Finding the secret keys to the kingdom has become an international sport, and now we're hearing that the mighty product activation for Microsoft Windows Vista has already been compromised. Using a brute force technique of checking 20,000 possibilities an hour, it might take a few days to find a valid product key, but it works. The cumbersome technique is in the realm of the propellerheads so far, but the crack could soon be turned into an easily-used key generator that would open to sluice gates to widespread piracy.

Perhaps all this software cracking wouldn't be so tempting if Vista didn't cost about the same as a cheap PC. If it does turn out that Microsoft Windows Vista is so easily stolen, it might not be profitable to create such behemoth operating systems any more. Ubuntu, anyone? – Charlie White

Vista Brute Force Keygen [Keznews, via SlashGear]

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