Time of death: 4:22 PM UTC September 26th

Notes, please read:

For those of you who don’t know, HWID was the holy grail for Windows activation, letting you generate licenses straight from Microsoft licensing servers, being registered as fully legitimate in microsofts servers and letting you keep the activation permanently, even after windows reinstalls being completely undetectable and with nothing on your system being modified. If you’re still using outdated activation methods and you missed out on this, I’m sorry

Existing HWID licenses are left unaffected. Only new requests are blocked, no licenses were revoked.

By the way, MAS still works and is the best option for Windows/Office activation. For permanent Office activation use it’s Ohook method (supports subscription products such as 365 as well) and KMS38 for Windows

ALL OTHER ACTIVATION METHODS ARE STILL WORKING, ONLY METHOD AFFECTED IS HWID.

All HWID activators are affected, not only MAS

Around that time, Microsoft servers unexpectedly started blocking the licensing requests HWID activation method sends to Microsoft. This was a slow rollout that spanned over a few hours, at the moment the exploit is completely dead. The best options for Windows activation now is KMS38 or vlmcsd.

Patching this would boost illegal key reselling websites which causes more harm to Microsoft than HWID exploit. We can only wonder why they patched this.

{“code”:“BadRequest”,“data”:[],“details”:[],“innererror”:{“code”:“PermanentTSLRejection”,“data”:[],“details”:[{“code”:“113”,“message”:“avsErrorCode”,“target”:null}],“message”:“The Purchase Service rejected the provided TSL; the client should destroy the TSL.”,“source”:“PurchaseFD”},“message”:“The calling client sent a bad request to the service.”,“source”:“PurchaseFD”}

TLS=Temporary Signed License=The tickets HWID activation sends. Microsoft servers are now just responding with “kill it.”

Transferring existing HWID licenses to other computers using Microsoft account is broken too.

    • Jtskywalker ( Jtskywalker@lemm.ee ) English
      55·
      3 years ago

      That is my biggest gripe with modern windows. The OS itself is pretty decent, but WHY am I paying at minimum $100 and seeing ads all over the start menu? Even with a vanilla MS sourced USB there are so many bloat apps. It didn’t used to be that way.

      I set up a PC for recording in a sound system and got a fresh install of Windows 11 on a custom PC and it was still super bloated with garbage games and a video editor that watermarks footage instead of the perfectly functional basic software they used to have.

      I am in the process of repairing and setting up an old macbook with Linux since it stopped getting Apple updates. When I get a new laptop I will likely go with Linux there as well.

    • Zoidsberg ( Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca ) English
      27·
      3 years ago

      You can’t have it both ways.

      I get what you’re saying, and I agree with you, but I think they’ve proven that they absolutely can have it both ways. 99% of people just don’t care.

    • Andi ( Andi@feddit.uk ) English
      9·
      3 years ago

      Install as “English (World)” and all adverts and additional software is missed, as it doesn’t know your region, therefore doesn’t know what to serve.

      If you need the Windows Store, you can change the region post install, and it’ll remain clean and the store will then populate.

    • ALostInquirer ( ALostInquirer@lemm.ee ) English
      6·
      3 years ago

      It’s absolutely bonkers for Microsoft to even consider that paying $99 or $199 for their ad ridden software is fair and reasonable.

      Have you seen their Xboxes? Somehow they get by with charging even more for those with more blatant ads and they charge you to play online multiplayer.

    • OverfedRaccoon 🦝 ( OverfedRaccoon@lemm.ee ) English
      10·
      3 years ago

      What’d you end up on, out of curiosity? I was on Fedora for a couple years, but with the whole Red Hat thing (that I don’t fully understand the implications of), I switched to openSUSE Tumbleweed. Still have love for Mint, though, after all these years.

      • faede ( faede@mander.xyz ) English
        12·
        3 years ago

        I’m using endevour os now, though I started on mint a few months ago and loved it. The wife is using mint now and just commented yesterday that it was a very seamless transition from windows. Only problems have been related to nvidia being dumb.

        • OverfedRaccoon 🦝 ( OverfedRaccoon@lemm.ee ) English
          5·
          3 years ago

          Glad you’re enjoying it. I haven’t messed with Endevour much myself, as Arch-based stuff is a little more hands on than I want to be, personally, most of the time. I think the switch to Linux is easier than a lot of people think. It really just takes some patience, knowing that it’ll be an adjustment, and accepting that you’ll need to find alternatives to some apps.

      • samson ( samson@aussie.zone ) English
        8·
        3 years ago

        I’m still a Fedora guy, started on Ubuntu years ago, tried arch (loved AUR) and all the Ubuntu derivatives but once I hit fedora it just stuck.

      • ian ( ian@lemmy.sdf.org ) English
        8·
        3 years ago

        RedHat still pushes their changes upstream whenever possible, and is one of the largest OSS contributors. These changes were to make it harder for companies like Oracle who feed off of RHEL. The same reason you can’t view RH support docs any more, Oracle used to reply to their paid users (running RHEL clones) with copy/paste from the RH docs.

      • AlmightyTritan ( AlmightyTritan@beehaw.org ) English
        17·
        3 years ago

        I mean if you’re already using a Windows machine for work you’re not gonna have to switch.

        I imagine unless you’re self employed, you are probably given a machine to work on with a predefined operating system picked by your employer. If someone is in a place where they’re forced to use windows and the employer is making them pay for this equipment and software out of pocket, then that’s wicked scummy of the employer.

        I’m just saying this cause I imagine the original comment your replying to has some implicit context of “when possible” or “on my own machine”.

        Also it’s a bummer your software doesn’t work on Linux, nothing worse than being locked into a platform.

        • SatyrSack ( SatyrSack@lemmy.one ) English
          6·
          3 years ago

          I imagine unless you’re self employed, you are probably given a machine to work on with a predefined operating system picked by your employer.

          And it’s all managed by the IT department. I use Linux on all my personal devices, but on my work computer, I don’t deal with ads, bloatware, or most other things that people complain about Windows because IT took care of that already through group policy and whatnot.

  • redcalcium ( redcalcium@lemmy.institute ) English
    49·
    3 years ago

    I always thought microsoft allowing HWID activation was a deliberate move to get as many people to use windows and got them enrolled into windows updates, which bolster their market share and allow them to push ads/promotion for their various services to windows start menu. I think microsoft got a lot more to lose from ending HWID activation.

  • Melody Fwygon ( Melody@lemmy.one ) English
    29·
    3 years ago

    Microsoft is stupid, someone high up is getting greedy or desperate.

    Patching HWID is annoying and doesn’t stop piracy. In fact it will break a lot of legacy systems in general; which is probably what they intended and why they are guilty of corporate greed in this case.

    I hate Micro$hit but I am REQUIRED to use Windows by too many stupid fucking different idiots, apps, and games to count. Linux is still not there yet for me usability-wise; though it probably is still improving.

    No; I will never accept that CLI is an acceptable end-user implementation; GUI is required; along with ease of use and the polish that comes with it. I don’t mind CLI interfaces; but I do feel they’re not user-friendly enough usually. They REQUIRE YOU to LEARN a few things to get used to them; which is the opposite of an intuitive interface.

    NOTE: I am very FLOSS accepting when it meets my needs; but I will not hold back criticism. Do not try to shout me down. You will always be wrong. Windows is factually more user-friendly and application compatibility diverse than Linux.

    I genuinely hope that Linux finds more ways to 100% match Windows functionally without forcing the user to compromise. We need to punish Microsoft for all these years of monopoly holding and reclaim computing more effectively.

    • Mars ( Mars@beehaw.org ) English
      19·
      3 years ago

      It’s funny how computers are almost the only human invention that for some reason must be able to be used without learning anything.

      We don’t do that for almost anything else. We expect people to learn how to drive, how to fill taxes, how to buy things on the store, how to cook, how to play chess. It seems like the only cases when someone decides learning stuff is an inconvenience is when tech people get into another field and tries to disrupt it.

      I am all about making things as simple as they can be, but not simpler. Intuitive is a super relative term that depends on your knowledge and life experience. People find Office intuitive after using it for twenty years, but for me is a nightmare where legacy features intermingle with weird cloud and AI shit, and most of the time I only need a markdown file. No interface is intuitive, they are only familiar, clear, accesible, discovereable, etc.

      Interface Design goes in cycles of skeuomorphism and simplification because computer stuff is not Intuitive, you have to open the way with metaphors people can understand, and when they are part of everyday life you can make the app for the virtual credit cards not look like it’s made of leather.

        • crispy_kilt ( crispy_kilt@feddit.de ) English
          3·
          3 years ago

          But after just a couple weeks most people can start fiddling around. Once there’s a foundation, it gets built on.

          Realistically, how many Linux users have memorized every command they use?

          If they invested the same few weeks of time, all of the important ones and then some!

          But people don’t want to learn for even 5 minutes when it comes to computers. This is exactly parent commenters point.

          Not the case for computers though, because there’s no transposing from one “language” to another. If you’re following a guide online and you don’t have the same distro, chances are high it will not work.

          Yes there is, but people don’t want to learn the fundamentals that enables them to see behind the instructions. Online tutorials for computer stuff are the music equivalent of a guitar tutorial going like “place index finger on position A. Strum with middle finger and thumb at position B for 3cm for a duration of 200ms touching strings 1 theough 3. Then…” instead of a bunch of notes. Obviously this series of excruciatingly boring instructions won’t translate to even another guitar yet alone a piano. Same goes for computers. They have tonnes of things in common (just like instruments) but to see that you first have to learn the basic principles behind them.

  • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org) ( user224@lemmy.sdf.org ) English
    20·
    3 years ago

    Sorry for possibly a stupid question, but what’s the point of activating Windows?
    I never seriously used Windows, but I have a Windows 7 VM that’s not activated, and it works. Just the wallpaper is black. Also most of our school computers don’t have activated Windows, yet it seems to work fine, there’s just the watermark. And on some it shows the “You may be the victim of…” message. Same seems to be the case for Office 2016 installed on those. Other than the “non-genuine” message, it works.

  • AndreTelevise ( AndreTelevise@lemm.ee ) English
    12·
    3 years ago

    Now, you can’t perma-crack your new PC with a “real” HWID key, then years later reinstall Windows and keep your “real” license anymore! And you can’t upgrade anymore on that new PC either! You have to patch Windows every time!

  • ZeroEcks ( ZeroEcks@lemmy.ml ) English
    12·
    3 years ago

    By the way you can still use a windows 7 key for windows 11, I just have an old laptop with the OEM sticker on it, works fine on every computer I ever tried. Consider just trying to find one in the trash or just take a photo of one on a computer in public that won’t likely get reinstalled.

  • berserker ( berserker@lemm.ee ) English
    8·
    3 years ago

    After reading through the docs on the MAS site, KMS38 still looks pretty robust. I get that it’s not ‘permanent’ but are there any major drawbacks aside from having to re-run MAS after a fresh Windows install?

  • hogart ( hogart@feddit.nu ) English
    6·
    3 years ago

    I tried doing a full swap from Windows earlier this year. I do a lot of local game streaming from my gaming pc to my laptop and I had issues getting this working. Didn’t have the energy to keep looking for solutions so I just went back to windows. Next time I try I will probably keep my pc on windows and only swap my laptop to Linux. One step at a time.