Time of death: 4:22 PM UTC September 26th
Notes, please read:
For those of you who don’t know, HWID was the holy grail for Windows activation, letting you generate licenses straight from Microsoft licensing servers, being registered as fully legitimate in microsofts servers and letting you keep the activation permanently, even after windows reinstalls being completely undetectable and with nothing on your system being modified. If you’re still using outdated activation methods and you missed out on this, I’m sorry
Existing HWID licenses are left unaffected. Only new requests are blocked, no licenses were revoked.
By the way, MAS still works and is the best option for Windows/Office activation. For permanent Office activation use it’s Ohook method (supports subscription products such as 365 as well) and KMS38 for Windows
ALL OTHER ACTIVATION METHODS ARE STILL WORKING, ONLY METHOD AFFECTED IS HWID.
All HWID activators are affected, not only MAS
Around that time, Microsoft servers unexpectedly started blocking the licensing requests HWID activation method sends to Microsoft. This was a slow rollout that spanned over a few hours, at the moment the exploit is completely dead. The best options for Windows activation now is KMS38 or vlmcsd.
Patching this would boost illegal key reselling websites which causes more harm to Microsoft than HWID exploit. We can only wonder why they patched this.
{“code”:“BadRequest”,“data”:[],“details”:[],“innererror”:{“code”:“PermanentTSLRejection”,“data”:[],“details”:[{“code”:“113”,“message”:“avsErrorCode”,“target”:null}],“message”:“The Purchase Service rejected the provided TSL; the client should destroy the TSL.”,“source”:“PurchaseFD”},“message”:“The calling client sent a bad request to the service.”,“source”:“PurchaseFD”}
TLS=Temporary Signed License=The tickets HWID activation sends. Microsoft servers are now just responding with “kill it.”
Transferring existing HWID licenses to other computers using Microsoft account is broken too.
K38 still works. But yeah just switch to Linux.
what is MAS?
Microsoft Activation Scripts
EDIT: https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
How did Microsoft not crush this project already?
Now, you can’t perma-crack your new PC with a “real” HWID key, then years later reinstall Windows and keep your “real” license anymore! And you can’t upgrade anymore on that new PC either! You have to patch Windows every time!
Great time to switch to Linux
Ya! And then just quit my job, since none of it runs on Linux.
Probably shouldn’t be running pirated windows at work…
I don’t? Are you assuming because I clicked a random post I saw on the active tab that I run pirated Windows?
Then why would you need to quit your job if you installed Linux on your personal devices?
You are the one that brought up that installing Linux would require you to quit your job, on a post announcing that one method to pirate windows no longer works, implying that either you use pirated windows at work, or your employer has the right to fire you if you install Linux on your personal devices.
Since the latter is extremely bonkers and, quite frankly, unheard of, assuming the former seems much more reasonable. Especially considering that tons of people do indeed run pirated windows at work, and I myself witnessed as much.
Or… Linux can’t run the software and hardware I require for my job? I literally said in the original comment.
I also have my own business. I don’t have a boss.
So, again, you are either implying that you run pirated windows on your work machine, or you are saying you can’t install Linux on your work machine. Neither is what this is being discussed. Having a boss is completely irrelevant
… I genuinely don’t understand how you jumped to those conclusions. You’re a troll.
What software do you require for your job that you’re a business owner that won’t run on linux? Or are you just a troll?
Roland Versa Studio.
Cut Master 4
Affinity Designer
Adobe Illustrator
Do you call everyone a troll that isn’t a Linux fanboy like you?
Good thing i switched to linux
How do you know if someone runs Linux? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
How do you know someone participates in pirating?
Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.I also use linux btw
btw™ is owned and operated by the Arch gang.
All rights reserved.
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That is my biggest gripe with modern windows. The OS itself is pretty decent, but WHY am I paying at minimum $100 and seeing ads all over the start menu? Even with a vanilla MS sourced USB there are so many bloat apps. It didn’t used to be that way.
I set up a PC for recording in a sound system and got a fresh install of Windows 11 on a custom PC and it was still super bloated with garbage games and a video editor that watermarks footage instead of the perfectly functional basic software they used to have.
I am in the process of repairing and setting up an old macbook with Linux since it stopped getting Apple updates. When I get a new laptop I will likely go with Linux there as well.
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Nope maximum revenue per user. Always leads to ads since it is free money. Even Apple is moving this way and wants tomincrease their ad business.
I understand your complaint about ads in the start menu but if you’re still going into Start menu these days, you’re using Windows wrong :P
Install as “English (World)” and all adverts and additional software is missed, as it doesn’t know your region, therefore doesn’t know what to serve.
If you need the Windows Store, you can change the region post install, and it’ll remain clean and the store will then populate.
It’s absolutely bonkers for Microsoft to even consider that paying $99 or $199 for their ad ridden software is fair and reasonable.
Have you seen their Xboxes? Somehow they get by with charging even more for those with more blatant ads and they charge you to play online multiplayer.
I’m so happy now that I’ve finally fully migrated to linux.
What’d you end up on, out of curiosity? I was on Fedora for a couple years, but with the whole Red Hat thing (that I don’t fully understand the implications of), I switched to openSUSE Tumbleweed. Still have love for Mint, though, after all these years.
The whole red hat thing (you mean the centos drama?) has no implications whatsoever on fedora, fyi. If you liked it feel free to go back to it.
I’m still a Fedora guy, started on Ubuntu years ago, tried arch (loved AUR) and all the Ubuntu derivatives but once I hit fedora it just stuck.
I made the mistake of fucking around and finding out with the AUR on Manjaro (before all the major drama). Broke it - though, it did make it 2 years beforehand, amazingly. But yeah, totally about Fedora. Fedora made me stop distrohopping.
i want to switch but acer laptops man
What’s up W it?
i tried installing linux there. doesn’t work. apparently needs a bootable device
I’m using endevour os now, though I started on mint a few months ago and loved it. The wife is using mint now and just commented yesterday that it was a very seamless transition from windows. Only problems have been related to nvidia being dumb.
Glad you’re enjoying it. I haven’t messed with Endevour much myself, as Arch-based stuff is a little more hands on than I want to be, personally, most of the time. I think the switch to Linux is easier than a lot of people think. It really just takes some patience, knowing that it’ll be an adjustment, and accepting that you’ll need to find alternatives to some apps.
I tried doing a full swap from Windows earlier this year. I do a lot of local game streaming from my gaming pc to my laptop and I had issues getting this working. Didn’t have the energy to keep looking for solutions so I just went back to windows. Next time I try I will probably keep my pc on windows and only swap my laptop to Linux. One step at a time.
Have you tried Parsec? You can download the client as a host on your gamer PC and the guest on your laptop and honestly it works very well in my opinion.
Yes I’ve been using Parsec for quite some time. Love it. Doesn’t work as host on Linux.
I hope this means we’ll finally get activation methods that patch windows itself rather than playing along with their key system. Obviously it can be done since Windows AME has activation Functions completely removed yet it will never try to deactivate itself.
Why would anyone use windows
Not that I like it, and I really do like certain Linux distros, but in my case I have to use some software that runs well on Windows and isn’t available under Linux. Alternatives aren’t as good, and the versions I need don’t run well (or not at all) on WINE. As far as proprietary OSs go, I find Mac OS much better than windows, both in general user interface, integration and how smooth it runs and feels, but as a choice it’s even more expensive than Windows. Better, yes, but more expensive.
When/if the software I need
findruns under Linux I’ll stop using windows, I guess.This one is just one answer to your question. I’m sure there might be some more.
Edit: runs
Honestly, I don’t get pirating windows. Even if you don’t want to use a Windows 7 license, you can just use it without activating it
I always thought microsoft allowing HWID activation was a deliberate move to get as many people to use windows and got them enrolled into windows updates, which bolster their market share and allow them to push ads/promotion for their various services to windows start menu. I think microsoft got a lot more to lose from ending HWID activation.
I should really switch over to Linux full time. I basically have no uses cases that require Windows anymore. Not that this activation patch tipped me over the edge or anything. Microsoft is allowed to fix bugs in their software.
I think they were for a number of reasons tactically “not fixing” this “bug” up to this point.
Microsoft has always been something of a free nagware business model, like WinRAR.
I’ve managed to never pay for Windows my whole life despite using legitimate copies since Windows XP. I guess I probably paid for XP through the hardware OEM, but I got Vista from University and then Win 7 and Microsoft has somehow let me upgrade that version all the way to Win 11. 😅
But if I ever actually had to pay for it I’d likely just switch to Linux forever.
Sorry for possibly a stupid question, but what’s the point of activating Windows?
I never seriously used Windows, but I have a Windows 7 VM that’s not activated, and it works. Just the wallpaper is black. Also most of our school computers don’t have activated Windows, yet it seems to work fine, there’s just the watermark. And on some it shows the “You may be the victim of…” message. Same seems to be the case for Office 2016 installed on those. Other than the “non-genuine” message, it works.I guess it’s just a personal thing. I personally cannot stand the “Please Activate Windows” watermark and MAS is such an easy tool that it just makes sense to do it. It’s not like this announcement kills MAS, you can still use the other activation methods
Microsoft is stupid, someone high up is getting greedy or desperate.
Patching HWID is annoying and doesn’t stop piracy. In fact it will break a lot of legacy systems in general; which is probably what they intended and why they are guilty of corporate greed in this case.
I hate Micro$hit but I am REQUIRED to use Windows by too many stupid fucking different idiots, apps, and games to count. Linux is still not there yet for me usability-wise; though it probably is still improving.
No; I will never accept that CLI is an acceptable end-user implementation; GUI is required; along with ease of use and the polish that comes with it. I don’t mind CLI interfaces; but I do feel they’re not user-friendly enough usually. They REQUIRE YOU to LEARN a few things to get used to them; which is the opposite of an intuitive interface.
NOTE: I am very FLOSS accepting when it meets my needs; but I will not hold back criticism. Do not try to shout me down. You will always be wrong. Windows is factually more user-friendly and application compatibility diverse than Linux.
I genuinely hope that Linux finds more ways to 100% match Windows functionally without forcing the user to compromise. We need to punish Microsoft for all these years of monopoly holding and reclaim computing more effectively.
There have been Linux distros that cover 100% of Windows functionality without the need to use CLI (and even add more functionality) for years. I think the only possible way to have problems is with Wayland and NVIDIA. Usability has never been the problem: the problem is that Windows is the industry standard, so most applications and games are developed for it, most workplaces use it, all computers come with it pre-installed…
It’s funny how computers are almost the only human invention that for some reason must be able to be used without learning anything.
We don’t do that for almost anything else. We expect people to learn how to drive, how to fill taxes, how to buy things on the store, how to cook, how to play chess. It seems like the only cases when someone decides learning stuff is an inconvenience is when tech people get into another field and tries to disrupt it.
I am all about making things as simple as they can be, but not simpler. Intuitive is a super relative term that depends on your knowledge and life experience. People find Office intuitive after using it for twenty years, but for me is a nightmare where legacy features intermingle with weird cloud and AI shit, and most of the time I only need a markdown file. No interface is intuitive, they are only familiar, clear, accesible, discovereable, etc.
Interface Design goes in cycles of skeuomorphism and simplification because computer stuff is not Intuitive, you have to open the way with metaphors people can understand, and when they are part of everyday life you can make the app for the virtual credit cards not look like it’s made of leather.
Taxes aren’t intuitive either.
that’s because there’s a lot of money to be made in making it complicated.
Driving isn’t exactly intuitive either. You’d think you just hold gas and move the wheel around but it’s a lot more complicated than that.
Right but we more or less mandate learning to drive in the states. If something is essential to daily functioning in life it should have some sort of public education and testing sort of vibe huh?
And we should mandate computer literacy classes, preferably stuff that’s agnostic to OSes like avoiding viruses.
