Microsoft Tightens Windows 8 Activation Policy To Curb Piracy

Microsoft has tried several strategies to successfully implement its product activation policy ever since the launch of Windows XP, and pirates have been happy working their way round each new iteration. Its upcoming Windows 8 OS was also recently affected by an online leak of the OEM version, and activation hacks for it will doubtless crop up very soon. This time around though, Microsoft is planning a new way to curb piracy, by making the process of obtaining and distributing product licences for OEMs more difficult.

Earlier, a single activation key was used by most OEMs to activate all of their shipped machines. Now however, they will have to electronically obtain a unique activation key for each computer directly from Microsoft, then ship the device with the OS after writing the special key to the system's BIOS. The product key will thus be bound to one particular machine and not work with other hardware. This is expected to solve the problem of pirated software to a large extent, since OEM versions of Windows are the single biggest source of the cracked DVD images found online. Thus, this step by the software giant is aimed at not only would-be pirates, but also shady OEMs who try to avoid paying MS the licence fees for installing Windows 8 on their machines. Now that they have to obtain each key directly from Redmond, they will have no option but to cough up the amount.

Another supposed change is that Microsoft's Certificate of Authenticity will be replaced by a Genuine Microsoft sticker on OEM machines. However, this seems to be more a rebranding exercise rather than a deterrent. In any case, these requirements will only be applicable to Windows 8 for now. Having said that, if the move succeeds as well as MS hopes, it just might be extended to Windows 7 as well.

These proposed changes are not expected to have much of an impact on the end user, unless of course the end user is trying to snag a copy of Windows 8 for free. Nevertheless, it is a folly to underestimate the resourcefulness and skills of pirates. Do you think that they will manage to outsmart Microsoft again, if indeed these proposals turn out to be true? Let us know in the comments.