Microsoft's WGA servers down, everyone's a pirate today

Hope you weren't planning on installing "your" legally purchased copy of XP or Vista today, Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage servers are down at the moment, meaning your Vista install will go into "reduced functionality mode" when you fail to check in with Big Brother, and your XP install will just be generally cranky until you can give that license information to The Man. Microsoft's tech support seems to be vaguely aware of the issue, and recommends trying again on Tuesday the 28th, since the server "might be down for a few days." Oh, is that all?

Update: Looks like they've fixed it. Thanks for the heads up, Marius.

[Via Boing Boing; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[John @ Aug 25th 2007 2:15PM]

Mac users WOULD have to go through software validation as well, were it not for that Apple has you by the short hairs based on the software/hardware combination...

[MacGuru @ Aug 25th 2007 4:07PM]

I personally like my Mac hardware. It doesn't sound like a hair dryer for starters.

[Constable Odo @ Aug 25th 2007 7:38PM]

How are Intel Macs limited? If you set up a BootCamp partition, you can install any version of Windows you want and I suppose Intel Macs can run Linux as well.

[bla @ Aug 25th 2007 9:34PM]

bootcamp will just help you mess up your perfectly fine Mac.

[John @ Aug 25th 2007 10:59PM]

point is that no one runs Mac OS on anything but a Mac.

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:23PM]

Well, you can try, but they're all fascist about it. They're not getting my money unless they fix th--- whoop, now Linux is better. They lost their chance. For all the innovation they did, they can be idiots sometimes.

[glimmerkirk @ Aug 25th 2007 2:15PM]

arrr matey....


wtf

[Jonathan Keim @ Aug 25th 2007 3:03PM]

There are all kinds of people...

[Jugomugo @ Aug 25th 2007 2:18PM]

Suckers.

[7of7 @ Aug 25th 2007 2:18PM]

Luckily Microsoft is smarter than 2k software and included a 30 day grace period for such events as this.

[i3c @ Aug 25th 2007 2:29PM]

people running pirate version aren't having this problem, right now.
(patched to not "phone home" to the license servers.)
just the legitimate users.

what kind of message is that, microsoft?

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:24PM]

"We despise our customers, switch to Linux."

[sueme @ Aug 25th 2007 2:33PM]

only fools will install this genuine advantage shitware

[zzzzz @ Aug 25th 2007 2:34PM]

where are the allegations of anti-MS bias? are the fanboys sleeping late? up late playing Doom, perhaps?

[John @ Aug 25th 2007 11:03PM]

perhaps all the people who claim anti-MS bias are here and reading this, getting pissed at you, jackass, but just aren't calling it biased because... it isn't. Their servers went down. Engadget reported this. End of story, until you decided to try and whip out your e-penis for a pissing contest.

[mattclarkie @ Aug 26th 2007 7:59AM]

When I installed my Vista a few months back I think they had the same problem. For a few hours my Desktop had a watermark saying I was a pirate, but then it fixed itself.

I reckon they must go down quite often, just this time it seems to be for longer.

[Jay @ Aug 25th 2007 2:36PM]

Just ignore him. He's a 13 year old idiot who just wants t3h hug3 E-Peenor to the point he spams anywhere he can think of and then brags about it on DDRFreak. http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=127678&start=20 As you can see, he's destroying everything


As far as the actual story goes, Microsoft....screwing up? that's unheard of

[iamdigitalman @ Aug 25th 2007 2:40PM]

See, this is why I still use Windows 2000. A good NT based kernel, no frivolous themes or features, and NO WGA! Plus all most all software these days still works on it, and it's still supported by MS until 2011.

It's just a good old OS to get your work done without having it phone home.

But, it's still windows. However, it's tolerable.

[Owen V @ Aug 25th 2007 2:41PM]

isn't everyone a pirate every day?

[Josh Clark @ Aug 25th 2007 4:24PM]

Yar har fiddle dee dee,
You are a pirate!

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:48PM]

When you switch to all gnu and creative commons, you don't have to tolerate that stigma anymore.

No, I'm not a pirate. I'm a liberated human being. And that $500 I didn't spend? Nice PCIe GPU for compiz fusion, right there. Helooo rain effect ;)

[venk @ Aug 25th 2007 2:42PM]

I activated a copy of XP about an hour ago without incident.

[MacGuru @ Aug 25th 2007 4:10PM]

I activated a copy of Windows 3.11 a decade ago without any problems. haha.
This Windows activation crap is perfect proof that the OS itself is completely worthless, which is why it needs to be "activated" like that's going to make it run any better. Why doesn't MS just call it "authenticate" and be done with it.

[KernelPanic @ Aug 25th 2007 2:42PM]

Argh!!!

[John @ Aug 25th 2007 2:46PM]

Fact: All software is free on the internet.

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:27PM]

Yes.

Fact: software and media industry people are idiots. A Mark Shuttleworth quote comes to mind...

Those who seek to impose analog rules on digital content will find themselves on the wrong side of the tidal wave. *sp?

[mushrooshi @ Aug 25th 2007 2:47PM]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/STJUDE10/potatol.png

I AM PROVING MY FULLESR POTATOL

[Lucas Couvreur @ Aug 25th 2007 2:51PM]

All I can say is something like..

Noobs :)

[David Larso @ Aug 25th 2007 2:59PM]

Linux! linux! linux!

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:30PM]

You don't have to chant it. Offer free tech support. Like so:

If anyone here is considering switching, I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have, and generally give you all the support I can. [e-mail]

(Many of you probably notice that that's maybe the 327th time I've made that offer ;) It's still good, and I do invite you to take advantage of it.

I mean, chanting is so.... Ballmer.

[Jamar @ Aug 25th 2007 3:25PM]

Mac OSx86 on a Panasonic laptop for me! Sure, Apple can *try* to sue, but I'm in China. To put it this way- No movie studio has ever succeeded in getting pirated discs off the streets here (got all the Shrek movies for $2 total), what makes Apple think they'll succeed suing over another IP violation?

[Trenton @ Aug 25th 2007 4:22PM]

Great attitude. The Chinese have a real gem of a legal system over there.

[Constable Odo @ Aug 25th 2007 7:54PM]

What's wrong with the Chinese legal system? They probably protect stuff made in China. But as far as stuff from the rest of the world, pirating is fair game. When I download bunches of bittorrented Chinese action and drama movies I doubt if the U.S. MPAA gives a fig. Protect your own, forget the rest.

It's like when Russia had set up huge printing presses to make $100 American counterfeit bills. They couldn't be touched by American Treasury agents. That's why the U.S. Treasury had to create newer, harder to counterfeit $100 bills. Of course, those Russian counterfeiters didn't bother to make Russian money, since it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

[John @ Aug 25th 2007 11:05PM]

The US legal system DOES protect copyrights & patents owned by people and corporations outside of the US. The MPAA doesn't give a damn - the law does.

[obiwan @ Aug 26th 2007 8:14PM]

you paid too much.

[Rik @ Aug 25th 2007 3:31PM]

Enjoy the advantage of genuine software... :-P

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:42PM]

I do love the genuine;
I must admit-
Though I don't mind subversion
And I'm not yet on git
and I-- Oh, you mean windows...

Who uses that ----?

Sorry, I'm not accustomed to rhyming that way, but I couldn't resist.

[kojo87 @ Aug 25th 2007 4:00PM]

im just gonna say that for some reason this isn't affecting me ;)

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:43PM]

Me neither ;) But I'll spare you.

[Andrew Hillman @ Aug 25th 2007 4:12PM]

Someone may get fired over this one!!!!!

[nryder @ Aug 25th 2007 4:19PM]

Here is a quick Fix for Vista Users:

I know this works for Vista. I have not tried it on an XP machine:

1) Click the Start Orb

2) In the Search Bar type in "Command Prompt"

3) Right click the Command Prompt and click "Run as administrator"

4) The Command Prompt will open then type "net start slsvc"

5) Then type "sfc /scannow"

6) Let run. It might take anywher 10-25 minutes.

7) Once it's done restart your system.

Hopefully this works for you guys cause it worked for me.

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:53PM]

or perhaps sudo apt-get install compiz wine

[Marius @ Aug 25th 2007 5:10PM]

Problem seems fixed, per the WGA blog.

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:50PM]

That's only a symptom of the problem that they fixed. Keep that in mind.

[Alex @ Aug 25th 2007 5:17PM]

To let all of you know, we're aware of the issue and have been receiving reports on our forum and through customer service starting last night that Windows Vista validations have been failing on genuine systems. The issue has been resolved and validations are being processed successfully.

Anyone who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating on our site (http://www.microsoft.com/genuine). We encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to do this now. After successfully revalidating any affected system should be rebooted to ensure the genuine-only features are restored.

More information when available will be on my blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/wga

[aStopperBy @ Aug 26th 2007 7:53PM]

Isn't someone supposed to be working?

[XAVIER @ Aug 25th 2007 9:35PM]

This has actually been going on longer than friday , as my system is genuine and has been getting validation errors since as early as Tuesday!

MicroSoft really dropped the ball on this one.

I believe the WGA system needs to be changed completely , I also believe users of Genuine products should be compensated in someway monetarily.

[ethana2 @ Aug 25th 2007 11:57PM]

Before someone freaks out at me for ravaging this thread, I apologize for any insensitivity I may have displayed and state that this is my last post for this article. There were too many perfect opportunities to pass up ;)

That said, I take none of it back, even if "them be fightin' words", and certify that all I posted is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.

[ForumMaster @ Aug 26th 2007 2:12AM]

well i suppose this might have affected those who have WGA installed. i have a legitimate copy of windows yet find no reason to install software that gives me absolutly no advantage whatsoever.

i do not install software the calls home for no reason WGA included. if i need to download something from MS' site, their alternatives works just as well.

[randy @ Aug 26th 2007 3:01AM]

Why is it so typical of software developers at billion dollar companies these days to NEGLECT TO CONSIDER THE MOST BASIC FREAKING EXCEPTIONS?