this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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As long as you are using official Microsoft install media downloaded from Microsoft (or verify the hash to ensure what you downloaded matches the official Microsoft isos) then you should be fine.
MAS is just a PowerShell script you run after install. It's open source, and PowerShell scripts aren't compiled, so you can examine it yourself to see what it's doing. It tricks Microsoft servers into issuing your hardware an official "free upgrade" license key. The one I'm familiar with as reliable is MASgrave.
That's not an 100% guarantee that it couldn't be doing anything shady, but it would be incredibly hard for it to hide anything if it was.
Mass grave uses the exact same method as a real Windows validation would. To MS it’s undetectable and if you register your hardware, permanent (unless you swap your motherboard). I have my old NAS registered at the hardware level so no matter how many times I’ve reinstalled Windows, it sticks.
Mass grave is bullet proof and 100% safe. The only way MS can kill it is if they completely retool their Windows registration system and the odds of that are about the same as them making Windows respect your privacy.
TIL about this. My son will be pleased for his gaming rig he's upgrading his MOBO on in a few days.