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Windows Vista hacks and cracks

by William Kammer exclusively for Windows-Vista-Update.com (3/08/2007)

Since the day Windows Vista was released to the public, people and organizations have been trying to crack the program so they can use and distribute it for free. There have been rumors of some of these cracks working, but usually a week or two later there are reports that come out and disprove the rumors. There is one organization that has come out with a crack that has not yet been disproved, but that might just because there hasn’t been enough time to check it out.

The first program to cause paranoia after Vista’s launch was a brute-force style key generator from the Web site www.keznews.com. The program says it can produce 20,000 random keys for Vista an hour. Most of these random keys are worthless and don’t work, but people claim to have had success after running the program for hours on end.  Once the press and tech world got wind of this news, the word spread. The program got a lot of publicity, which caused the distributor of the program to come out and say it was a joke. He said the whole program was a hoax, and it was only meant to be a joke.

While it is possible that the program was actually meant as a joke, I tend to think differently. The truth is, if the program really did work, Microsoft would attack whoever made the program. This could be a reason why he came out and said it was a joke. I’m sure it’s easy to become afraid of the richest man in the world when he has his sights on you. The program download does have an interesting disclaimer though, which reads, “DISCLAIMER: under no circumstances should anyone sell the key that they generate. I do not support Piracy, this was simply an experiment in which i used to practice my vbscripting. This was just for fun and was a complete accident! sorry for cracking your beautiful operating system BILL GATES.”

People have differing views on this keygen program. Some people claim the program works without a hitch, and others claim that it doesn’t work and can’t due to the statistical probabilities. Reading between the lines, the truth can be seen about this program. The truth is, the program will work for some people, and others will fail at executing it properly. Either way, if you give it a go you risk a lot more than you will gain. You may save yourself a couple hundred bucks, but you risk spending thousands in legal fees or fines. If you try to sell the keys you could even go to jail, so in the end it isn’t even worth trying.

While the debate is still open about the functionality of that program, another crack has emerged, and this time it’s from an organization instead a single person. The pirate group Pantheon claims to have completed a completely successful crack within a month after Vista was released. This program uses a different strategy. Instead of trying to enter the program using brute force, this program simply exploits a potential mistake that Microsoft made.

The crack claims to have certificate files for HP, Dell, Lenovo, and ASUS, as well as OEM product keys. This became possible as Microsoft allowed some manufacturers to install Vista on their computers before shipment, and the version of the software didn’t require as much verification. The versions of the software that Pantheon made available are supposed to work on any computer, so you could possibly install a Dell version of Vista on a Gateway PC.  Microsoft is said to have released the more easily installed software so customers buying new computers wouldn’t have the hassle of having to activate the copies on the computer.

This particular crack hasn’t been disproved in the media yet, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be rejected soon. So far the hacks and cracks have been shut down, but this one makes a little more sense. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft would make such a big mistake on the launch of Vista, but it is possible, and if it did happen there is no doubt that there are people out there that would exploit the situation for all they can.

There will probably be more attempts in the future by different groups and individuals who will try to crack the program for different reasons. Whether or not a working version comes out of this is yet to be determined, but by the sounds of things at least some people have been able to get through the new version of Windows. Windows Vista is supposed to be more secure, and if people are already cracking that, there is a big problem. You have to think though, that if Microsoft is focusing on security, then they might have some way to track these illegal versions of Vista.

Even if Microsoft can’t stop the entire world from cracking into Vista, they still might have to technology to know what computers are running the illegitimate programs.

This is the new style of bootlegging. It used to be cheap movies and games in alleyways of major cities. Now it is free programs and music via the Internet. The means are different, but the intent and legality are they same. It’s illegal, police and other organizations and looking for the people using these programs, and there really isn’t that much of a benefit from stealing the software. It might be easier and less risky just to earn the money, save it up, and buy it the program yourself.