Windows Update for 2011, what to keep away from

[kitamesume]

because a game i`m playing on hates linux, nuff said.

on another note, my copy of win7 is legit though a trial version, but the ISO is slightly modded where the "activation" button is never gonna disappear, meaning, even if my windows7 is already activated, i can reactivate it to reset the trial.

side note: win7 ultimate here costs 200$ worth. other shops sells it 250$ worth.

one more thing, the reason many people hates buying win7 is that its 100$+ where as 100$+ = new pc parts. i`d rather invest my money on hardware than waste my money on OS that you can get for free(talking about the trials they're giving away that you can manually reset via reformatting pc after trial ends.)

PS: the only legit OS i bought was Win XP pro <--- cheapest of hell, got one for 40$

[Freedom Kira]

I've got two free XP 32bit keys, and three free 64bit XP keys. I also have two free Win7 Professional keys, both of which I have used, one for my laptop and one for my HTPC. It's awesome being a University student.

[kitamesume]

lol you just reminded me of my cousin which had his win7 copy from his university for free.

[bloody000]

You are paying for tons of features that consumers will never want or need. Windows is at its heart an enterprise tool, which sort of explain why it's so convoluted and often, broken(horrid in-house software anyone?).

[Goroshi-sama]

inb4 mac-fags comes and laughs us..
Vindows Vista FTW.
U jelly, pirated Win7-fags? :3

[Lupin]

it's really sick just how much they demand people to pay for their OS

Name a consumer OS that has a longer support than windows. XP has 13 years. Vista has ~10 years. 7 has 8 years of mainstream support

Linux distros have it shorter. Debian? 3 years. Ubuntu? 1.5/3 years . Fedora? 13 months.

Apple kills support for your OSX a few weeks before the next one is released. And they charge you for upgrading!

I've got two free XP 32bit keys, and three free 64bit XP keys. I also have two free Win7 Professional keys, both of which I have used, one for my laptop and one for my HTPC. It's awesome being a University student.

got my legit keys the same way.

[Bob2004]

I think it's possible for me to get a copy of Windows 7 Home Basic from my university for £20, but honestly, it's so much easier to just download and crack a pirate copy than it is to go all the way into uni to try and get hold of it legally. And I like having access to things like XP mode and extra language packs that are available in Windows 7 Ultimate anyway, so I doubt I'd have been particularly satisfied with Home Basic.

I did plan to make up for pirating it by buying something else from them - but the only other Microsoft software I really use is Visual Studio 2008, and it turns out they give that away to students for free anyway! So MS have yet to see a penny from me. Maybe I'll buy Windows 8 when it's out, provided it isn't quite so ridiculously expensive.

Incidentally, does anyone actually have a source for the claim that those updates mentioned in the OP will check for pirate windows installs? I disabled them just in case, but I'm pretty sure they're safe.

[NaRu]

Microsoft doesn't charge that much for their OS. You can get an OEM version for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

You don't have to upgrade to the latest OS everytime Windows releases them. Microsoft will support your older OS for many more years after the new release. If $99 is too much for you then upgrade to an newer OS every 6 years or so.

[TMRNetShark]

Microsoft doesn't charge that much for their OS. You can get an OEM version for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

You don't have to upgrade to the latest OS everytime Windows releases them. Microsoft will support your older OS for many more years after the new release. If $99 is too much for you then upgrade to an newer OS every 6 years or so.

Or just time when you buy a new laptop with each new release and get it fo' free. (It's what I did... well, Dell's whole free Win 7 upgrade if you buy this laptop!)

As much as people hate on Dell (me included), my laptop has lasted a long time and keeps up with my heavy usage of it (16+ hours a day for almost 2 years now). I guess it helps to have a laptop cooler though, haha.

[Freedom Kira]

... And I like having access to things like XP mode and extra language packs that are available in Windows 7 Ultimate anyway, so I doubt I'd have been particularly satisfied with Home Basic.

Extra language packs are only available in Ultimate, but Professional can handle XP compatibility mode as well.

[Bob2004]

Microsoft doesn't charge that much for their OS. You can get an OEM version for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

You don't have to upgrade to the latest OS everytime Windows releases them. Microsoft will support your older OS for many more years after the new release. If $99 is too much for you then upgrade to an newer OS every 6 years or so.

I actually only upgraded to Windows 7 recently; I've been using Windows XP since 2003 or so. I had a hard drive failure a few months ago which forced me to reinstall Windows - and the temptation to take advantage of the opportunity to do an upgrade was too great to resist

I say I intend to make up for it by buying Windows 8 or something, and if (when it comes out) I'm able to get a good deal on it that I can afford, I will - but frankly, Microsoft seem to be managing just fine without my money, so tbh I'm not too fussed about pirating their software anyway.

[Sosseres]

I say I intend to make up for it by buying Windows 8 or something, and if (when it comes out) I'm able to get a good deal on it that I can afford, I will - but frankly, Microsoft seem to be managing just fine without my money, so tbh I'm not too fussed about pirating their software anyway.

They aren't too fussed about you pirating either. If they blocked pirating too hard people would switch to free alternatives, making them lose market share, which could end up effecting them in the company market. Where they really care.

[tyrionlannister]

That's where the real money is, in the company AND public/state market. In my country, Microsoft got a several year contract to supply Windows/Office to all public institutions with a value of ~$100 million, so you can imagine that compared to the loss for some pirated copies, this more than makes up for any potential loss of revenue.

[bloody000]

Retail sales is pocket change for MS. For the consumer market OEM(i.e. comes with new computers) is where the money is.

[xShadow]

Part of it is that the "scene" really isn't that big. Most people I talk to don't actually know the first thing about pirating, what the hell torrents are, etc. You see that torrent that has like... maybe 10k people on it? Then you realize that 10k in the big scheme of things isn't actually that many people. As a potential loss of revenue, many of them wouldn't have bought it anyways.

[AkiSakura]

-checks windows update installed log-

Yup, those updates are both installed, my windows 7 is still working perfectly.  When it stops working I guess I'll finally input the w7 home key I have from when I upgraded Vista to w7.  I never had the install discs for my windows 7, so I used a cracked ISO to reinstall everything when I replaced the bulk of the internals of my comp a few months ago, just never got around to putting my keycode back into it.

I do -kinda- feel bad about using the cracked ISO, I do still have my legit key, just never had to dvd's to start  with, hence the need for the cracked ISO.

[Stsin]

... And I like having access to things like XP mode and extra language packs that are available in Windows 7 Ultimate anyway, so I doubt I'd have been particularly satisfied with Home Basic.

Extra language packs are only available in Ultimate, but Professional can handle XP compatibility mode as well.

I think it's robbery that I'd have to pay over $100 to upgrade my Win 7 Pro to Ultimate just for language packs.
So I downloaded a patched MB Bios, which allows the use of OEM keys.  Some of those updates, like KB971033 broke many loaders.  Which just forced users to upgrade their loaders.  But I rather skip loaders altogether, including using modified system files.  Making the system think it's OEM, which doesn't require online activation, does that.  That is if can find a patched version of your MB bios.

Well, I haven't actually flashed my bios yet.  Because I found a workaround.

(click to show/hide)

Reason I wanted additional language packs is to reinstall the old visual novels and games that I never got around to doing since switching to Win 7 64bit.  I was going to use Vistalizer to force install a language pack, but that got broken in service pack 1.  But what I found was that using AppLocal still works.  Installers that didn't work without AppLocal, worked fine if select 'Run with Japanese Local' without having the JPN language pack installed.

Also for those that don't know how to view kanji instead of squares for Japanese file names, like in explorer:
Inside Control Panel, go to Region and Language settings
Change format to Japanese (may also need to change location...unsure)
Then OK

You will still see the squares instead of the kanji, because it won't change till after reboot.  After you reboot, you can change back to your native format and language, and it will still keep the Kanji.

This is helpful for all anime viewers, so you don't see those strange boxes on some soft subs instead of the Kanji.  On the last update it reverted back to squares, but redoing the steps above brought them back.

[bloody000]

I honestly don't understand why are we still having code page problems in 2011. Unicode FTW!

[Stsin]

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