Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of local PC users running pirated Windows operating systems will soon face the shame of being reminded of their illegal action every time they switch on their machines.

The feature will be added to the operating system by Microsoft Corp from tomorrow and cannot be erased. It will nag the guilty users and can be awkward if it shows up on corporate PCs.

There are about six million Windows PC users in the country, according to industry estimates, while anti-piracy watchdog Business Software Alliance has reported that 61% of all software used in local private businesses is illegal.

Current users of PCs running pirated Windows will find their machines “tattooed” the next time they update the operating system.

Basically, a message stating “This copy of Windows is not genuine ...” will be permanently affixed to the operating system’s login screen, and a similar message will randomly pop up on the desktop whenever the machine is in use.

The anti-piracy move is being kicked off in five countries tomorrow – the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia.

Users whose machines have been affected will only be able to get rid of the tattoo if they install a genuine copy of Windows. Prices range from RM320 for a copy of Windows XP Home (OEM version) to RM510 for Windows XP Pro (OEM version).

“Or they can put up with being ‘nagged’ by the pop-up message every time they use their computers,” said K.T. Ng, group manager for Windows Client solutions at Microsoft Malaysia.

If they were businessmen or corporate executives, it would be embarrassing if their clients saw the tattoo indicating that a pirated copy of Windows was being used, he said.

According to Ng, the move was aimed at better serving Microsoft’s genuine users.

For example, he said, counterfeiters had been able to reproduce Microsoft product packaging to the point where consumers were unable to tell genuine from imitation.

“The pop-up message would immediately alert consumers to counterfeit copies of Windows, such as when they buy a new notebook or PC,” he said.

eGold are aware of this and have said that there is no such software it is a scam to relieve you of $250. Here are the comments made by eGold on this subject.
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There is no such thing a e-gold hacking software. It is a scam in which they will send you a trojan virus that will capture your passphrase and then they will in turn steal your e-gold without providing you any software.

There are three security recommendations we would like to make to you in case you are not currently doing them.

1. You may want to consider book marking the e-gold IP address versus the URL as your e-gold bookmark and only access it via your bookmark.

The IP to bookmark is https://63.240.230.10/.

The reason for doing this is there are viruses such as this one:
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp...n&virus_k=99469

that plant fake entries in the host file which windows then uses instead of the correct IP address for the site.

Using the e-gold IP address versus the URL will bypass this type of Trojan.

***Also, never access your e-gold account via an email message even if the message appears to come from e-gold. ***

2. Always use the SRK feature to access your e-gold account. Never type it in!
You should first change your passphrase using the SRK feature. If your
passphrase is changed using the "SRK" feature and the account is only
accessed using the "SRK" feature, then your passphrase will be protected
even if there is a Trojan virus on your computer.
***However, this is true only if you are at the correct e-gold site.***

To ensure you are always at the correct e-gold site, you may want to click the box next to your account number on the login page that says, "Store my account number on my computer".
In the future when you attempt to log into your account and if the account number is not displayed, you should be wary of entering your passphrase because you may be at a fake e-gold site.

a. Log into your account using your current passphrase.
b. Click on the button that says, "account info"
c. Scroll down to passphrase box and click in the box.
d. Click on the button that says SRK
e. A small window will pop up on your screen
f. Enter your new passphrase by clicking on the numbers, letters or symbols in the pop-up window.
You will see *** being added to the passphrase box as you use your mouse to click on the numbers, letters or symbols. *See note
g. When ready to confirm your passphrase click on the arrow on the bottom right hand corner of the pop-up window.
h. Confirm new passphrase using the same procedure you followed in item #f.
i. Click update passphrase.

*Note: For upper case letter click on the upper case "ABC", for lower case
letters click on the lower case "abc", for numbers click on the "123", for
symbols click on the "sym"

3. If you are making a spend via the e-gold shopping cart interface (SCI)
always confirm you at the actual e-gold site. To verify you are at the
actual e-gold site when using the SCI spend page, double click on the gold
security lock and verify that the certificate was issued to www.e-gold.com
and that the certificate was issued by verisign and is valid from 11/24/2003
- 11/24/2004. You can also review the certificate details and make sure the
certificate serial number is: 2E04 2C20 8789 DEDB 656C A173 AD92 BFEE.

Thank you,
e-gold Service
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Regards

Dave