Microsoft needs to stop adding "bullying" code into their software!

Often Microsoft bullies people into doing what they want, and this often results in people turning away; this again seems to be the case.

I have Windows 7 installed into a Boot Camp partition on my iMac, which I can then either boot into natively or run alongside Mac OS X in a virtual machine via VMware Fusion and their ability to detect operating systems on other partitions.

Yet when I try to run Windows 7 in a virtual machine, it complains that it's not valid software just because the hardware changed. The "virtual hardware" of the virtual machine is different from the actual hardware inside the computer, which is usually the case and nothing to be concerned with. However, Microsoft views a change in hardware as pirated software.

So what is the result? My background wallpaper is disabled and a message is forced in a corner saying "This copy of Windows is not genuine" and I get a pop-up ever few seconds telling me to buy a genuine copy. After getting this message in the virtual machine, I boot into Windows natively via Boot Camp, and the message goes away, my wallpaper is back, and Windows says that yes I am genuine.

Microsoft, if you took all the energy you put into policing would-be criminals, and put it into making your operating system better, then you wouldn't have the operating system that is ranked as number one for most likely to get a virus! Stop bullying your paid customers and go after the actual criminals. 90% of all people Microsoft attacks are actually not criminals. The ones pirating their software know enough to patch the parts of the code that check for genuine verification. So the only ones Microsoft is actually hurting, are the honest people.

If I wanted to download a pirated copy of Windows, I could, just like millions of other people could, very easily I might add. However, I choose to do the right thing and get a valid copy of Windows which includes a license that lets me install it on a single computer. No where in the agreement does it say "You can't use a virtual machine to grab Windows from another partition and use it side-by-side with another operating system" so Microsoft, you are 100% wrong in this. And what happens if your computer ever dies and you need to get another one? Try installing the same copy of Windows on it and it will say it's not genuine, unless you call them up and get a new license key. This is such BS. Microsoft should adapt the "honor system" like so many other companies have done, where they trust their customers to only install on a single computer.

I never thought much of Microsoft in the past, but now I think even less of them (if that's even possible).