Just four days after Microsoft released the real thing

Dec 4, 2006 13:49 GMT  ·  By

Windows Vista Enterprise edition has been already cracked and is available for download. Yes! Ballmer was applauding the fact that Vista will reduce the global rate of piracy involving Microsoft's operating systems. Yes! The Windows Genuine Advantage is safeguarding Vista.

And yes! Four days after Microsoft has released Windows Vista Enterprise edition, cracked copies of the operating system have began emerging on peer-to-peer networks. But pirated Vista enterprise is not limited to P2P. This because of the Volume Activation 2.0 and not because of the Software Protection Platform.

Just take your pick: Suprnova Windows.Vista.Enterprise, Windows MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.VISTA.ENTERPRISE, Windows Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Enterprise.Plus.Bonus.Disc, Dvd Windows.Vista.Enterprise.Edition, MICROSOFT WINDOWS VISTA ENTERPRISE EDITION X64 are just a selection of the Windows Vista enterprises available.

I cannot guarantee that these releases are the actual builds from Microsoft. None of them is older than a few weeks and there are some that have been uploaded just three-four days ago. There might as well be other cracked versions of the operating system.

Theoretically, Microsoft has built all the Vista editions into a single DVD. The Vista version that will install depends strictly on the license key. And one of the pirate Vista variants points to a website that delivers a product key and information to activate the operating system.

On this website references to the operating system involve Business Vista. But they actually mean Vista Enterprise, because they provide a link to a private Windows Vista Key Management Service (KMS) server for Volume License 2.0 activation.