[jonp888]

This system works by launching an official Windows image in Docker and then making an RDP connection to it. There are a couple of others too now like WinBoat

What all of them avoid mentioning is that the images were intended by Microsoft for test and development purposes on Windows and the license clearly states you need a valid Windows license to use them: https://hub.docker.com/r/microsoft/windows#license

I wonder if Microsoft will take some action to enforce this if these projects become popular.

Edit: This comment is incorrect, see below comment from doctorpangloss

[kachapopopow]

https://get.activated.win wouldn't be online if microsoft cared.

[Nextgrid]

Microsoft doesn't care if a home or hobbyist user uses this, because enforcing the license against such a user is not worth it as the payout wouldn't even cover their own effort/lawyers.

Microsoft may absolutely care if you use this at work (even by accident, by bringing your personal machine to the office) since that's where they can collect a decent amount of money for a license breach.

[kachapopopow]

speaking from office / work perspective microsoft is actually not the company that cares either, you receive a bounty/payout for reporting license violations within your company.

IANA (iamnotamerican) so cannot really confirm except for 2nd hand knowledge, but in my european country every company I've been around in just uses pirated everything.

Also this is a tool that breaches several agreements and laws, including the particulary nasty one of DMCA (breaking digital locks) if anything this is the one thing microsoft should care about rather than individual users breaking said license.

[iljya]

what is this?

[xeonmc]

massgrave.dev

[muterad_murilax]

... and what is this?

[GranPC]

From massgrave.dev, just below the big heading:

Open-source Windows and Office activator featuring HWID, Ohook, TSforge, and Online KMS activation methods, along with advanced troubleshooting.

[kachapopopow]

it is in the name get.activated.win(dows)

[doctorpangloss]

no, this system does not work by launching the windows containers on windows mcr.microsoft.com/windows images

it works by using dockurr, which is a great project but a worse way to distribute windows in the sense that it gets installed instead of downloaded and executed

[yjftsjthsd-h]

I don't get it. Is it a VM in a container? Skimming https://hub.docker.com/r/microsoft/windows I would have interpreted that as a native Windows container, which I vaguely recall being a thing, but that would require an NT host, not Linux.

[breppp]

I remember Windows containers have two modes of operation as a Hyper-V VM and some sort of container-like isolation. I think the reason is that they had to quickly ship "containers" initially and that Windows does not have a kernel backwards compatibility the same way Linux does

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscont...

[jodoherty]

The container is a Linux container running a virtual machine inside.

WinApps needs a Windows RDP server to work. Most of the functionality doesn't care where that Windows RDP server is actually running as long as its FreeRDP client can connect to it. The container or libvirt VM options are just ways to accomplish that via virtualization.

I imagine the container part makes it easier to automate QEMU virtualization using bash scripting without worrying about distribution specific differences in the environment. These kinds of scripts become fairly ossified to their environment. Making them run consistently on different Linux distributions is its own adventure unrelated to installing and running Windows, so the containerization eliminates the need for a lot more bash scripting to account for those differences.

The container's bash scripts download the Windows installer ISOs and run them in an unattended mode inside a QEMU VM. The unattended installation is configured to skip activation:

- https://github.com/dockur/windows/blob/c7aac1edcf37a69ff730d...

- https://github.com/dockur/windows/blob/c7aac1edcf37a69ff730d...

- https://github.com/dockur/windows/blob/c7aac1edcf37a69ff730d...

Once the container is running, WinApps configures RDP via some scripts and registry settings exposed into the container via a volume so the container's scripts can copy and run them in the Windows VM:

- https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps/blob/b4766336903d0cbe...

- https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps/blob/main/oem/RDPApps...

You can do it all yourself too with your own libvirt VM, but it's just more involved:

- https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps/blob/main/docs/libvir...

I haven't seen any of this before, but I think it's a pretty clever use of scripting and containers on top of some fairly mature but hard to use pieces of software.

[tsimionescu]

It is a container in a VM. I'm not even sure what, if anything, the container achieves. But their installation instructions are pretty clear that you start by creating a Windows VM.

[RealStickman_]

Most laptops have included Windows 10 or 11 licenses, which are valid for this use

[BlaDeKke]

Last time i checked a Windows 10 and 11 license does not permit running Windows in a virtualized environment.

That could have changed by now.

[sschueller]

Last time I checked I did not agree to be bombarded with ads and have all my data tracked after paying 100+ for a piece of software...

[Hasnep]

You kinda did...

> By accepting this agreement and using the software you agree that Microsoft may collect, use, and disclose the information as described in the Microsoft Privacy Statement [...]

Doesn't make it okay, just legal

https://www.microsoft.com/content/dam/microsoft/usetm/docume...

[braiamp]

There's a couple of terms in contract law, like fairness of obligations, unconscionability, disproportionate penalty, excessive advantage, etc. that the US seems to have forgotten. In the EU and other countries such... aberrations are struck down and unenforceable. People are still scared silly, but the ones that protest are usually left alone.

[swores]

Those aspects of contract law mean that if MS included "you owe us your first born child" or "if you have not uninstalled this operating system within 2 weeks of installation, you owe Microsoft an additional one million dollars" then that clause wouldn't be valid.

They don't however mean that MS choosing to put adverts all over Windows is illegal, or a breach of the contract, just because users would prefer the OS be ad-free. The EU could legislate in various ways that would mean MS had to stop doing so, but they haven't yet and there's no aspect of general contracts law currently that prevents it.

[deaddodo]

A good chunk of EULAs are partially-completely unenforceable in US contract law as well.

It just doesn’t stop corporations from using them as a scare tactic.

[slurrpurr]

Your fault for not letting your drink at the bar get chemically analyzed before drinking it

[Nextgrid]

Doesn't necessarily make it legal either, but proving that in court would require pitting your own wallet against Microsoft's.

[user_7832]

Umm actually, you did. You also waived off the right to name your firstborn, and if you disagree, you’ve waived off your right to anything except arbitration. Sorry, I didn’t make the rules.

(Friendly reminder that legality, once again, ≠ morality. Victimless crimes can be illegal, and Enron fucking shit up and filing bankruptcy can be legal.)

[Asmod4n]

then it would be illegal to use hyper-v, since windows is then run under a hypervisor.

[BlaDeKke]

The FPP license does allow local vm access. But if u access it remotely then u need a SA or VDA license. If this thread is legit: https://community.spiceworks.com/t/whats-wrong-or-not-legal-...

[prmoustache]

In that case you are using a network protocol but one could argue you are still accessing the VM in the same local system the OS has been licensed for. It is a remote access from a software perspective but a local access from a user perspective.

[Saris]

RDP on the same system isn't remote access though.

[DANmode]

You’re running it on the same fuckin machine you were originally licensed to run it on!

This is an ethics question, not a phrasing question.

[venturecruelty]

>...and the license clearly states you need a valid Windows license to use them.

It's a license, not a cop.

[maxloh]

I am surprised that one of the fetched scripts even hosted on Azure.

https://dev.azure.com/massgrave/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts......

[compsciphd]

Is this a new thing? That windows docker images can run a UI? It's been a while since I looked at them (we're talking 2017-2018?), but back then, one was limited to CLI/Server apps without any windows graphical interface.

I'm wondering when it changed? (or perhaps I missed something back then)