back to article China's web giants unite to defuse Windows XP bombshell

A gaggle of Chinese web firms have come together with a plan to protect Windows XP users in the Middle Kingdom for at least the next two or three years, according to local reports. The unusual step will see messaging giant Tencent, search engine Sogou, software company Kingsoft and several others offer technical support for XP …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Ole Juul

    Progress?

    I'm not sure that Microsoft will ever really get a grip on China. I just found this 2007 article on CNN.com.

    By 2001, Microsoft executives were coming to the conclusion that China's weak IP-enforcement laws meant its usual pricing strategies were doomed to fail. Gates argued at the time that while it was terrible that people in China pirated so much software, if they were going to pirate anybody's software he'd certainly prefer it be Microsoft's.

    Today Gates openly concedes that tolerating piracy turned out to be Microsoft's best long-term strategy. That's why Windows is used on an estimated 90% of China's 120 million PCs. "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. "Are you kidding? You can get the real thing, and you get the same price." Indeed, in China's back alleys, Linux often costs more than Windows because it requires more disks. And Microsoft's own prices have dropped so low it now sells a $3 package of Windows and Office to students.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Progress?

      "Microsoft's own prices have dropped so low it now sells a $3 package of Windows and Office to students."

      So, in this world of global companies, global markets and global choice of (low) tax regimes, why can't I buy Windows and Office for $3 from China, eh? eh? eh?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Progress?

        You can. But it is the Chinese language version, so there may be a learning curve.

  2. frank ly

    Just wondering ...

    " ...the Chinese government has tried to intervene by persuading Redmond to continue support for the legacy OS."

    Did they intervene, in any useful way, to prevent the use of pirated XP installations?

    (I am not a Windows fanboi and I do know how easy it was/is to clone an XP installation or get a key.)

    1. dogged

      Re: Just wondering ...

      > (I am not a Windows fanboi and I do know how easy it was/is to clone an XP installation or get a key.)

      You don't need to be any kind of fanboy to know that it's ridiculously easy. If you're an admin or on support duties or just need to test on XP VMs a lot, you pretty soon find out that you can either

      a - go through the continued pain in the arse Windows Genuine Advantage(?!) hassle all the time or

      b - disable WGA, disable WGA updates and throw it a cracked key

  3. Mage Silver badge

    Maybe

    These guys will be repackaging XP Embedded updates. Which are till 2016 or later I think.

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

      Re: Maybe

      I suppose it depends if they have access to the source code as well, I can't see it being done without some form of access to the operating systems source code (Not sure how much access MS give these days).

      1. JP19

        Re: Maybe

        "I suppose it depends if they have access to the source code as well"

        I keep saying that patching with the owners consent a newly discovered vulnerability in Windows is lot easier than coming up with a scheme to exploit it without the owners consent. The people exploiting the vulnerability don't have source code either (except maybe the NSA :)).

        Well done China's web giants for understanding and organizing a cheap solution to the problem.

      2. Jordan Davenport

        Re: Maybe

        You really don't need source code to repackage a compatible binary, drop it on the system, and write the required registry keys and configuration data.

        Years ago, as a teenager, I played around with turning a spare Server 2003 license I had into a workstation since it ran better than XP overall. Restoring features missing from it as compared to XP was as simple as modifying registry values and a few INI files and inserting the XP disc as the installation source. Likewise, installing features such as the Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder to Server 2003 was similarly simple.

        And don't forget about Windows Embedded 2009. I'm not sure whether it's NT 5.1 or 5.2, but most of the updates should probably still be compatible with XP. That said, redistributing these updates in a way not approved by official sources probably breaks copyright law in most countries, but...

  4. M7S

    Lets face it

    If anyone (other than the NSA) knows how to find any vulnerabilities in (any version of) Windows, then given their resources, my money would be on the Chinese.

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Bladeforce

    Oh what a twisted web Microsoft weave

    1. dogged

      > Oh what a twisted web Microsoft weave

      When they make an OS and then support it for over 13 years in production.

      Hold on, that's not Shakespeare.

  7. G2
    Mushroom

    support WinXP? maybe with EMET.. unfortunately no longer a solution

    without access to WinXP source code i don't see how they can provide updates... maybe they thought they could rely on Microsoft's EMET ?

    i'ts already been bypassed, even on latest windows OS's

    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/02/25/0139202/complete-microsoft-emet-bypass-developed

    quote: "Researchers took a real-world IE exploit and tweaked it until they had a complete bypass of EMET's ROP, heap spray, SEHOP, ASLR, and DEP mitigations"

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like