Pirated Vista Faces Black Screen and Crashes

The infamous "Blue Screen of Death" in Microsoft Windows is now a thing of the past, and this term has essentially become synonymous with system crashes. However, Microsoft is now preparing to bring "Black Screen of Death" to all users of pirated software.

A large dealer of Windows Vista OEM systems received an email from a local Microsoft representative titled "Piracy World - Darkness Falls."

This email clearly describes the possible measures Microsoft may take against piracy. Now, ComputerWorld magazine has obtained this email and has partially disclosed its contents to the public.

"Good afternoon, over the weekend, Microsoft has activated the anti-piracy measure known as 'reduced functionality' in Vista. This is a specific feature that effectively prevents the use of non-genuine Windows, so any user with pirated Vista will experience...

1. Black screen after using the browser for 1 hour

2. No Start menu or taskbar

3. Desktop disabled"

The above content is the original text of the letter, and I hope these are not true.

PS: Hey, whether it's real or fake doesn't concern me now, as I'm not using VISTA. I tried it once when it came out, but didn't like it; it was a bit slow, and my machine seemed to have trouble running it. I guess in two years, it will be more widespread, and when hardware gets cheaper, I might use it. Anyway, Microsoft will still be updating XP security for another decade or so.