Microsoft said on Thursday that it is planning an update to Windows 7 that will close a number of loopholes that counterfeiters had used to thwart the operating system’s built-in antipiracy measures.
The Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7, which will be released later in February, closes more than 70 “activation hacks”, according to Joe Williams, general manager of Microsoft’s Genuine Windows unit, responsible for anti-counterfeiting measures. The update will also check with a server periodically to see if there are further hacks that need to be addressed, though Williams said no personally identifiable information about the user will be sent to the server.
In an interview, Williams cautioned about the dangers that come with using illegitimate versions of the operating system, citing a German study which looked at several hundred copies of Windows 7 posted online, and found nearly a third had some type of malware.
Source ZDNet
