Contrary to some reports, Microsoft confirms that Windows XP SP2 will not install on systems running known pirated copies of Windows XP.
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Good business move...
(Bad "political/p.r." move as well as help to preventing virus/worm/spyware/malware infection move on the part of Microsoft & "King Billy" + his crew there.)
* That'd be my opinion on the subject... The improvements to the system are fantastic in this planned patch update, especially memory write protection against interlopers (not valid users) & malware machinations!
It's needed, should always have been done, but was not... especially that last one!
APK
P.S.=> You have to figure that folks that 'pirate' (use illegal copies of this OS) are going to be the folks that frequent eMule &/or KaZaa and are the ones MOST prone to sucking in these virus/worm/spyware/malware & spreading them as well... apk
Microsoft's got some "bugs" in their AMD CPU opcode check though, or useability issues, especially regarding Win32 PE (portable executeable) headers checks for VALID exe-compressor tools like ASPack 2.12 etc. & others like it.
When programs like that run? The Microsoft implementation of checking for "buffer overflow" attacks triggers a FALSE POSITIVE RESULT when compressed exe's run up from disk in compressed format!
(A compressed exe file makes for faster loads & then creating the possibility for programmers to do CRC-32, checksum, size & even time/date stamp checks for alteration of the program file on disk... if altered, the coder has rudimentary anti-hacking & anti-disassembly protection as well as antivirus/anticorruption protection. I use this myself on tools I have created in fact for the good of end-users & to protect my work as well. Today's CPU's, which is what this is partially about, are SO fast? The uncompress stage 'lag' is offset by the speed of the disk read being less by half imo... disks are the slowest part of a PC as far as I/O basically, & that gets sped up by a large margin).
Anyhow, Microsoft provides 2 workarounds for this "false positive" result of compressed executeable type files (1 is overkill, & imo the other is TOO much for novice users to spot offhand):
1.) The boot.ini /NOEXECUTE option - Nice, but stops this AMD CPU opcode from working on ALL programs wholesale (overkill)
OR
2.) The buffer overflow protect "exceptions list" which might be too much for novice users to stumble upon right away...
* Microsoft imo, would be better served by examining the Win32 PE headers for the presence of accepted exe compression tools & if "legal/valid/microsoft certified" etc.? Allow run...
APK
