Device Driver Updates Deactivate Vista

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October 25, 2007

Device Driver Updates Deactivate Vista

APC -- WARNING: device driver updates causing Vista to deactivate:

"After weeks of gruelling troubleshooting, I've finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA -- something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.

"Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into 'reduced functionality' mode, where you can't do anything but use the web browser for half an hour.

"You'll then need to reapply to Microsoft to get a new activation code."

Back in August my Networking Notes column dealt with what happens when a Vista install deactivates itself:

"'The experience of a system that failed validation in this instance was that some features intended for use only on genuine systems were temporarily unavailable. Those features were Windows Aero, ReadyBoost, Windows Defender (which still scanned and identified all threats, but cleaned only the severe ones), and Windows Update (only optional updates were unavailable; security and other critical updates remained available).'

"In other words, Vista took away the eye candy (which is a striking comment on what really matters about Vista, especially when it tops the list), slowed itself down, then refused to remove some kinds of malware and wouldn't let invalidated systems get security patches, though, apparently, Internet Explorer 7 downloads were just fine."

To distill it even further: Your security, optional. Microsoft's ongoing attempt to dominate the browser market: essential. The Internet at large? Whatever.

Here's how I wrapped up in August:

"While I empathize with Microsoft's apparent frustration over wide-spread copyright infringement — as a writer, I would not like people to assume control over the distribution of my work without my say-so — the company has annual revenues that exceed the GDPs of several oil-producing countries. In other words, it's making money. Plenty of it. But in its obsessive quest to protect its intellectual property, it's ignoring the reason we have intellectual property: To promote a collective good.

"If unpatched Windows machines are anything, they are a menace to the collective good. When compromised they become the tools of criminal enterprises. The annual cost of identity theft alone, elements of which involve a large role for compromised Windows systems, exceed Microsoft's annual revenue.

"We would be better off, collectively, if an invalidated copy of Vista stopped working at all rather than the current situation, where it continues to work but slowly accretes an increasingly poor security profile the longer it remains unpatched. Impeding automatic security updates is the last thing Microsoft should be doing.

"Should Microsoft simply give up on its attempts to stop illegal copying of its software? No. But it does need to adopt an anti-piracy policy that acknowledges its copyrights are as much, maybe more, for the common good as they are its own enrichment.

"Smart people work there, they should get to work on a better approach to their problem."

I don't think the sentiment warrants any qualification now, except to point out that the APC link gets a detail I didn't even think about at the time:

"'Additionally, it [Windows activation] has been completely bypassed by pirates, so the one group it's aimed at is sailing blissfully past in a wonderful world where activation doesn't exist.'

(via)

Tags: vista, windows, microsoft, windowsactivation