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Shops in Thailand preloading (questionable) Windows on PC?


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Posted

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a new pc for our office and I'm not tech savvy. Every computer store that I've been to in Thailand offers to install Windows (+ Adobe and whatever you want basically) when you're buying a new computer from them. 

 

How safe is this? People I've talked to here say this is the norm in Thailand and nobody ever thinks of actually buying Windows.

 

Are there any security issues with going this route?

 

Posted

Thank you for your input.

 

Also-

 

4 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

If someone would send the software police to you

 

Is this an actual thing? Software police?

Posted
5 minutes ago, Genmai said:

Thank you for your input.

 

Also-

 

 

Is this an actual thing? Software police?

No, the only time that may happen is if you are using torrents to download pirate stuff or do otherwise stuff of interest to someone with money. Police doesnt give a rats ass about pirated windows nor does microsoft themselves.

 

I would wipe the whole thing and just install WIndows 10, you dont need a key,  you can run the unactivated version forever, it only has a small, midly annoying text to activate windows on the right side of the screen and thats pretty much the only restriction. If you ever have money to spare just get a windows key online or ask some univerisity student to give you his license...

  • Thanks 1
Posted

A lot of Windows loaded are activated by KMSPICO i have had my laptop with such now for 4 years no problem

Posted

There have always been security risks in using pirated software but the stakes are much higher these days. That is fine for a personal computer used for gaming or web browsing, but I would not risk it on a computer used for business emails, online banking, or cryptocurrency. Do not believe any shop that tells you their pirated software is "safe", that is far beyond their control.
 

A Windows alternative worth considering, for the simplicity and automated maintenance, is the Chrome operating system by Google. If you match it up with G Suite for around $5 per month per employee, you will have all the regular business stuff such as shared word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars etc. You really don't need to use installed applications anymore. You can buy Chromebooks (laptops) or "Chromeboxes" (tiny PCs) with ChromeOS already installed, they update themselves and you do not need to run anti-virus software or worry about backups. For an office, I would buy a relatively cheap Chromebox, a keyboard, a mouse, and as big a monitor as possible.

Apple Macs are also relatively cheap in Thailand compared to most of the world apart from the US. Equivalent Windows PCs are still cheaper but the difference is not as great. In my experience, Apple hardware lasts longer, retains a much higher resale value, fewer things go wrong, and the better software design makes most people more productive. If it is just a regular office, however, I would go for Chromeboxes.

 

Posted
1 hour ago, Genmai said:

Is this an actual thing? Software police?

Yes there is...but they are more interested in  commercial/businesses   not so much home users.

  • Like 1
Posted
1 minute ago, johng said:

Yes there is...but they are more interested in  commercial/businesses   not so much home users.

The pc in question is for our (tiny) company office.

Are there any reports of places actually ever being raided?

Posted
8 hours ago, Genmai said:

Are there any reports of places actually ever being raided?


Forget being raided, there is almost zero chance of that. The danger you should be thinking about is being hacked.

Sit down and think this through properly. A lot depends on the type of business you run.

If someone got access to your business email account, would that allow them to send new payment instructions to your customers?

Have you ever used online banking?

If someone got control of your social media accounts, would that allow them to send scam messages to your relatives and friends, pretending to be you?

If someone got control of your website, would that allow them to place hidden links to other sites?

Would your computer contain any data that could be held for ransom? "Ransomware" is a particularly nasty form of hack in which they delete all your data and you cannot get it back unless you pay them a few bitcoins.

Now, if your business is just a bar or restaurant, and you are simply using the computer for printing letters and doing accounts, no problem. Just be aware that hacking is now a massive, highly competitive, multi-billion dollar industry. There is no such thing as being too small to attract the interest of hackers, they know every way to squeeze a dollar out of the situation. Every person in the chain supplying pirated software to you has a strong financial incentive to include backdoors.

Most importantly, as I mentioned in my previous post, there is no real need for installed software these days. Unless you need to run a specific application that has no online equivalent, you do not need to run pirated software. Just to be clear, I am not taking a moral stance here, I have pirated plenty of stuff in my life, I am saying there is no longer any technical need for a business to run this risk.

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