Pirated Windows XP Will Experience "Blackout" Tomorrow

Starting Tomorrow (Wednesday), if you are using pirated copies of Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system on your computer and connect to the Internet, your computer display is going be "blacked out" and the screen icons on your computer will not be visible, warned Microsoft Malaysia.

According to news reports, of the approximately 8.6 million users of Windows XP Pro in Malaysia, about 3 million are pirated copies and expected to experience the “blackouts".

If you are using a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro and your computer experience a blackout, you can get your computer working normally by resetting the desktop background, then everything will return to normal. But after 1 hour, the black screen will reappear and you must reset the desktop background again. This will keep hapening until you purchase a genuine Windows XP Pro from Microsoft currently sold at RM580.

Apparently pirated Windows XP Home edition will not be affected by this, as yet. Microsoft is targeting businesses first, and letting home users off the hook, for the mean time.

Note that Microsoft has stopped selling Windows XP Pro in the market, so you may have to buy Windows Vista instead. If your computer cannot run Windows Vista, then you'd have to buy a new computer or upgrade your current computer.

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