Microsoft offers IE7 to pirate users
Users running pirated copies of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 can now download Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft announced Thursday. From the moment it released IE7 almost a year ago, Microsoft has restricted the browser to users who can prove they own a legitimate copy of the operating system. Before Microsoft allows the browser to download, it runs the user’s PC through a Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation test, a prime part of XP’s antipiracy software. When it instituted the requirement in 2006, Microsoft said rights to IE7 was one of the rewards for being legal. It changed its mind Thursday, saying the move is in users’ best interest.
“Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we’re updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users,” said Steve Reynolds, an IE program manager in a posting to a Microsoft company blog. “With today’s ‘Installation and Availability Update,’ Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users.”
Users can download IE7 from Microsoft’s site immediately or wait for it to appear in Windows Update as a high-priority item. It will take several months for Windows Update to roll out IE7 to all XP customers, and anyone dissatisfied with the new browser can downgrade to IE6 by using the Add/Remove Programs control panel applet. A blocking tool kit is still available for companies and organizations that don’t use Windows Server Update Services and want to permanently prevent IE7 from automatically installing on PCs equipped with IE6. Not that it would be a big news or anything because there exist many workarounds and cracked versions of IE7 but it’s a nice move from Microsoft.
Comments(79)
wost browser in the world.. windows owners dont use it now there hopeing pirates will..
Just a little comment about my experience with IE7… when installed via update on a brand new installation on a brand new computer, that brand new computer became a piece of $hit and starting running real slow… that secured my priority for firefox… that’s it…
=o!
now for them to release DX10 for Xp .. haha.
but yeah, Opera > Firefox > IE7
@3:
How about IE7 > Opera > FireFox?
blah blah blah… use FF, much better and stable ^^
#nova
Your computer must be real slow then if the install of IE7 slows it down.. I have never ever experienced any slowlyness when IE7 is installed.. Its not a part of the core so I cannot see how IE7 will make windows slower..
i second “SeriousM” FF is the best i used to use opera an though it was the best browser untill i saw all the extension FF has.
its the best decision of my “entire life”
You mean microsoft got nervous about the amount of users running Firefox hence this move.
Only reason for this stunt is that M$ is starting to loose market share to FF and others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Layout_engine_usage_share.svg
They seem to be really desperate about their market shares now. Funny move.
that’s a really bad graph Zed, the share of Mozilla based browsers is much higher now…
I use both IE7 & Opera. Opera is my main web browser, i Only use IE7 when there’s some compatability issues with websites, such as my uni’s website.
I have used Firefox but i didn’t like it …and there’s actually some test results that say Opera is better than Firefox with regards to some areas, but firefox excels in others.
Can’t recall it atm, but it was there somewhere on the intranet.
But come on! Opera supports torrents! no need to launch the torrent softwares, can just download it at the ease of Opera. =]
But then again, it all comes down to personal preference.
It was already possible to use IE7 with a pirated Windows XP..
must be just coincindence that their market share is the lowest for 5 years
another cheap trick to force it on people who dont know any better
What MS really gains if people use IE? Bigger internet penis?
probably an installer with yet more spyware… Screw them. I’ve become so used to Opera by now that i almost puke everytime i have to use IE in another computer other than my own. Even Firefox is much better in all criteria and i’m starting to smell fear in M$hit.
if you want freedom of choice. Anything that can help preventing Internet Explorer from completely dominating the web browser market again should be promoted by each and every person that wants to be able to choose which computer to use, which operating system to use, and which web browser to use. If any single profit-driven company’s web browser is allowed to dominate, the freedom to choose will be restricted. Most web developers are ignorant and lazy, and will take every shortcut they can. If those shortcuts mean shutting people out, they don’t care unless the number of people shut out is significant enough to affect their earnings.
I was too lazy to play with anything other than IE. I just couldn’t be bothered.
Then came Vista. After years of being able to setup nice big buttons for back, forward, stop and refresh, I couldn’t configure the layout with IE7. It’s rigid, it sucks, and it can’t be changed.
So I went with firefox, and while it was a breath of fresh air, what used to really annoy me was msn messenger using IE to load up my hotmail despite IE not being the default browser.
Anyway, these days I’m back running XP, and I’d only “upgrade” to IE7 if they paid me.
I think the IE7 dont have so much users so don’t give a f**k about this.
IE7 has some bug. such as Text Font problem, I dont like it.
This picture pretty much sums up it all.
http://general.sc35.info/artlists/firefox_eats_ie.jpg
Firefox FTW
The purpose of getting more users to use IE is much more than just browser market share. Its the ability to sway majority of users to use MSN Live as their search engine, and thus propel a more profitable advertisement network.
I know, I know, before you scream “people can change the default browser” like common confrontational ranting posters. They can, but the majority of ‘general’ computer users wont. Thats where the profits come in, and strangely enough these are the same crowd of people who cant distinguish online ads from useful hyperlinks.
If only there was a way to stop useless comments in future!
prolly jus a gimmick ta help catch pirated users..either way.. IE7 is junk…FF all the way
No thanks, Microsoft. I already have a good, free browser. So do millions of other people. If IE7 wasn’t worth downloading a crack for last month, it isn’t worth downloading at all this month either.
They think they’ll win back the procentage they loosen to FireFox just by removing the WGA validation? Ha, good luck with that.
Rofl @ all these comments about market share. IE6/7 makes up most of users browsers around the world, most people dont even know what FireFox is unless you go around computer forums. M$ has more money then what you, your parents, your kids, kids kids, and kids kids kids kids, neighbors, cousins, COMBINE. SO STFU.
As if we couldn’t allready lol
, anyways, there are much more internet browsers out there. One of em is Firefox… them at Microsoft should get an extinghuisher cause Mozilla is tough and solid! Nice for IE7 is the addon IE7 Pro though (not MS related). Another is Foxie (for IE), but is outdated. There are also other browsers. The latest big one is Safari. Anyways, whatever is being used… its all good. 
No such thing as “nice move from Microsoft” !!
It’s a trick!
my rank is Safari>camino>firefox>opera>ie7
it can be also downloaded from here:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Microsoft_Internet_Explorer_for_Windows_XP/942950057/1
There are 2 problems with your rank.
1. safari is horrible on Windows
2. camino is way better in terms of speed and liability on OSX
PS: I use this version.
i love my IE7, never had any problems using it…
installed it ages ago with mublinder
it is just a move to be ahead in browser war
Haha, the last time I downloaded XP I could use IE7 and Windows Media player 11 without problems, got through the validation process with an illegal version of XP… And who cares, firefox is way better…
Microsoft.Windows.XP.Professional.Corporate.SP2.Integrated.September.2007-ETH0 already got IE7 integrated (since their May edition, me thinks). So any fairly updated pirate won’t care anyway. Except that it’s integrated perhaps..
My mom got a brand new computer with IE7 and Vista on it and it works excellent on Vista. I’ve only used it a few times though, the first time I used it was to download Firefox. I noticed that all the programs that were designed for Vista (ex: Windows Live Messenger, IE7) run excellent on Vista but on most XP computers suck or have slight to very noticeable slowdown and lag.
opera rules but yes firefox’s got sdome good extensions like video/audio streming captures and all but then opera was the first to get TABs/Speed dial/Mouse gestures which i just cant live without and yes a useless feature called voice too
Ahhh it warms my heart when big corporations do things like this. Now if they could just make Vista $50.
Windows 98 doesn’t need a WGA check. So run the checker in Windows 98 compatibility mode and you can download anything you want with a pirated copy of windows.
people still use IE?
the only thing that kept me from using ie is just to check my css that all.
I took some time and tested major browsers few months ago. Firefox has so many fantastic plug-ins, I can’t even imagine surfing without it any more. You will discover some features you thought it was impossible to be done. For example, you can format sites to appear to you as you wish, disable all scripts & adds, and much more which makes you surf incomparably faster compared to IE depending on your configuration. I suggest taking at least 2 hours and checking some Firefox features and benefits before posting. I Also agree with Martin on chart comment, Mozilla has much higher market share. Check some other sources.
Who ever uses IE7 is an idiot. If you disagree, you’re wrong.
@ mr x i bet if martin was to go look at the site statistics it would show that your wrong as i am sure there is prolly 60% + of this sites users is on IE only the techie people are on FF so just to let you know what i am saying is “Who ever uses IE7 is an idiot. If you disagree, you’re wrong.” that statment is callin the people that give you somthing to do usefull on the internet and also the people that pay for this server as well as put money in martins pocket (ad rev) also dont forget the ff users do nothing for thas site as they have pulg-ins instaled to block the ads
Based on RLSLOG’s Unique Visitors stats posted some time ago things were like this:
53.69% – Microsoft Family (IE, including AOL & PDAs)
43.83% – Mozilla Family (Mozilla, SeaMonkey, Firefox and its variants Netscape & Flock)
Kinda half of it, that’s sad for MS, lol! Considering that most web devs that I know stated “why bother developing for the rest of the 20%?”… they probably had in mind the good ol’times for Microsoft when IE really took 80% of the market.
THOSE TIMES ARE OVER! IE is dying!
FX FTW!
(FF is a common mistake… no problem, but in reality it’s FX, keep that in mind ppl)
wow rlslog i have known that this site is the best but i did not know it was the popular
Pageviews per day : Over 310,000
Unique users per day : Over 61,000
think about it 1 browser is 58% and the other 48% is spred over 5 broswers lol i really dont care though i use both ff and ie7
Hey, Bill Gates is not worried about FF taking over ANY market share. Microsoft as a whole is not worried about FF. Can you say “trojan horse”? Just like they did with Ed and Elaine Brown, these fools are only acting nice. They are trying to trap and catch the pirate. Do not listen to MS and their offer for IE. It sucks and will suck until Linux takes over. Please, don’t go for their trick. Pass this message on. This is one of their tactics on the war against piracy.
@TheBOSS, you blew it man…
ppl that use IE:
- are either indifferent ppl, that don’t care what they use!… probably they use the computer 20 min. a day, checking e-mail and news!
- or don’t know how good Opera or FX is compared to IE… since they don’t know they won’t learn something new… kinda like the MS Office 2007 vs MS Office 2003 toolbars problem, where many hated the ribbons!
- or they haven’t had the pleasure of meeting a script worm that runs purely on IE’s flaws
- or they don’t use software that implements ATL… some of them have bugs if you install lets say IE7
… and the list can go on forever!
I have FX and I DON’T have any plugin, nor any extension installed that prevents showing the ad page!
I used to use adblock but it block out good content to and then I said why bother, I can just deal with the ads and have to allow the good content to be viewed every time it fails!
Wow…thats kinda weird. Even though they never said they wanted pirates to have the freedom to use IE7 as well, it is still very clear what they mean. Heh, maybe if we were lucky, Bill Gates downloaded a torrent and thought it was cool, so now he thinks pirating is cool…
i doubt dat he would pay 1mil for a hotdog why would he pirate along with us
I got it today and installed it, seems okay..
i use it for yahoo pool, that’s it
Firefox doesn’t work great always. Example crash scanario: If you manage a server with cPanel and decide to upgrade it, you go start the upgrade process(which takes a long time and it outputs a lot of text to the browser window every second) after a few minutes when you try to switch to a new tab or do anything else, firefox wont respond. Good thing is that the upgrade process goes on in the background but firefox wont respond till the upgrade is complete.
This however does NOT happen in IE 7. That is why I use IE for these kind of tasks and Firefox only for browsing sites. Not for download, upload etc.
Microsoft is once again proving that they are the world leaders in software. Congratulations on this decision.
I mainly use IE7 and Flock on my main PC, then Safari and Flock on my MacBook.
Congratulations to MS as well.
the only times I use IE:
1. to dl FF in case i’ve just formated my pc
2. to visit the “M$ Upgrade” webpage
The reasons I use FF:
Faster, customizable, tons of extensions adding new features or just changing others
The reason i don’t use Opera:
lack of (good) extensions and customizable options, doesn’t support most of my greasemonkey scripts… though, according to the internet is faster then FF
btw: i do “block” ads (is not block actually, is just removing) with a greasemonkey script, never fails or deletes something important
I used to use Opera all the time, but I moved to IE7 + IEPro = win!
Mr. X, you’re a ƒucking moron! Your childish comments reveal who you really are–a child. Go play in the sandbox with the rest of the children.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with IE7. As with anything computer-related, you just have to know how to use it properly.
I’ve been using IE since the beginning and have never had any problems with it whatsoever. I also use SpywareBlaster and Spybot-S&D’s Immunize feature to keep sh¡t off my computer from malicious websites. Ads are blocked by IE and KIS’s Anti-Banner.
Every website works like it was intended to and I’ve never had any worms or viruses or any other crap infect my computer.
You can flame all you want, flamers, but the bottom line is everything I do works. I don’t have problems with any websites as Firefox and Opera and other “alternative browser” users do. Everything just ƒucking works and it works great.
-Well, Emm, I’m none of the above. I certainly care what I use and that’s why I use IE.
-I definitely use my computer more than “20 min. a day” and for more than just “checking e-mail and news“.
-I have Microsoft Office 2007 and the “ribbons” don’t bother me at all, although that’s just a matter of personal preference. IMO, the menus were fine as well, but once I got used to the new “ribbons“, they were just as good.
-You’re right about the third point: I “haven’t had the pleasure of meeting a script worm that runs purely on IE’s flaws” But, as with the whole Windows vs. Linux argument, it’s only because IE is used by the biggest amount of people that some malicious scripts are developed only for it. Not to say that Firefox doesn’t have its flaws. As a matter of fact, I do remember one such flaw a couple of years ago that was pretty severe. Do some research and see for yourself. If there’s flaws in IE, they’re patched fairly quickly so they don’t have a chance to do any real damage. Once again, this comes down to the individual user and his/her ability to use a computer. If you don’t visit malicious websites, you won’t get infected, simple as that.
-I do use “software that implements ATL” and haven’t experienced any bugs with it as of yet.
Also, Firefox has many more bugs than IE. Just do some research and you’ll read a lot of comments from frustrated web developers that say some things just don’t want to work properly in Firefox.
Yes, I too can go on and on…but it basically comes down to one thing: compatibility. IE is compatible with almost every website. Now, I say almost, but I’ve never ran into any problems myself so as far as I’m concerned, IE is compatible with every website that I would care about.
Now, unlike Mr. X here, I’m not gonna put anyone down for using another browser; That’s their own choice. You might like Firefox because it’s “faster” than IE. Yes, while that may be true, speed isn’t everything. At least, when I use IE, I have the confidence of knowing that the website I’m looking at was developed to look exactly like it does, and my browser isn’t playing games with me. But, like I said, to each his own.
Now, I disagree with all the IE bashing. A lot of these n00bs, for lack of a better word, don’t know sh¡t about computers and just go with the crowd, and that is why they use Firefox! They’ve heard somewhere from someone that it’s better and now all of a sudden they’re the ƒucking experts on browsers. Do some research before you flame, people.
Finally, to all those people that are just too ignorant to understand this : Enjoy your iPods, iPhones, Windows Vista, and Firefox. Just go with the crowd and enjoy your lame lives.
People still use windows and explorer? wow.
I downloaded and installed it already. It’s nice to have the latest MS browser, especially to use on sites that doesn’t support Opera. Thanks MS, you softened this pirate’s heart!
@61
Hey 420! All that text and you mention 1 advantage (compability which is changing due to the market share changing too) for IE.
And against it are several advantages for non IE browsers (safety without addons, speed, customization, plugins…). You say it “works” but then you use several other programs to keep it from totally ravage your system.
“If there’s flaws in IE, they’re patched fairly quickly so they don’t have a chance to do any real damage.”
LOL… Now that was a n00b thing to say…
“Yes, I too can go on and on…but it basically comes down to one thing:”
Errrr… I think you CAN’T go on and on and all you have to say is simply “compatibility”. If you compare IE to FX or Opera right now that is the only thing you can boast about IE.
“Also, Firefox has many more bugs than IE. Just do some research and you’ll read a lot of comments from frustrated web developers that say some things just don’t want to work properly in Firefox.”
LOL… Oh! The savoy “web developers” who are basically mostly out of high school kids with fast courses based on IE page building. Now that’s some experts right there!
Since Ive switched from ie7 to ff with no script and APB i will never go back havent got a virus an months. though i do like in ie7 opening a new tab with one click insted of ctrl t or in file open new tab. does anybody know how to do one click new tab in ff.
wow and m$ thinks this will change the fact that ie still sucks ..
I agree that IE7 is rather bad compared to Firefox and Opera. I know many of you are interested in knowing this.
f ie7,
A middle-click in FF will open the link in a new tab.
IE vs. FF,
I’ve been using FF for at least a year now, and I like it much better than IE, however there are several things I don’t like. The history and bookmarks take too long to open, and then scrolling is slow. FF sometimes doesn’t work on some sites. While a page is loading, the banner adds tend to flash over other parts of the page, etc.
@65 yes you can, where do you want it? i actually have two buttons like that, one comes with the default browser (no addons) just right-click somewhere in your buttons toolbar and choose customize, then drag and drop the “new tab” button anywhere you want it (i have it before of my bookmarks toolbar)
@61 the alternative here is IE and not FF or Opera, IE doesn’t follow the W3 rules
funny geeks
kebrus thank you didn’t know that was there
makes looking up stuff quicker with a blank tab open thanks again
Keep using your Firefoxes, if they work for you. It just means less and less security holes for us Opera users. ;D
I think Opera is the best browser out there, only followed by Firefox, beside those two, no other browsers should exist!…
Firefox is great but far slower than Opera, there is also one thing I cannot live without anymore and is the Opera’s view option to make the pages appear in high contrast (black and white colors), black background and white text, is so confortable, does not damage your eyes so much compared to the normal colors, I hate the sites where the white color dominates, it’s a pain for the eyes!…
Well, there is so much to say but I don’t so much time!…
Opera > Firefox > [any other crap]
See ya!…
I’m not going to argue about whether Opera is better than Firefox or not. What I WILL say though is that IE7 is a crock of donkey s**t.
Anyone with a pirated copy of XP would already have the means of getting around the WGA system anyway if they were that desperate to get this bloated piece of MSware. Microsoft’s move to offer it to anyone, pirates’n'all, is just a desperate move because they realise their browser is losing out to the likes of FF & Opera.
Oh, and considering I wouldn’t trust Microsoft as far as I could throw them, I wouldn’t recommend the upgrade to anyone who has a pirate Windows XP copy. What’s the betting that MS are monitoring any new IE7 downloads…hmm?
@65,
- press the middle mouse button to open a link in a new tab in background
- press the middle mouse button on a tab to close it
- right click the navigation toolbar and add the New tab button = one-click-new-tab
- get the extension: Undo Closed Tabs Button, for when you want to quickly reopen a closed tab… also one-click
@68, Rekrul… you are probably talking about layered flash ads… there’s nothing you can do about them besides completely block the ad servers with a host list or an ad blocking extension. On IE, if no JS is implemented… they won’t work. That’s because of the Microsoft vs Eolas case… google it!
@420, here we have a problem.
Regarding to what you said to X, I’ll give you a few answers:
1. KIS Anti-banner is a software pretty much like a firewall… it stands between the the wsocks system and any application using it by blocking ads; enough said, this will also work for FX, Opera and any other browser, so it’s not an IE feature!
2. I don’t need to extra software to keep sh** of my computer… a simple AV like NOD32 will do fine
Now to what you said to me:
1. “I have Microsoft Office 2007… although that’s just a matter of personal preference.” … ah, that’s not true… I’ve read a lot of complaints from ppl that developed a hatred towards the 2007’s ribbons and they said that it’s completely disturbed their way of working. Now these are the ppl that don’t want to learn something new.
2. But, as with the whole Windows vs. Linux argument, it’s only because IE is used by the biggest amount of people that some malicious scripts are developed only for it.… ah… aham… lol, right!
No, it’s not because of that! IE is a browser that had implemented the COM for VB Scripting support. After a few years in pure sadness and after MS saw how great Sun did with it’s Java platform they’ve decoded to make their own platform… the .NET Framework. Do you know the key motivation behind it?… It’s because of the security problems of the Component Object Model that helped malicious devs to target IE based computers. In the past few years a lot of ActiveX based malicious software pretty much trashed any computer where IE was used by users that don’t know much about the risks that those components present and don’t know how to avoid them. That’s why IE implemented the add-on blocking feature in IE6 SP2 and that’s why in XP SP2, the Security center alerts the user to install an AV. If you take a look at Vista, COM is only half present in it and probably in the OS after Vista it will completely disappear.. MS wants to get rid of it but because the VB community is so large… making VB and VB Apps obsolete is not an option for MS since these rely on COM. The .NET Fw, on the other hand solves a lot of the security issues but it also needs a more pretentious programming language than the VB language. VB.NET is apparently to complex for some teachers or weak programmers that depend on VB. Sad for them.
3. Software that implements ATL… I remember that MediaMan, a movie cataloging software had problems if IE7 got installed… a fix was applied, but it being 40 bucks which is to much for a hobby app, and the cracks were kinda late, IE7 was not a option. That’s just a personal case… but it shows that some apps might have problems with the new IE7.
4. Also, Firefox has many more bugs… from frustrated web developers.. Yeah… about them… sorry but this joke kinda answers to your argument:
I’ve read such “research” and I’m actually not laughing… although it was supposed to be funny!
5. Compatibility… IE is not W3C compliant. Just tell me where you see the menu on thi page?… is it at the top or at the bottom, cause in my IE6SP2 it’s at the bottom but in both Opera in FX it’s at the top. Yeah, it’s compatible… with s***!
-
MS pushing IE is because more and more ppl went for the alternatives… that’s all I got to say!
… and that’s a good thing!
and excuse the typos… there were a few
The programs I use (SpywareBlaster and Spybot-S&D) are universal programs that work with all browsers, not just IE. I suggest you try them out for yourself, and see how you too can have a worry-free internet experience.
Here’s some screenshots to prove my point:
http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/SpywareBlaster_1.png
Notice how there’s Mozilla/Firefox as well as Internet Explorer.
Here’s Spybot’s Immunize feature:
http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/SpyBotSearch-Destroy_2.png
@Emm:
Emm, it seems like you are at least someone with knowledge on the subject, because most of these IE bashers don’t know half the sh¡t they’re talking about.
Basically, everyone knows how Microsoft works: They release sh¡t at first, but then improve it over the years and now some things I could say they’ve almost perfected.
Windows XP SP2 is pretty good and if SP3 comes out it will be almost perfect. With IE, it’s also pretty damn good nowadays.
Believe me, if I had a reason to stop using IE and switch to Firefox, I would be the first person to do it. But, as of yet, I haven’t found that reason.
What menu are you talking about? If you mean the one with the search box and the categories, etc. then I see that at the top as well. BTW, I’m using IE7 so I don’t know how it looks on IE6. Why are you using IE6 anyway when there’s IE7?
Basically, it’s like I said before…to each his own. If you like Firefox, Opera, IE, Netscape (
), great! Enjoy what you have chosen. I will be using IE so if someone wants to give me some good examples why I should be using something else, please do. I welcome all comments.
if MSoft cant get it right on R1 what hope is there with american nuke sites !!!
now do that to the rest of the M$ Goodies.
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http://gadgets-unlimited.blogspot.com/