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How to detect Windows piracy

Speedbird

I use to run a shop myself. What I always did was installed Windows given the OEM key they had. If they didn't have a OEM key, then I told them that they would have to buy one or provide me with one.

If they didn't want one, I would always offer Fedora and Ubuntu as 2 great options. A lot of people came in with pirated copies of Windows 7 and/or 8, they were irate as fuck when they came to pick up their computer and I had reverted it back to Windows Vista (what their OEM key was for) and they always acted like it was a surprise that I wouldn't do a shady deal for them.

Hah, we had a few of those.

"By the way, you will end up with vista after this, because you don't have a valid key for 7".

Thankfully we had a good reputation, and they appreciated the honesty. Many of these folks would just have us build a new computer for them sporting the newest OS and all.

D3SL91 | Ethan | Gaming+Work System | NAS System | Photo: Nikon D750 + D5200

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Hah, we had a few of those.

"By the way, you will end up with vista after this, because you don't have a valid key for 7".

Thankfully we had a good reputation, and they appreciated the honesty. Many of these folks would just have us build a new computer for them sporting the newest OS and all.

Well I always tried to do the right thing.  It is legitimately why my business closed its doors.

 

A small story of how much dick you have to suck to make it in this world...  I had just opened my doors, maybe 2-3 months, just getting everything settled in.  I was approached by a local insurance agent to review their customers electronics claims for "Spring Storms" to verify if the components had actually been damaged and to give a accurate appraisal to the repair of the machine so the insurance company could make a better decision to replace it or repair it.  I said sure, and my company had a policy that I didn't charge you a penny unless it was actually fixed.  Well after 3-5 of their claims came to me, I gave them the reports back but they wondered why I hadn't sent them a invoice for just looking at it.  And I told them that I don't charge to look at anything, I charge to actually FIX it.  Well, the guy got so mad at me that he hung up and drove down to my office.  After about 30 minutes of him lecturing me about how I need to charge more money (almost in a demeaning way) he then threatened my business that he would say I did horrible work and to counter recommend me.  I said fine, and let him go.  Come to find out, one of the people that I had helped came back for something else a month or so later and said her home owners insurance went up because of my bill I sent to the insurance agency, because she had a "claim" even though I didn't fix it and she didn't get it replaced because her deductible was more than she would have gotten back.  Come to find out, the insurance agent was so mad at me because he wanted to hike his customers premiums up based on "claims" that (at least with me) he couldn't place on them because I never gave them a invoice.

 

About a month later there were 2 articles in the newspaper about how I did poor business practices (never talked about my actual work, just about how poorly I ran the business) and my business NEVER recovered.  I cant say that he did or didn't have a hand in it, but the 2 articles were anonymous and I never saw anything from the insurance agency again.

Please spend as much time writing your question, as you want me to spend responding to it.  Take some time, and explain your issue, please!

Spoiler

If you need to learn how to install Windows, check here:  http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/324871-guide-how-to-install-windows-the-right-way/

Event Viewer 101: https://youtu.be/GiF9N3fJbnE

 

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Well I always tried to do the right thing.  It is legitimately why my business closed its doors.

 

A small story of how much dick you have to suck to make it in this world...  I had just opened my doors, maybe 2-3 months, just getting everything settled in.  I was approached by a local insurance agent to review their customers electronics claims for "Spring Storms" to verify if the components had actually been damaged and to give a accurate appraisal to the repair of the machine so the insurance company could make a better decision to replace it or repair it.  I said sure, and my company had a policy that I didn't charge you a penny unless it was actually fixed.  Well after 3-5 of their claims came to me, I gave them the reports back but they wondered why I hadn't sent them a invoice for just looking at it.  And I told them that I don't charge to look at anything, I charge to actually FIX it.  Well, the guy got so mad at me that he hung up and drove down to my office.  After about 30 minutes of him lecturing me about how I need to charge more money (almost in a demeaning way) he then threatened my business that he would say I did horrible work and to counter recommend me.  I said fine, and let him go.  Come to find out, one of the people that I had helped came back for something else a month or so later and said her home owners insurance went up because of my bill I sent to the insurance agency, because she had a "claim" even though I didn't fix it and she didn't get it replaced because her deductible was more than she would have gotten back.  Come to find out, the insurance agent was so mad at me because he wanted to hike his customers premiums up based on "claims" that (at least with me) he couldn't place on them because I never gave them a invoice.

 

About a month later there were 2 articles in the newspaper about how I did poor business practices (never talked about my actual work, just about how poorly I ran the business) and my business NEVER recovered.  I cant say that he did or didn't have a hand in it, but the 2 articles were anonymous and I never saw anything from the insurance agency again.

 

Wow, that is really unfortunate. Sounds like that insurance guy has some serious mental issues. Basically, you decided to go against the system, and that was apparently too radical and crazy for him to comprehend. "What do you mean you don't rip people off and run a shady business, its what I do all the time, how dare you have better morals than me, and how dare you make me feel bad!" Is basically what he was saying, and then admitted to after attacking you. 

 

The shop i worked for actually needed to implement a base fee for everything. We'd do a quick lookover and advice at the counter "yeah, this is a 10 year old desktop, It will cost more to fix that to buy a new system" type stuff. Anything else, we'd charge a $60 diagnostic fee. If they did the work, that $60 they paid up front would be deducted from the total cost of the work. 

 

We had so many people that we would call and call, and they would never come in to pay for their work, or pick up the system when we diagnosed it. Or, lots of, "oh thanks, I'll just have my grandson fix it". After spending several hours doing diagnostics (which I'm sure you know, sometimes involves partly fixing things).

 

I hope you are better off now that before. 

D3SL91 | Ethan | Gaming+Work System | NAS System | Photo: Nikon D750 + D5200

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Great guide!

 

I've been using a few in-house tools I made back in the XP era to check for pirated copies of the OS and Office installs on client computers when I used to work in a computer shop. Needless to say, most of the PCs that came in for servicing and the sort used pirated software (hell, I've seen people with pre-built PCs that had the OEM key sticker on them using a pirated OS just because they didn't know how to install Service Packs). Our internal policy was funny, since we had to report pirated software (for some reason that I still don't understand) and most of the installations ended up getting wiped. It was in the small print on the servicing contracts, so we were entitled to do it.

 

People regard buying an OS as being too expensive, and considering the price of XP back then, I almost tended to agree (I remember selling it for about $150 or so, which was plain retarded since that was pretty much 1/4 the cost of a decent PC. No wonder people were pirating it left and right). These days you can get a genuine key cheap enough that it just gets plain dumb to pirate it and face all the bugs and glitches that patches fix.

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Wow, that is really unfortunate. Sounds like that insurance guy has some serious mental issues. Basically, you decided to go against the system, and that was apparently too radical and crazy for him to comprehend. "What do you mean you don't rip people off and run a shady business, its what I do all the time, how dare you have better morals than me, and how dare you make me feel bad!" Is basically what he was saying, and then admitted to after attacking you. 

 

The shop i worked for actually needed to implement a base fee for everything. We'd do a quick lookover and advice at the counter "yeah, this is a 10 year old desktop, It will cost more to fix that to buy a new system" type stuff. Anything else, we'd charge a $60 diagnostic fee. If they did the work, that $60 they paid up front would be deducted from the total cost of the work. 

 

We had so many people that we would call and call, and they would never come in to pay for their work, or pick up the system when we diagnosed it. Or, lots of, "oh thanks, I'll just have my grandson fix it". After spending several hours doing diagnostics (which I'm sure you know, sometimes involves partly fixing things).

 

I hope you are better off now that before. 

I am, I didn't enjoy the business (mostly because of the people) and I usually charged a solid to fair price for the actual repair.  Currently I work for Amazon, get a biweekly paycheck and have more money than I know what to do with (within reason).  I also had a policy if you left your computer with me for 30 days, and didn't return, it was MINE!  lol.  I usually kept the computer for 90 days, and if you came back I charged you double to buy it back.

 

One of the biggest problems I ran into (financially) is my computer shop started to quickly turn into a pawn shop of sorts.  People tried to sell me their computers on the cheep, and its hard to avoid cause I knew I could make a flop on it.  And when I closed shop (and obviously I was running around trying to sell everything I could towards the end) I had something like 12 computers to sell.  Even at $20 a pop that's $250.

Please spend as much time writing your question, as you want me to spend responding to it.  Take some time, and explain your issue, please!

Spoiler

If you need to learn how to install Windows, check here:  http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/324871-guide-how-to-install-windows-the-right-way/

Event Viewer 101: https://youtu.be/GiF9N3fJbnE

 

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