Which is it? Can you use it today, or has the key long since been blacklisted? I guess both are probably true (the key’s been blacklisted for decades, but no one’s checking the blacklist anymore because the servers have been shut down) but this part of the anecdote was hard to follow.
“It is speculated that the leak came from a major computer manufacturer, namely, Dell, as they received the final version ahead of the official release date.”
> Plummer left Microsoft in 2003[11] to start his own company, SoftwareOnline LLC, a software vendor.
> […]
> In 2006, SoftwareOnline was sued by The Washington State Attorney General's Office for alleged violations of the Consumer Protection Act after complaints were made about two products called "Registry Cleaner" and "InternetShield". SoftwareOnline agreed to pay $150,000 in civil penalties, plus $250,000 that was ultimately suspended following compliance with all terms in the settlement, as well as $40,000 in legal fees.
As my teacher used to tell me (I had undiagnosed adhd), sometimes it is better to shut your mouth and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Something the tweet doesn't mention is that the leak may have come from Intel: https://github.com/tongzx/nt5src/blob/daad8a087a4e75422ec96b...
Well, what's the story? How did it leak? Did it belong to a real vendor? What did Microsoft attempt to do about it?
Which is it? Can you use it today, or has the key long since been blacklisted? I guess both are probably true (the key’s been blacklisted for decades, but no one’s checking the blacklist anymore because the servers have been shut down) but this part of the anecdote was hard to follow.
The key has been blacklisted since at least SP1.
You can certainly use the key today, with period correct media (at least until the first Windows Update):
https://archive.org/details/devils0wn
“It is speculated that the leak came from a major computer manufacturer, namely, Dell, as they received the final version ahead of the official release date.”
I was always curious if the key was truly random and accidentally leaked.
The first five letters always reminded me of a jab at a certain rather polarizing(by standards of the time) person who'd just been elected president.
Probably, and hopefully, not. But the conspiracy theorist in me had always wondered...
there was another one with ...XRW9... like this? :-D
[flagged]
This is the guy who wrote the original Task Manager for Win95. He now hosts a YouTube channel about Windows. What makes you think he’s an idiot?
He allegedly ran a fake / scam AV company.
Interesting. Per Wikipedia[1]:
> Plummer left Microsoft in 2003[11] to start his own company, SoftwareOnline LLC, a software vendor. > […] > In 2006, SoftwareOnline was sued by The Washington State Attorney General's Office for alleged violations of the Consumer Protection Act after complaints were made about two products called "Registry Cleaner" and "InternetShield". SoftwareOnline agreed to pay $150,000 in civil penalties, plus $250,000 that was ultimately suspended following compliance with all terms in the settlement, as well as $40,000 in legal fees.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Plummer
His tweet history seems pretty normal. What are you taking issue with?
As my teacher used to tell me (I had undiagnosed adhd), sometimes it is better to shut your mouth and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
I agree. He shouldn’t have a twitter account.
Sadly I can't be any more explicit or dang will be on my case again.