only WINDOWS ITSELF.

It does not have drivers (you will need to download them from the manufacturer's website), office suite(it must be purchased from Microsoft separately), or use free analogue OpenOffice LibreOffice.

The price for an office starts from 250 BYN (approximately 130 y.e.).

It seems clear with the license, the main thing is not to give your key to anyone, because. in otherwise he will be tracked and blocked!

In general, for Windows 7 there is a command to reset the trial period (it can be used three times) for a total of 120 days. Those. During this period, you will be able to use official system with all updates.

The command to reset the trial slmgr –rearm is entered without any quotes in command line(must be run with administrator rights).

Now let's talk about other methods of activating Windows

If you download images from the official Microsoft website (yes, this is possible without even having a product key), then they are no different from the officially purchased operating system - that's a fact.

The only difference is that you do not have an activation key, so you can only use Windows for a trial period (from 90 to 120 days). Then either the purchase of a license or a new clean installation of the OS should follow with formatting the system partition (drive C:\).

This is not very convenient, but on the other hand, the original version is permanently installed on your computer without the use of various tricks. Looks like it's completely legal to use. official version Windows without buying a license can be 3-4 months.

Windows activation, depending on the OS version, can occur both with a key (It was very popular in Windows XP) and with the help of third-party software.

Even when activated with a key, after installing the updates, a message may again appear that you are not using the original version of Windows, because. some updates have a license check.

Another way is with the help of KMS(Key Management Server - Key Management Service). The KMS server is activated using a special VLC key (KMS host key) and distributes licenses to client machines.
This activation method is used in corporate networks, where there are many machines and activation by each hand will take a large amount of time. This is a completely legal way to activate Windows for Business (not to be confused with pirated KMS activators that are circulating on the Internet).

Craftsmen were able to adapt it for home use. With this method, you will have to re-activate every 180 days. You can do this manually or automatic mode using the scheduler Windows jobs. As a rule, for activators, the task for repeated activations is registered automatically.

We dealt with licenses. In the cases described above, the system differs only in the method of activation. Do not forget about system updates - they can be disabled, but in this case, there is a high probability of a virus infecting the computer (for example, a recent WannaCry virus works only on an operating system that does not have the ms17-010 patch installed).

What are operating system assemblies and what can be their danger?

If 3-4 months is not enough, but you don’t want to buy a license (no money, no desire, “we are so used to it”).

Windows builds downloaded from the Internet are a remake of the original Windows image“for yourself”, or “for the user” with subsequent reverse packaging for installation (RePack).

The advantages of such assemblies: almost everything is installed actual updates on the operating system, a C ++ package is sewn in, which is necessary for the correct use of a number of programs (including Skype) dll libraries, frameworks, etc., as well, usually in one image there is an installation of several editions of the system (from Windows xp to 10).

Cons: the first and most important disadvantage is that the end user does not know what else was added to the system assembly.
For example, there may be a program for sending your personal data to an attacker's computer, and these are not only your passwords from mail and "contact" and "classmates".
Since now quite a few things are paid with a bank card, then you will transfer its data to the attacker.
In addition, there is an intervention system files operating system, which sometimes leads to incorrect operation and failures in the system, although almost all changes are made using Windows tools.

So let's sum it up. Since our team primarily pursues the interests of ordinary users, and not a specific company, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with our objective assessment.

Objective advantages of licensed Windows:

• There will be no problems with the update;
• Ability to upgrade for free new version Windows (for versions of Windows 7 and older);
• 24/7 support from Microsoft;
• Clean system without interference

Cons of the license:

• The most important is very high price licenses (not everyone is ready to give so much money to buy only Windows and office);
• Even using the original version, there may be problems with the system (incorrect installed drivers and software)

Pros and Cons of Extending Your Windows Trial Period

Pros:

• Same as license

Minuses:

• The same as the license;
• Relatively short period of use

Pros and Cons of So-called Windows Builds

Pros:

• + Update at the time of release of most OS components

Minuses:

• The same as the license;
• Possible unstable operation;
• Probability of installing malware in an assembly

Microsoft today officially announced the release of Windows 10 in the summer, and also spoke about the strategic partnership with Chinese companies, which should "help fight piracy", which is actively flourishing in China. Then it was said that Microsoft would upgrade even pirated copies to Windows 10 for free, and now the head of Microsoft's Windows division, Terry Myerson, told how exactly updates will take place in the case of legal and pirated systems.

According to Microsoft, owners of legal copies of Windows 7 and 8.1 will receive an upgrade to Windows 10 absolutely free. After the update, these users will receive all the new features and security enhancements absolutely free, "for the life of this device". What exactly the last words mean (until the device breaks or, perhaps, for the warranty period?), He did not explain.

In the event that Microsoft detects some sort of tampering with the system—simply discovering that a copy of Windows has been obtained illegally—a watermark will appear on the desktop informing the customer that they have an illegal copy installed. Terry Myerson asks users to be aware of this when buying new devices and avoid purchasing Windows 10 gadgets that have a watermark on the desktop.

Microsoft's "black mark" means a lack of support from the company and its partners, threatens to not receive updates, even critical security updates. Microsoft emphasizes that free update after all, it will not be available to users of illegal copies of the system, however, the software giant, together with partners, promises to offer “very attractive” conditions for switching to a licensed version of Windows 10.

No further action appears to be taken. Microsoft probably decided that it makes no sense to restrict the operation of a copy of an OS that has been identified as pirated. This time, it looks like they won't even remove the desktop screensaver.

Behind the "very attractive" transition conditions, a paid upgrade to Windows 10 is probably hidden. What the amount will be has not yet been reported, but it can be assumed that Microsoft will not ask for a lot of money for this. This idea is prompted by the recent announcement that Windows 10 will become latest version OS and will be improved on the principle of service. One likely option for monetizing Windows 10 is the introduction of a subscription, as previously hinted at by Microsoft COO Kevin Turner. This would be a logical step, given the plans for the gradual improvement of the system. The amount of the transition from a pirated copy will most likely be comparable to the amount of a short-term subscription, since the user will bring money constantly in the future - this is exactly what Microsoft is striving for.