Sigh.

This article has appeared all over the place.

The "EULA" in question is not the EULA for Windows 10 at all. Rather, it is the Services Agreement, a blanket terms-of-use document for Microsoft's online services like Skype, Hotmail, and most relevant to the infamous Clause 7b, Xbox Live, where Microsoft rightfully may disconnect you for using hacked hardware (or at the very least, be indemnified if one of their updates breaks your hacky keyboard+mouse adaptor for cheating at CoD).

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/ <-- This is the document in question, at the end of it is the list of applicable services:

(Edit: It's very much worth mentioning that "IndianExpress" clearly didn't do any research on this whatsoever. Their source is PC Authority, who in turn syndicated the content from somewhere else. The PC Authority article's source at the very least contains links to the Services Agreement article.)

Account.microsoft.com Advertising.microsoft.com Bing Bing Apps Bing Desktop Bing Dictionary Bing in the Classroom Bing Input Bin […]
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Account.microsoft.com
Advertising.microsoft.com
Bing
Bing Apps
Bing Desktop
Bing Dictionary
Bing in the Classroom
Bing Input
Bing Maps
Bing Navigation
Bing Reader
Bing Rewards
Bing Search app
Bing Toolbar
Bing Torque
Bing Translator
Bing Webmaster
Bing Wikipedia Browser
Bing.com
Bingplaces.com
Choice.microsoft.com
Citizen Next
Cortana
Default Homepage and New Tab Page on Microsoft Edge
Device Health App
HealthVault
Groove
Maps App
Microsoft account
Microsoft Family
Microsoft Health
Microsoft Translator
Microsoft Wallpaper
Microsoft XiaoIce
MSN Dial Up
MSN Explorer
MSN Food & Drink
MSN Health & Fitness
MSN Money
MSN News
MSN Premium
MSN Sports
MSN Travel
MSN Weather
MSN.com
Next Lock Screen
Office 365 Consumer
Office 365 Home
Office 365 Personal
Office 365 University
Office Online
Office Store
Office Sway
Office.com
OneDrive
OneDrive.com
OneNote
Onenote.com
Outlook.com
Picturesque Lock Screen
Pix Lock
Skype
Skype in the Classroom
Skype Manager
Skype Qik
Skype WiFi
Skype.com
Smart Search
Snipp3t
Spreadsheet Keyboard
Sway.com
Translator
UrWeather
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Writer
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Photo Gallery
Xbox and Windows Games published by Microsoft
Xbox Live
Xbox Music
Xbox Music Pass
Xbox Video

Note the absence of Windows 10.

Fucking sick of the Internet this month. So much clickbaity bullshit getting around.

I wonder if Microsoft has a formula for this by now - strategy X will cause Y% of the internet to spaz out.

Also worth noting that there's a huge difference between can and will.

It's weird, Microsoft manages to do stuff that it's perfectly understandable to worry about, but the paranoid still manage to find something entirely crazy to worry about.

The only thing they could potentially disable is their own software that is activated illegaly (Windows, Office, etc).

Considering that they haven't going on 7+ years now then I doubt they'd even bother but hey things can always change.

Oh no! Good thing I'm still on 7! Will be switching to a linux distro sometime as I don't really like M$ to begin with.

Linux is all well and good but it's just not a plausible alternative for gamers and simply lacks the support of 90% of software writers out there. But Microsoft know what every other creator / retailer of digital software in this day and age knows : people can get it all for free. It's a fine line a monopoly walks between charging people obscene levels of money for what is an essential piece of software, and taking it even further to mess with things that do not concern them. I'm pretty sure that billions of Indians, Chinese and Mexicans or whatever who own a PC, not ALL of them shelled out £99 for a copy of Windows XP/7/8. Leave this market entirely to the pirated software scene? They wouldn't even dream of it. Switching a huge percentage of PC users "off the grid" will just open the doorway to alternatives, which will take away market share, etc etc.

How will Windows 10 "know" a pirated version is running?

Does it apply to the newer DRM-games or to all games?

Previously when DVDs and CDs were the main distribution channels, people used to apply the "no-cd exe fix" to help them not to insert a CD or DVD everytime a game is run. So this will apply to that too?

So pirated GOG games won't be affected because there's no DRM and there's no way to distinguish a GOG file downloaded from GOG and other sites?

And how the heck is Win10 going to determine the pirated games? What if Win10 falsely reports legitimate games as pirated?

I feel it's a half-baked statement. And more like a publicity stuff to promote MS's latest OS. Windows is the most targeted platform for pirated stuff since it's easier to work in Windows than Linux. Piracy has been integral to the PCs from the days of floppies.

Piracy to windows is like Yang is to Ying - both co-exist together...

Most pirates hack games...because they can...and they get a kind of gratification from cracking things...

And game hacks have been there from Mario Bros.... 🤣

P.S. I'm using Win10...and I like it... 😉

Malik wrote:

And how the heck is Win10 going to determine the pirated games? What if Win10 falsely reports legitimate games as pirated?

My assumption would be some certificate scheme, where gamedevs would have to buy a permission from Microsoft to run their stuff on Windows 10. So that every now and then it would connect to internet via windows update service, compare itself to its online original in order to update or self-delete.

They told us all the updates would be in the same place, didn't they?

I have read elsewhere that old games with SecuROM and Safedisc DRM won't run at all under W10.

My guess is pirated games refers to ones that use the Xbox services in Windows.

Do read the second post in the thread.