What Happens If You Use A Bad Serial Key In Windows 10
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- What Happens If You Use A Bad Serial Key In Windows 10
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Microsoft allows anyone to download Windows 10 for free and install it without a product key. It’ll keep working for the foreseeable future, with only a few small cosmetic restrictions. And you can even pay to upgrade to a licensed copy of Windows 10 after you install it. Sep 14, 2018 If you upgrade from a OEM or retail version of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 to the free Windows 10 upgrade this summer, the license is consumed into it. Because the free upgrade is derived from the base qualifying license, Windows 10 will carry that licensing too. If You bought a retail license of Windows 10, You have Your personal serial number which will activate some limited number of times on any hardware. After that number key may be activated by phone. And if You try to activate it too many times, serial may be blocked.
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A young Bill Gates once complained about the copying of his company's Altair Basic software by computer hobbyists. This rampant theft, according to Gates, made all the hard work done by him and his company worth less than two dollars an hour. Decades later, Gates' company -- Microsoft -- instituted product activation and validity checking procedures that made the copying and sharing of its operating system and application software much more difficult for casual copiers and profiteering pirates.
How Activation Works
Windows activation is part of Microsoft's 'Windows Product Activation' process. Activation differs from the installation process that requires a product code. It is also different from post-installation registration. Instead, the goal of Windows activation is to establish a link between a licensed copy Windows and a specific computer system. Creating such a link in theory should prevent the same copy of Windows from being installed on more than one machine, as was possible with earlier versions of the operating system.
Following installation, Windows takes information from your video display adapter, SCSI and IDE drive adapters, processor type and serial number, hard drive serial number and your network adapter Media Access Control address to form a unique identity for your computer. No two computers should have the same hardware signature. When you try to install the same copy of Windows on more than one machine and then try to activate online or by phone, the activation will fail.
Windows XP
Windows XP was the first Windows operating system to require activation. According to an official 2007 document on the Microsoft's support website, 'After the 30 days has expired, you must activate Windows to continue using Windows.' An oft-quoted article written by the late Microsoft developer Alex Nichol to clear up myths about Windows XP activation says that an unactivated system will do little more than boot, allow you to make backups and activate.
Windows Vista
Windows Vista's penalty for failure to activate is much harsher that of Windows XP. After a grace period of 30 days, Vista enters 'Reduced Functionality Mode' or RFM. Under RFM, you can't play any Windows games. You will also lose access to premium features such as Aero Glass, ReadyBoost or and BitLocker. Finally, an unactivated Vista will automatically log you out of the system after only one hour of use until you successfully activate it.
Windows 7
Unlike Windows XP and Vista, failure to activate Windows 7 leaves you with an annoying, but somewhat usable system. According to a Microsoft developer blog post on 'Microsoft Developer Network,' if you don't choose to activate Windows 7 during installation, you will see an 'Activate Windows Online Now' message in the system tray. If you don't activate then, you will see and 'Activate Now' message every day from day four through day 27. Until day 30, you will get the 'Activate Now' message every four hours until day 30. After day 30, you will get the 'Activate Now' message every hour, along with a notice that your Windows version is not genuine whenever you launch the Control Panel. In addition, Windows 7 does not perform any system updates after the grace period. Finally, Windows will automatically turn your screen background image to black every hour – even after you change it back to your preference. This behavior continues until you successfully activate Windows 7.
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About the Author
Allen Bethea has written articles on programming, web design,operating systems and computer hardware since 2002. He holds a Bachelor of Science from UNC-Chapel Hill and AAS degrees in office technology, mechanical engineering/drafting and internet technology. Allen has extensive experience with desktop and system software for both Windows and Linux operating systems.
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If a user download commercial software through the official, corresponding website, but use a product key which you did not legitimately purchase (e.g. websites that offer a list of product keys for free), does that harm anything other than the company who made the piece of software?
I was wondering if the person who generated those product keys can see which user(s) have used that key and are able to harm them in any way.
11 Answers
No.
Only the manufacturer of the software can know what key you have used and only if the software 'calls home' for (re-)activation. Using a non-original key (for example, one provided by a key generator) will not give anyone back-door access to your computer/program.
In short: yes. Any software can harm you.
Legally: If the authors of the software find you are using illicit copies of their software, they are at liberty to file a civil copyright infringement claim against you. Software commonly 'phones home', even in the form of checking for new updates. They may not go after you if you're a poor individual, but they love taking businesses to court, even if it bankrupts a small business.
Technically: Some authors have even put in attack code that runs if you use their software with a well-known pirated product key. This might be funny (for example, the game Crysis gives pirates a gun that shoots chickens instead of bullets) or it might be serious, like deleting all your personal files.
Morally: The software authors trust you to buy their software legally; you abuse that trust. You trust them to leave your computer unharmed when they find you using an illicit key. What if they abuse that trust? If they delete your entire hard drive when their software recognises an illicit key (regardless of phoning home -- software can have an embedded list of known pirated keys), what are you going to do about it?
Ultimately, your piracy might drive the authors to other means of making money, such as selling your personal information, which harms everybody, including licit users.
Personally, I would recommend you find free software that allows you to achieve the same aim, instead of using cracked proprietary software. Instead of cracked Windows, use Ubuntu. Instead of cracked Photoshop, use GIMP. Instead of cracked Word, use LibreOffice. Instead of cracked Maya, use Blender.
Stuart CaieStuart CaieWhat Happens If You Use A Bad Serial Key In Windows 10 10
I'm not an expert in the matter, but if you have a legitimate copy of the software in question and not a 'cracked' copy then the main concern for you would be that the company that created the software would know that the key you used is not yours (you're the 300th person to use it). From there they could either prevent the software from working or attempt to take legal action. I've never heard of someone that I know of having legal action taken against them. If you're using a product key as a kind of 'trial' mode then you're probably just fine; although, I obviously don't suggest outright pirating the software.
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If you're using a cracked copy that includes a product key or is 'pre-activated' you are at the mercy of whoever cracked it and I wouldn't trust that at all.
o0'.One thing that has not been mentioned in the other answers: although using an illicit key might or might not be harmless, it usually correlates with malware infections - the key-generator, the key distribution website etc. are likely to contain trojans or other malware targetted at the less-savvy users.
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A lot of software 'calls home' nowadays. So using a cracked key, you may be broadcasting to the software editor that you pirated the product. Whether they sue you or not is their prerogative, but that sure looks like harmful to me.
This obviously depends on what type of software you are talking about, and what position the persons who cracked it are in.
If the system connects to some central server on a regular basis to verify that the product is legitimate, and that it is unlocked with a legitimate key, then I suppose there is a chance that someone could get compile a list of users using the same key. That again, requires this 'someone' to have access to the server the software connects to for verification.
Whether this 'someone' is in general likely also to be the person who generated the illegitimate key would be speculation. If anything, I would be more worried about the company behind the product coming after you for using an illegitimate key (though I suppose they would be more likely to just disable it, rendering it useless).
In essence, it boils down to this:
What Happens If You Use A Bad Serial Key In Windows 10
If you are just entering an activation-code into a legitimate piece of software, there is little chance of anything bad happening (unless the software communicates with a central server which just happens to have been hacked).
If on the other hand you use a piece of software that has been changed somehow (e.g., downloaded from somewhere other than the vendor's official site, or cracked using some other automated tool), then you can't really know whether or not your software can be trusted.
Your computer would probably be fine, but I wouldn't trust the files it manages. An infamous company, 'Yoyogames', decided to have a little fun with people pirating their software. They overwrote the user's images with skulls and crossbones.
The problem, of course, was a false positive destroying legitimate users' work.
What Happens If You Use A Bad Serial Key In Windows 10 Free
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the invincible Red Scorpion in Serious Sam 3 as an example. Pirated versions of the game had this unkillable enemy that would appear and attack the player.
A product key that is found not to belong to you, when it 'calls home' to activate, could trigger some unwanted feature in the software.
Maybe
If the key is used to encrypt sensitive data, and that key is reused in multiple locations, then your privacy is at risk.
Consider a serial number for 1Password that encrypts the local database. If that serial number gets out on the net, it's possible that that key can be used to decrypt the corresponding secrets. (1Password doesn't work this way, but it's an analogy )
technology_is_overratedtechnology_is_overratedNot directly, but I can see 2 indirect ways:
- If the software phones home, the company might catch you using a key they know is cracked, and try to track you down and punish you (whether themselves or through legal intermediaries).
- If you are using a cracked key, you are probably using cracked software, so you are exposed to risk from that.
A key, by itself, cannot compromise your computer in any way, unless the software is explicitly programmed to act maliciously in response to a cracked key (it's still a question how it will tell which keys are cracked..). The key is just a password for you to prove that you have the right to run the software (ie. that you obtained a license to that program by buying it).
But this is a bit of a moot point because no one just uses a cracked key for no reason - they use it because their software is also cracked (so #2) and even if you have legally obtained software, just putting in a cracked key is not necessarily safe (because of #1).
In the olden days it used to be that programs would simply run a mathematical operation on the key and decide whether they accept it or not (and even earlier, there would literally be a few questions with a secret answer). The exact algorithm would be secret and hard to guess, so you would basically only be able to run the software if the developer generates a correct key for you. Crackers would reverse engineer the algorithm and generate their own keys - it's hard to see how a software could distinguish between keys generated by copyright infringers and keys generated by the developer (in fact, its ability to distinguish this was the algorithm in the first place, and that has already been defeated at this point). Granted, often the crackers then distribute the key generator with a virus in it, so there's that.
After internet became ubiquitous, companies have moved on to just maintaining a list of keys they received payment for, and making software phone home to check. Now 'cracked keys' come from someone who works at a company with a volume licensing key, who then leak that key. If the developer catches on, they may revoke that key to render it useless. Since the key was intended to be legitimate (and initially was), it's hard to see how it would harm your computer. But, like I said, if the software phones home, you'd be making yourself conspicuous.
In some circumstances, yes. The software silently downloads an update and the update sees the key is blacklisted--and quits working at an inopportune time. (Say, in front of clients or prospective clients.)