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Microsoft holds death of the "Kill Switch" hostage to Vista SP1 | |
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| Time: 02:24 EST/07:24 GMT | News Source: ComputerWorld | Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum | ||
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For plenty of people, a big reason to upgrade to Vista SP1 will be the death of the dreaded "Kill Switch," which in essence kills Windows if for some reason Microsoft determines your copy isn't a validly bought version. Good move...but getting rid of the Kill Switch is something that Microsoft can easily do as an update without bundling into SP1. So why hold it hostage until SP1 ships? To force you to upgrade, and make the service pack's uptake numbers look better. First, a bit of background. The Kill Switch built into SP1 goes into effect if you don't activate a retail version of Vista after 30 days, or if you ignore a three-day grace period you're given after making so many hardware changes that Windows is no longer considered valid. Your desktop turns black, the Start menu and desktop icons disappear, and you can only copy your data files, but you can't open them. In addition, after you use Internet Explorer for an hour, you're logged off. | ||
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| #1 By 2960 (72.196.195.185) at 2/1/2008 8:09:49 AM |
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This is a bit of a stretch, even for microsoft.
TL |
| #2 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 2/1/2008 11:44:31 AM |
| It's not like MS to voluntarily loosen their yolk of control. |
| #3 By 2138 (81.183.107.6) at 2/1/2008 1:29:36 PM |
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we will just have to wait and see.
belto... |
| #4 By 17996 (131.107.0.105) at 2/1/2008 2:07:09 PM |
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The only types of updates that should be released *outside* of service packs are:
1. Security updates 2. Most-hit crash fixes 3. Bug fixes for compatibility/perf that affect large numbers of users 4. Things like daylight saving time adjustments Putting the kill switch in an update doesn't make any sense. Especially when SP1 is just days or weeks away from release. That said, the way that XP's "Genuine Advantage Notifications" was delivered outside of a service pack was also improper. |
| #5 By 3746 (72.12.161.38) at 2/1/2008 2:16:25 PM |
| Why would you not want to install SP1? I am sure just about everyone currently running vista will install it. |
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