The Longest Living Windows Vista Crack, a True Survivor

Windows Vista was not even on stores shelves and the operating system had been cracked and was lighting up the peer-to-peer network connections. On December 14, 2006, keep in mind that Windows Vista was released to the general public on January 30, 2007, Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage team slew the 'Frankenbuild' monster. Alex Kochis, senior licensing manager WGA team revealed at that time: "Windows Vista will use the new Windows Update client to require only the "frankenbuild" systems to go through a genuine validation check. These systems will fail that check because we have blocked the RC keys for systems not authorized to use them. In other words, the wrong key is being used."

Following the update introduced to the Windows Genuine Advantage mechanism, all pirated Windows Vista copies activated by bundling together an RC build and with an RTM build in order to produce a hybrid designed to bypass activation, were thrown into Reduced Functionality Mode. That was a small victory for Microsoft. But the hackers failed to discourage so easily.

On January 2, 2007, Kochis was acknowledging the existence of yet another Windows Vista activation crack. 'Timer Crack' or '2099 Crack' was designed to reset the pre-activation grace period of the operating system to last well beyond 2099. Pirated versions of Windows Vista with this crack applied no longer required to be activated.

"Implementing this hack requires the user to implement a 23-step process that involves modifying/replacing kernel level files, making manual registry edits and other serious changes that could have destabilizing consequences. Our team is actively reviewing the reports of this workaround now, and I expect we'll take corrective action soon," Kochis promised.

But Microsoft's "soon" has failed to materialize. In fact, almost five months later, the 'Timer Crack' or '2099 Crack' is still active. The problem is a simple one. While frankenbuild copies of Windows Vista involved a serial key, cracking the operating system with 'Timer Crack' or '2099 Crack' does not. Microsoft actually detects such copies of Windows Vista as being in a perpetual trial period. And since the Redmond Company itself permits users to prolong the initial grace period of Windows Vista beyond the initial 30 days, the WGA mechanism has problems distinguishing between cracked variants and genuine but not activated copies of Vista.