Hi Michael, this "customer satisfaction" is because people that will call will relate the problem with Microsoft not with the seller directly. My brother in law use to work for M$ Brazil, and this is in fact what Microsoft has decided to do... People buy pirate software online, looking like legit, and will call to complaint, to avoid the negative "Microsoft doesn't help/Microsoft products sucks" from customers it's just easier to activate it and have a good customer experience.
Yeah that lines up with what the MS employee told me. I figured they just do it to avoid any complaints that the customer will just associate with Microsoft even though the software is counterfeit.
One time I bought a real windows 10 key from best buy and the key wasn't working, I called the REAL microsoft support and I know the key was real because it was from best buy and I know the support was real because it was the real microsoft website I got the phone number from, well anyway I call and I get a support rep for India who, after spending like 40 Minutes on the phone with, proceeds to tell me they can't activate it because its invalid, this was obviously not true but they still wouldn't activate it like billions of people use windows every day and a lot of people just crack it and call it a day but I buy it and they tell me they can't activate it not to mention I had to wait like 20 Minutes just to speak with someone that whole "Good customer experience" Act is bs
@@justananimefan1570 Where are you from, doesn't your country has a Local Support Line, here in Brazil we call Microsoft Brazil. I've a lot of experience with this kind of relation since I've called than many times for many different problems not only on personal matters but also on professional too, so I can't really complaint about Microsoft support, they have always helped me.
You got more out of Microsoft on how this system works than I did as a genuine Volume Licence customer. We used to get physical copies of the products we had on volume licence and the keys were in the binder with them. One time our premises were broken into and this binder along with multiple, (thankfully encrypted) laptops, was stolen. On contacting the volume licence centre they reissued all of our keys with new ones. I had a note of the old ones in an excel spreadsheet and periodically checked them in the volume activation management tool. They were never used, but they were also never deactivated and kept their full count of activations. So it seems Microsoft are pretty relaxed on this whole thing tbh. Brian from tech yes city did an episode on buying cheap windows 10 keys and the outcome from Microsoft seemed to be "as long as it activates we don't really care". They already have their money I guess.
On Office 2007 and 2010, the UPC bar code is on the seal covering the plastic box. So when you get the box they scan the top of it. Then you get it home, peel off the shrink-wrap, slide the plastic box out, and break the top seal, before you can open it. I installed dozens of Offices when I worked at Best Buy from 2008 to 2012 when people would buy them.
The odd QR Code on the back of the box was a proprietary format developed by Microsoft for the same types of purposes QR codes and Aztec codes were made
...And was there when what we know as Smartphones today (that is, Android/iOs based) were in its infancy, so if they had printed a QR on the box, the chances of many people actually reading it with their phones were rather slim, so what matters if they used their proprietary thingy instead.
Thought the same thing. I even remember in college programming courses being taught about them and expected to use them for some stupid thing, surely in a desperate attempt by the university's corporate overlord Micro$haft to make them relavant. Makes me wonder why Microsoft in particular is so useless at innovating - not to say they never have, but these days they just can't do it. Everything from their mobile efforts to Windows on arm are all just a total wash, in stark contrast to Apple, who seem to be quite good at not only implementing relavant changes, but pushing the entire computer industry to do so. USB-C, for example... guarantee would have never happened because the PC side is *so* incredibly resistant to change, even when it benefits the entire industry.
@@dregenius Well usb-c was already a big thing in mobile and laptop markets before apple got onboard. Apple doesn't really innovate anymore they take whats already a proven technology and adopts it improving and popularizing it (mag safe comes to mind, wireless charging was a thing in android since at least 2015). Apple has a cult like following that Microsoft simply doesn't have (thank god) that's why Apple has easier time pushing new technologies to mass markets.
@@dregenius What are you two talking about? QR codes are used every day, in England when you go into a bar or restaurant you scan the QR code to sign yourself in for contact tracing. Every smart phone has a built in QR checker from within the camera.
I remember a quote from Bill Gates where he said something along the lines of: People will pirate software no matter what, so we want them to pirate OUR software. We will get money from them in different ways sooner or later. And I guess he had a point: If people pirate Microsoft products, then it still means they won't use the software of a competitor, so that's still one foot in the door. He also didn't mean to sue owners of private copies (like: You could still buy this from eBay or wherever in good faith, hence Microsoft just unblocking the keys), but he meant: Sooner or later those people, who pirated a Microsoft product, might buy another product from Microsoft. And this wouldn't happen if they didn't pirate Microsoft software before. Anyway, tl;dr: I used to get product keys from MSDN-AA when I was a student, which was pretty cool. And I could get Office 2010 for like 50 bucks, which was an amazing price (keep in mind: This was when Office 2010 still was the newest version of Office). But it didn't work quite as Gates planned for me: I switched over to Linux a few years ago. Now I only ever use Windows at work.
I worked for the VL team at msft for some time and also got access to the tool the msft employee used. basically when installing a VL key there is basically a soft lock (like when you have 100 activations and used around 110 its ok) a hard lock (well, 130-150 activations) and then we are able to manually reset the key or even issue a new one (that only happens when you have a valid purchase invoice or sth to legitimate though).
3:24 That is actually Microsoft Tag or HCCB. Its killed by Microsoft in August 19,2015. High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) is a technology developed by Microsoft for encoding data in a 2D barcode using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels conventionally associated with 2D barcodes or QR codes.
Bootleg plastic things are often made in the real molds, just with cheaper materials, if the original product is already made in China. No need to make an inferior mold when you can use the real deal and make a few extra bucks at night :)
Yeah it was a massive pain before to have to phone MS. Thankfully though, they can now automatically text you a link to your phone that will GREATLY speed up the process. It's so much better now.
Idea for a strange video: LibreOffice and Microsoft Office. Some folks claim that MS Office is just miles beyond better than LibreOffice is terms of functionality, usability, familiarity, and Font Kerning, idk the real reason.
LibreOffice up until VERY recently used to have shitty kerning and general display bugs on Windows. Like, it was astounding how long that issue went before it FINALLY got fixed.
I know someone who purchased an iMac and they installed a paid copy of MS Office purchased from the Apple Store (and the Apple Store installed it for him fresh from the box). When he got home someone called him pretending to be Apple or Microsoft saying they noticed issues with Office and needed to remote into his new Mac to fix it. Turned out the Apple Store purchased loads of these fake Office copies - when they realised what happened they removed all the Office boxes from the shelves.
The biggest problem I have faced with my Office 2010 activation code is finding out years later that it is counterfeit. If they do not tell you in the beginning that there is a problem with the code then you cannot challenge the credit charge.
Yes, you can easily tell which one is real but on an eBay listing, I might have made the same mistake. However in the thrift store when you can pick up the item and examine it I would be able to spot a fake and if I was unsure I would try and peel the hologram, an excellent idea. :)
Office 97 was pretty good, but I use Libre Office these days. The only MS office product I still use is Publisher 97 which is still awesome today (Though it won't run on 64-bit systems without a bit of screwing around)
Well done Michael, very interesting video and a nice to know when buying so called legit software on the net....I usually buy my stuff or in the store or directly from Ms as most of the time cheap prices on the net are fake products or keys. Thx for the research :-)
I imagine the reason for there not being barcodes on the boxes is due to the original product being wrapped in some kind of film at the store and having a sticker on there. The inner case would need to be held inside the cardboard shell somehow, but that's just a theory.
We once had a customer come by with a "shrink-wrapped" box of office 365 he bought somewhere. We had troubles activating it and office support had to logmein to his computer and confidentially tell us via notepad that the key has already been used and activated. I took a look at our Office 365 boxes and not only was the plastic packaging different (the plastic wrapping is folded in on the spine and in some corners), the colors seem to be faded as well. It's either a genuine counterfeit or the box was opened and then shrink-wrapped after using the key.
When I was working in a Reprographics department, I was asked to produce a form on deep pink card, but because it was so difficult to get a clean copy from the original card, I was forced into measuring, setting up tables and text frames to make a "quality forged" copy of the original form.
It was in a UK government department and the form was only made legitimate by an approved person’s stamp on the form after it was written on in the appropriate places. It goes back to when Windows NT and Serif Page Plus was used to create the form. So as it was an electronic template, any time another copy of the form was required, I was able to print it on deep pink card.
actually that sticker thing that is in the official copy from the Microsoft store isn't a anti theft device its actually product tracking device aka a RFID they use that to track how much inventory is in the store
Nope. It's for anti theft, not inventory tracking. The black logo on that white tag looks to be the "reaching hand with cross hairs" logo of sensormatic, a major anti-shoplifting system provider.
I have a 100% legit retail copy of Office 2010 Professional (Dutch version) and there is NO barcode on the box. There are only barcodes on the product sticker sealing the shell.
No need to do that in this case. If you watch the previous videos you would see that the three disks all have different editions on them. The genuine one would obviously have Professional, yet the first bootleg has Standard and the second has Pro Plus.
I’m not sure how the Office suite operates with MAKs, but with the Windows OS MAKs phone home and an activation will time out after a number of weeks, technically returning the license to the MAK pool. Whether or not the software will bark at you saying the activation is no longer valid is kind of luck of the draw. The UPCs for this generation of MSFT products is usually printed on a label that seals the spine, and sometimes can also be found on the COA label.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In my case, I acquired numerous unopened copies of old versions of Office from past jobs. I’ve never had any reason to run anything newer than Office 97 (which works fine with the 2007 compatibility pack if I ever need to access the newer file formats, which is very rare.) Most of the time, though, I’m perfectly content with (and prefer) good old version 4.3, which works even on Windows 3.1.
I too prefer the older editions, 4.3 for very old machines and OfficeXP for newer. (Mainly because some bugs went away by that point, especially in the Frontpage module)
@@Reziac A big bonus in keeping my files in the old formats is that I’ll always be able to access them on newer versions if needed. Therefore, I try to stick with the oldest feasible version as often as possible for maximum compatibility, unless I need a specific feature from something newer (like merged cells in Excel 97, though I prefer to avoid that buggy feature whenever possible.)
97 was great. With the toolbar as well hehe. To the day I still go: file, page setup when I want to change paper size even though that's no longer the correct method lol
@@DavidWonn Yeah, given a choice I save in older and universal formats, like RTF. Or old .DOC, which if corrupted can still be edited as plain text. DOCX (and its bastard cousin used by LibreOffice) is an invention of the devil... it's a ZIP file with a bunch of XML inside, and if the ZIP header gets corrupted, the text is not recoverable. I have a client who lost an entire finished novel that way (it looked good when it saved, but it wasn't, and the backup, being a copy of this one, was corrupt the same way). I'm pretty good at file recovery, and all I could extract from it was a background image.
@@barrybritcher Fortunately some of the old keyboard shortcuts work in more current versions (provided you memorized them in advance), though they often aren’t as easily discoverable anymore. I never adapted to the newer ribbon UI from 2007 onward, finding it quite cumbersome, so I often find myself being far more efficient on a 486 running the old UI.
I'm super late to this party, but I've heard that sometimes companies that are contracted to manufacture genuine packaging/parts will make extras to use for knockoffs. Since the bootleg copy with the convincing plastic case was bought in a thrift store, it could have a been a few years old. I wonder if it was a bootleg produced off the same production line as the originals...
Cool! Btw MJD what is the story of the Windows startup sounds? Some videos have "FAKE" startup and shutdown sounds (Windows server 2003, NT 5.0 and LongHorn) Can you make a video to clarify this confusion?
I just reinstalled Office XP (Photo Editor only) and Office 2003 on a new motherboard & hard drive, along with a new copy of Windows 7. I was able to do it online without calling Microsoft. The trick to activating Office (older versions, at least) is that Internet Explorer must be the default browser.
They don't even need a video. Just one genuine copy to compare. lol They just do not care though if they're selling enough copies to make bank (which they probably are).
Crazy the lengths the bootleggers will go. About a year ago I had bought a Shure SM58 microphone on eBay for a price that seemed too good to be true. It worked, maybe not quite as high quality as I'd expected -- so recently after a search on how to tell a fake I found out mine was indeed a fake -- a pretty good fake, but still a fake!
I have a copy of Office Home and Student 2010, which curiously enough includes the Hindi language pack (on a separate disc, the main installation disc has the English version on it) My copy doesn’t have a barcode on the box either (but it did have a software authenticity sticker on the top)
In fact the last Warez leak of Windows betas was around the year 2000 or 2001 depending on your source (5:24), which is why these betas previously but later lost haven't been found yet and are unlikely to resurface. (5:42)
2:46 You know how he mentioned that Microsoft doesn't allow employees to resell stuff bought at the company store? Well, that's actually illegal (allegedly) in the EU. IDK for sure, but from what I've read, there's a law in the EU that could be thought of as "Right to resell", that prohibits companies from banning resale of anything, no matter what. So, had that been in the EU, they would be required by EU law to allow its resale. Again, I can't confirm this with 100% certainty. If someone from Europe sees this and wants to fact check me, go ahead.
The wavy outer ring design makes it easier to spot a counterfeit copy, as you can easily peel it off. It would be harder if the printed layer covered the entire surface, even if it's fake. Did Microsoft actually come up with that idea and did it on purpose as an extra check that could be easily verified by users in pesky looking cases?
On your logic if they recyle the geniue plastic box why not recycle the paper cover as well? That would save a lof of trouble of making fake cover image. The bootleg plastic case is made in manufacture in China with standard material or easily to be duplicated I suppose, it's not rocket science to mold a plastic.
Next bootleg dive- Windows 10 OEM keys. My dad almost fell victim to 2 bootleg Win10 keys when he was building a computer from scratch. When he got me to look at it, I noticed the odd behaviour the system was showing (not installing drivers correctly, programs being extremely flakey and glitchy) that I said that the install drive and key seemed to be bootleg (although the Win10 key activated (another mass activation key?)), so he managed to get his money back from Amazon, where he bought the keys and bought a new key from a trusted retailer, OverClockersUK and it just worked, all drivers and programs installing and running correctly first time.
If you have to use phone activation on that product key for the ms employee to override the activation limit the employee should tell the caller they are activating non genuine software
Hi Michael, this "customer satisfaction" is because people that will call will relate the problem with Microsoft not with the seller directly. My brother in law use to work for M$ Brazil, and this is in fact what Microsoft has decided to do... People buy pirate software online, looking like legit, and will call to complaint, to avoid the negative "Microsoft doesn't help/Microsoft products sucks" from customers it's just easier to activate it and have a good customer experience.
Yeah that lines up with what the MS employee told me. I figured they just do it to avoid any complaints that the customer will just associate with Microsoft even though the software is counterfeit.
One time I bought a real windows 10 key from best buy and the key wasn't working, I called the REAL microsoft support and I know the key was real because it was from best buy and I know the support was real because it was the real microsoft website
I got the phone number from, well anyway I call and I get a support rep for India who, after spending like 40 Minutes on the phone with, proceeds to tell me they can't activate it because its invalid, this was obviously not true but they still wouldn't activate it
like billions of people use windows every day and a lot of people just crack it and call it a day but I buy it and they tell me they can't activate it not to mention I had to wait like 20 Minutes just to speak with someone
that whole "Good customer experience" Act is bs
@@justananimefan1570 Where are you from, doesn't your country has a Local Support Line, here in Brazil we call Microsoft Brazil. I've a lot of experience with this kind of relation since I've called than many times for many different problems not only on personal matters but also on professional too, so I can't really complaint about Microsoft support, they have always helped me.
I like that Microsoft does this
This is one of the best tech channels on TH-cam
True
Thanks so much!
True
And you are one of the best OSes
@@dani.munoz.a23 Also true
Man flexing all of his microsoft office 2010 's
and only one copy is actually genuine
@@markusTegelane only one unit is genuine
Yes. But its only video, not flexing.
@@microsoftjuice5428 I agree
@@Gui2226 de mi vida
Imagine being the guy who has to block the product keys
"Alright Jim, here's today's report. 50 keys from eBay to block"
"Just kill me already"
Well I'm sure he gets paid well for work or maybe it's partly automated.
its office 2010,not a big deal for microsoft,a 11 yo sa ftware,not latest office
@@bokexd3173 but the fact that the id in the first place was blocked means something
They probably image - to -text the bootleg products, then plug them all into a program
Just use Libre Office - No keys, no BS
19:03 - X16-11455-01 is the SKU for Office Professional 2010; X16-11459-01 is the SKU for Office Home & Student 2010
You got more out of Microsoft on how this system works than I did as a genuine Volume Licence customer.
We used to get physical copies of the products we had on volume licence and the keys were in the binder with them. One time our premises were broken into and this binder along with multiple, (thankfully encrypted) laptops, was stolen.
On contacting the volume licence centre they reissued all of our keys with new ones. I had a note of the old ones in an excel spreadsheet and periodically checked them in the volume activation management tool. They were never used, but they were also never deactivated and kept their full count of activations. So it seems Microsoft are pretty relaxed on this whole thing tbh.
Brian from tech yes city did an episode on buying cheap windows 10 keys and the outcome from Microsoft seemed to be "as long as it activates we don't really care". They already have their money I guess.
They especially don't care with 10 too because the big play for them is to force everyone onto it just by sheer mass market influence.
The end to one of the most interesting series on the channel
Yep
he could do more bootleg videos
On Office 2007 and 2010, the UPC bar code is on the seal covering the plastic box. So when you get the box they scan the top of it. Then you get it home, peel off the shrink-wrap, slide the plastic box out, and break the top seal, before you can open it. I installed dozens of Offices when I worked at Best Buy from 2008 to 2012 when people would buy them.
The odd QR Code on the back of the box was a proprietary format developed by Microsoft for the same types of purposes QR codes and Aztec codes were made
It was called 'Microsoft Tag'
...And was there when what we know as Smartphones today (that is, Android/iOs based) were in its infancy, so if they had printed a QR on the box, the chances of many people actually reading it with their phones were rather slim, so what matters if they used their proprietary thingy instead.
It’s not QR, like you said it is Aztec.
03:30 oh god I remember a few years ago they really tried to make those weird QR codes into a big thing, guessing it didn’t work out
Thought the same thing. I even remember in college programming courses being taught about them and expected to use them for some stupid thing, surely in a desperate attempt by the university's corporate overlord Micro$haft to make them relavant. Makes me wonder why Microsoft in particular is so useless at innovating - not to say they never have, but these days they just can't do it. Everything from their mobile efforts to Windows on arm are all just a total wash, in stark contrast to Apple, who seem to be quite good at not only implementing relavant changes, but pushing the entire computer industry to do so. USB-C, for example... guarantee would have never happened because the PC side is *so* incredibly resistant to change, even when it benefits the entire industry.
@@Ndlanding i have a lumia 520 with windows 10 mobile installed and the spellchecker is incredible and the swiping keyboard is really awesome
lol ruffles chips had those
now they dont lmao
@@dregenius Well usb-c was already a big thing in mobile and laptop markets before apple got onboard. Apple doesn't really innovate anymore they take whats already a proven technology and adopts it improving and popularizing it (mag safe comes to mind, wireless charging was a thing in android since at least 2015). Apple has a cult like following that Microsoft simply doesn't have (thank god) that's why Apple has easier time pushing new technologies to mass markets.
@@dregenius What are you two talking about? QR codes are used every day, in England when you go into a bar or restaurant you scan the QR code to sign yourself in for contact tracing. Every smart phone has a built in QR checker from within the camera.
I remember a quote from Bill Gates where he said something along the lines of: People will pirate software no matter what, so we want them to pirate OUR software. We will get money from them in different ways sooner or later.
And I guess he had a point: If people pirate Microsoft products, then it still means they won't use the software of a competitor, so that's still one foot in the door. He also didn't mean to sue owners of private copies (like: You could still buy this from eBay or wherever in good faith, hence Microsoft just unblocking the keys), but he meant: Sooner or later those people, who pirated a Microsoft product, might buy another product from Microsoft. And this wouldn't happen if they didn't pirate Microsoft software before.
Anyway, tl;dr: I used to get product keys from MSDN-AA when I was a student, which was pretty cool. And I could get Office 2010 for like 50 bucks, which was an amazing price (keep in mind: This was when Office 2010 still was the newest version of Office).
But it didn't work quite as Gates planned for me: I switched over to Linux a few years ago. Now I only ever use Windows at work.
I worked for the VL team at msft for some time and also got access to the tool the msft employee used. basically when installing a VL key there is basically a soft lock (like when you have 100 activations and used around 110 its ok) a hard lock (well, 130-150 activations) and then we are able to manually reset the key or even issue a new one (that only happens when you have a valid purchase invoice or sth to legitimate though).
3:24
That is actually Microsoft Tag or HCCB.
Its killed by Microsoft in August 19,2015.
High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) is a technology developed by Microsoft for encoding data in a 2D barcode using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels conventionally associated with 2D barcodes or QR codes.
Bootleg plastic things are often made in the real molds, just with cheaper materials, if the original product is already made in China. No need to make an inferior mold when you can use the real deal and make a few extra bucks at night :)
Another episode in the soap opera: Day's of our Office! 😁😁😁👍👍👍
Like bootlegs through the hourglass, these are the Days of our Office. DahDah Dah daaah daah dah duhdah da da...
"do not lend or make illegal copies" written on conterfeit discs.
ah, the irony.
also the letter 'i' in the word office on the side is connected with 'f' on second bootleg but not on the first bootleg and the legit one
Imagine if in the next Bootleg's manual it would say: "SUFTAR" instead of software or saftware lmao
saftwar
@@notthatntg ateer
scfter
We Don’t Have Windows 7
We Got Glass 6.9
Man, I miss the clapper in the background. I love trying to find it in the video's like a where's waldo with clappers.
Where's Clapdo. (or as it should have been known in some countries, Where Claply?)
I love the Weekly uploads
I haven't had to phone Microsoft in years, it was always a pain when you had to reactive XP.
Yeah it was a massive pain before to have to phone MS. Thankfully though, they can now automatically text you a link to your phone that will GREATLY speed up the process. It's so much better now.
Office Standard 2010 was also only obtainable via volume licensing, like Pro Plus. It is one of those editions no longer being sold today
This video is worth of the best place any video can be: watch while eating playlist
Idea for a strange video: LibreOffice and Microsoft Office. Some folks claim that MS Office is just miles beyond better than LibreOffice is terms of functionality, usability, familiarity, and Font Kerning, idk the real reason.
LibreOffice up until VERY recently used to have shitty kerning and general display bugs on Windows. Like, it was astounding how long that issue went before it FINALLY got fixed.
@@lilianrousselot2927 Microsoft Office also has plugins, just saying...
if you look at the real copy the hologram only reflects the light of the layer that is reflecting light .The bootleg reflects multiple layers at once
Funnily enough, the more used a Microsoft product looks, the more likely it is that it's actually genuine. lol
If you press the 0 key repeatedly he says "Pull over! pull over! pull over! pull over! pull over!" 😆
Plot twist: this copy is also a bootleg
I know someone who purchased an iMac and they installed a paid copy of MS Office purchased from the Apple Store (and the Apple Store installed it for him fresh from the box). When he got home someone called him pretending to be Apple or Microsoft saying they noticed issues with Office and needed to remote into his new Mac to fix it. Turned out the Apple Store purchased loads of these fake Office copies - when they realised what happened they removed all the Office boxes from the shelves.
The biggest problem I have faced with my Office 2010 activation code is finding out years later that it is counterfeit. If they do not tell you in the beginning that there is a problem with the code then you cannot challenge the credit charge.
I'm waiting for a bootleg software series, this was very interesting!
Yes, you can easily tell which one is real but on an eBay listing, I might have made the same mistake. However in the thrift store when you can pick up the item and examine it I would be able to spot a fake and if I was unsure I would try and peel the hologram, an excellent idea. :)
Still rocking that Office 2007 myself that came with my computer
Office 97 was pretty good, but I use Libre Office these days. The only MS office product I still use is Publisher 97 which is still awesome today (Though it won't run on 64-bit systems without a bit of screwing around)
Well done Michael, very interesting video and a nice to know when buying so called legit software on the net....I usually buy my stuff or in the store or directly from Ms as most of the time cheap prices on the net are fake products or keys. Thx for the research :-)
michael's editing is on fleek
I’m so happy when you post a video I love your videos so much you are my#1 tech youtuber in my favorites keep doing the good work
I imagine the reason for there not being barcodes on the boxes is due to the original product being wrapped in some kind of film at the store and having a sticker on there. The inner case would need to be held inside the cardboard shell somehow, but that's just a theory.
We once had a customer come by with a "shrink-wrapped" box of office 365 he bought somewhere. We had troubles activating it and office support had to logmein to his computer and confidentially tell us via notepad that the key has already been used and activated.
I took a look at our Office 365 boxes and not only was the plastic packaging different (the plastic wrapping is folded in on the spine and in some corners), the colors seem to be faded as well. It's either a genuine counterfeit or the box was opened and then shrink-wrapped after using the key.
Congrats on finally getting a legit copy of a now unsupported Office version!
When I was working in a Reprographics department, I was asked to produce a form on deep pink card, but because it was so difficult to get a clean copy from the original card, I was forced into measuring, setting up tables and text frames to make a "quality forged" copy of the original form.
Which repographics department?
It was in a UK government department and the form was only made legitimate by an approved person’s stamp on the form after it was written on in the appropriate places.
It goes back to when Windows NT and Serif Page Plus was used to create the form. So as it was an electronic template, any time another copy of the form was required, I was able to print it on deep pink card.
@@robertfoster6070 Thank you for replying :) - I was so confused why you needed to do such a process lol
actually that sticker thing that is in the official copy from the Microsoft store isn't a anti theft device its actually product tracking device aka a RFID they use that to track how much inventory is in the store
that makes more sense..having RFID theft prevention in the company store would be very very strange..
Nope. It's for anti theft, not inventory tracking. The black logo on that white tag looks to be the "reaching hand with cross hairs" logo of sensormatic, a major anti-shoplifting system provider.
I have a 100% legit retail copy of Office 2010 Professional (Dutch version) and there is NO barcode on the box. There are only barcodes on the product sticker sealing the shell.
I guess barcode or not depends on where you buy it from.
13:16 made me want lunchables... Looks like 3 lunchable boxes
you know it's a good day when you hear "Hello everybody and welcome back to another video" in a recognizable tone
One last thing that would be interesting to do is a hash comparison of the different CDs.
No need to do that in this case. If you watch the previous videos you would see that the three disks all have different editions on them. The genuine one would obviously have Professional, yet the first bootleg has Standard and the second has Pro Plus.
@@davidlee9074 Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I was thinking one of them was the same.
I’m not sure how the Office suite operates with MAKs, but with the Windows OS MAKs phone home and an activation will time out after a number of weeks, technically returning the license to the MAK pool. Whether or not the software will bark at you saying the activation is no longer valid is kind of luck of the draw.
The UPCs for this generation of MSFT products is usually printed on a label that seals the spine, and sometimes can also be found on the COA label.
13:18 This just reminds me of the "Urine Coloring" test.
Guy in the middle is best.
The font on the spine is also slightly different. Look at the ligature for "ffi" on the bootleg copy
Awesome video, Michael!
Thanks!
Watching you shuffle these around and 3-card Montying yourself was fun.
Bootleg copy sellers after seeing this video
"Write that down
Write that down"
2:11 the zooming is hilarious.
love the new editing style, makes me laugh like craszy
Love your videos and keep up the hard work.
the end of a fascinating topic
So, were you able to activate the genuine copy?
biggest things that blows it away are grammar mistakes
most people simply don't remember the colors
Horray! Another Saftware video! Looking forward for that Windows Server 2003 video!
you mean Windows Serv r 2003 video!
thank you for this nice video of bootlegs . Great work .
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In my case, I acquired numerous unopened copies of old versions of Office from past jobs. I’ve never had any reason to run anything newer than Office 97 (which works fine with the 2007 compatibility pack if I ever need to access the newer file formats, which is very rare.) Most of the time, though, I’m perfectly content with (and prefer) good old version 4.3, which works even on Windows 3.1.
I too prefer the older editions, 4.3 for very old machines and OfficeXP for newer. (Mainly because some bugs went away by that point, especially in the Frontpage module)
@@Reziac A big bonus in keeping my files in the old formats is that I’ll always be able to access them on newer versions if needed. Therefore, I try to stick with the oldest feasible version as often as possible for maximum compatibility, unless I need a specific feature from something newer (like merged cells in Excel 97, though I prefer to avoid that buggy feature whenever possible.)
97 was great. With the toolbar as well hehe. To the day I still go: file, page setup when I want to change paper size even though that's no longer the correct method lol
@@DavidWonn Yeah, given a choice I save in older and universal formats, like RTF. Or old .DOC, which if corrupted can still be edited as plain text. DOCX (and its bastard cousin used by LibreOffice) is an invention of the devil... it's a ZIP file with a bunch of XML inside, and if the ZIP header gets corrupted, the text is not recoverable. I have a client who lost an entire finished novel that way (it looked good when it saved, but it wasn't, and the backup, being a copy of this one, was corrupt the same way). I'm pretty good at file recovery, and all I could extract from it was a background image.
@@barrybritcher Fortunately some of the old keyboard shortcuts work in more current versions (provided you memorized them in advance), though they often aren’t as easily discoverable anymore. I never adapted to the newer ribbon UI from 2007 onward, finding it quite cumbersome, so I often find myself being far more efficient on a 486 running the old UI.
this is amazing channel,i enjoy watching most of your videos
I Think Microsoft Saftware Need To Sue these people
The one with Office lower on the spine also clearly has the i of Office attached to the f
I'm super late to this party, but I've heard that sometimes companies that are contracted to manufacture genuine packaging/parts will make extras to use for knockoffs. Since the bootleg copy with the convincing plastic case was bought in a thrift store, it could have a been a few years old. I wonder if it was a bootleg produced off the same production line as the originals...
Company stores aren't at all campuses. In the Seattle area, the only one is at the Redmond campus. I don't know about other places.
Cool! Btw MJD what is the story of the Windows startup sounds? Some videos have "FAKE" startup and shutdown sounds (Windows server 2003, NT 5.0 and LongHorn) Can you make a video to clarify this confusion?
I just reinstalled Office XP (Photo Editor only) and Office 2003 on a new motherboard & hard drive, along with a new copy of Windows 7. I was able to do it online without calling Microsoft. The trick to activating Office (older versions, at least) is that Internet Explorer must be the default browser.
If Microsoft detects a product key has been pirated or reaches activation limit, they will block it
People who make those after seeing this video:
"Write that down! Write that down!"
They don't even need a video. Just one genuine copy to compare. lol They just do not care though if they're selling enough copies to make bank (which they probably are).
Crazy the lengths the bootleggers will go. About a year ago I had bought a Shure SM58 microphone on eBay for a price that seemed too good to be true. It worked, maybe not quite as high quality as I'd expected -- so recently after a search on how to tell a fake I found out mine was indeed a fake -- a pretty good fake, but still a fake!
2:40 and other places too, they are just rare. ex. There’s one at Stanford in the bay area
You are my favourite TH-camr!!!!
Sa ftware
@@kellychrispapa4121 k
I really appreciate that, thank you!
My favourite Office version is Office 2010, i had it pre-installed on my laptop (Windows 7 home basic)
The best kind of saftware
I have a copy of Office Home and Student 2010, which curiously enough includes the Hindi language pack (on a separate disc, the main installation disc has the English version on it)
My copy doesn’t have a barcode on the box either (but it did have a software authenticity sticker on the top)
6:02 - That's not surprising, it's happened many times. Remember when Devil's Own leaked XP before it was even released and they blocked the key?
In fact the last Warez leak of Windows betas was around the year 2000 or 2001 depending on your source (5:24), which is why these betas previously but later lost haven't been found yet and are unlikely to resurface. (5:42)
my dad has pirated ms office 2007 and everything still works,and i still use that burned disc to this day,no need for newer office copy
2:46 You know how he mentioned that Microsoft doesn't allow employees to resell stuff bought at the company store? Well, that's actually illegal (allegedly) in the EU. IDK for sure, but from what I've read, there's a law in the EU that could be thought of as "Right to resell", that prohibits companies from banning resale of anything, no matter what. So, had that been in the EU, they would be required by EU law to allow its resale. Again, I can't confirm this with 100% certainty. If someone from Europe sees this and wants to fact check me, go ahead.
20:49 in the original, it cannot be peeled off because it is bonded to the carrier
one thing to the "saftware": _Saft_ is the german word for juice
Another great video!
The wavy outer ring design makes it easier to spot a counterfeit copy, as you can easily peel it off. It would be harder if the printed layer covered the entire surface, even if it's fake. Did Microsoft actually come up with that idea and did it on purpose as an extra check that could be easily verified by users in pesky looking cases?
Also MJD, Have you been to Sweden? Im Swedish but all my Windows VMs are set to English for translation sake.
We sell these at our "lifecycle store" (kringloopwinkel) in the Netherlands for one Euro. When used. As-is. A sealed copy...
interesting series
please make more
love your videos :)
On your logic if they recyle the geniue plastic box why not recycle the paper cover as well? That would save a lof of trouble of making fake cover image. The bootleg plastic case is made in manufacture in China with standard material or easily to be duplicated I suppose, it's not rocket science to mold a plastic.
3:30 BRO THATS THE HIGH CAPACITY COLOR BARCODE
_The Bootleg Office Cinematic Universe_
Micheal: It looks-
MrBeast (AD): I HAVE A CHALLENGE FOR YOU!
If it says Office Professional 2010 Plus, is it generic?
Imagine how to feels to get pinned by someone who has like 5 copies of MS Office
Im Very waited for another video
Next bootleg dive- Windows 10 OEM keys. My dad almost fell victim to 2 bootleg Win10 keys when he was building a computer from scratch. When he got me to look at it, I noticed the odd behaviour the system was showing (not installing drivers correctly, programs being extremely flakey and glitchy) that I said that the install drive and key seemed to be bootleg (although the Win10 key activated (another mass activation key?)), so he managed to get his money back from Amazon, where he bought the keys and bought a new key from a trusted retailer, OverClockersUK and it just worked, all drivers and programs installing and running correctly first time.
I don't get why a bootleg product key would do that, but nice ending
i just realized on the side where it mentions Server 2008, it's "WfndOWS" and not just "WindOWS"
PID Blocked, I KNEW IT!
I just checked my retail key Office 2016 on PID and it said that the license is ltPERP. Funny that its Home&Student key
15:10 Windows 7 disks had the same inner shell, and I guess it's easy to get one's hands on an old Windows 7 box.
Imagine being someone who actually buys office.
As long as I was able to write in word and make powerpoints for middle or highschool either option would work for me :v)
If you have to use phone activation on that product key for the ms employee to override the activation limit the employee should tell the caller they are activating non genuine software