Microsoft has dealt a major blow to one of the most widespread piracy schemes used to activate Windows and Office.
Following the November update, the KMS38 tool — relied upon for years by users around the world — stopped working practically overnight.
The change came from a patch embedded directly into the operating system. Microsoft revised the internal license-validation routine that previously allowed Windows to be tricked by a spoofed KMS server response, which had kept unauthorized activations valid through 2038.
After the update many users noticed their activations were lost and began receiving prompts to purchase an official license. The Massgrave team, authors of KMS38, confirmed the exploit is now effectively dead.
They say KMS38 gained traction not only because it operated offline, but also due to its open-source status, which made it appear safer than dubious activators.
Microsoft is tightening control over the Windows ecosystem, limiting offline installations and pushing users to link their system to an online account.
Source: iXBT.games