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Inquirer reported that pirated versions of Windows 7 are proliferating around Metro Manila. Greenhills Center in San Juan Metro Manila is one of the busiest shopping center when it comes to gadgets, software and other accessories. Several pirated (illegal copied) items are up for sale in this area and Filipinos “love” to buy them because of cheap prices. You can get a pirated Windows 7 Home edition for 100 pesos (around 2 USD), pirated Windows 7 Home Premium costs 120 pesos and the Ultimate edition sells for 150 pesos (less than 3 dollars).
Here’s the catch folks, these scrupulous vendors are telling you that these Windows 7 are the “full cracked” version and even warn you that you may not get future updates after installing it. Yeah right, and that’s silly, you see updates in Windows and other softwares are very important. Software developers call these “patches” and they are needed to make your system robust and malware free. The cracked version works by “bypassing” the activation product key (where you input the “CD” key given my Microsoft) so the user can “indefinitely” use Windows 7. We created a full report about it and we don’t recommend buying this cracked version.
Microsoft is “aware” about this product key bypassing technique and is currently developing a method to bust it out. You are literally burning “cash” buying these cracked Windows 7 versions:
1. Why buy the cracked versions if you could download it for free? We don’t recommend piracy so you’re at your own to find resources on the internet. These vendors only want to “squeeze” cash out of your pockets.
2. Windows 7 is still young. Personally, we don’t recommend early releases of Operating Systems since they are “unstable” and the developer might need to upgrade it (via patches) to improve its performance. Pirated or cracked Windows 7 won’t do the trick and probably you might end up buying another pirated Windows 7 and/or putting your system in jeopardy. There’s really no escape my friend.
The news post included that Microsoft Philippines is happy with the sales of Windows 7 in the country. Most laptop and desktop buyers in the country are purchasing the licensed version of the software as a “bundle”. Some popular laptop brands are distributing the licensed Windows 7 including Acer, Lenovo and Asus.
You might get these pirated versions of Windows 7 at ridiculously low prices but in the end may suffer the consequences. So why take the risk?
