this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
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I want to install MAS to my clubhouse's computer so I can share MS Office with our member, but I wonder if it's really safe.

Some people on Reddit say that it's a trojan

https://www.reddit.com/r/pchelp/comments/1crolj9/reinstalled_windows_10_and_windows_security/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/16rdsc4/regret_using_microsoft_activation_scripts/

They say that I can check the source code since it's open sourced, but I'm not sure. It's too complex, and downloading several files inside a script. I haven't checked yet but it can be downloading some blobs, idk.

Also the domain of the official page sounds suspicious... "mass grave"??

Edit: I use Debian btw

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I know what community this is, but is your clubhouse a registered non-profit? They can get 10 business premium licenses that include office at no cost on Microsoft 365. If you are worried about the activator it might be a less worrying route.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

registered non-profit

No, we're not. We're just a group of people in a university, lol

[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Yes it's not even really considered piracy. It creates a fully activated legitimate copy of Windows. It's just basically a key-gen. It is a trojan in that it works like a trojan would, except it's verified as safe.

But really you gotta know coming to Lemmy for this you're just gonna get told to run Linux. So I'll do it for you. Run Linux. The real trojan MAS creates is a fully activated copy of Microsoft Windows.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Oh, I use Debian as my daily driver, so don't worry about that ;). In fact, that's why I want to install Office on my clubhouse's computer.

I managed to run Windows on KVM but it's too slow and crashes occasionally, thus not very suitable for doing assignments.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Is this something that OnlyOffice could solve? They aim for strict compatibility with MS Office IIRC and it's been working really well for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Edit: I realize I use mas, but if you're ok with less customization you can probably avoid it.😅 The main point of this comment is to make the VM go faster

Yo, I might be able to help here! I recently set up a win10 vm on my linux installation and it kinda fast (not sure how fast you want it to go). Please check the "Qemu" part of this guide I have made https://codeberg.org/BlastboomStrice/LinuxPlan/src/branch/main/LinuxPlan.md

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Microsoft support has used MAS to activate Windows when they didn't know how else to do it.

https://hothardware.com/news/microsoft-support-cracks-windows

I've tested it in several different operating scenarios and have not seen any adverse function.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The source code is even hosted on GitHub which is owned by Microsoft.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Interesting. I wonder why they don't take it down immediately when they absolutely can

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

It's probably just not worth it. MS makes the vast, vast majority of thier money on Windows licenses from the corporate sector and OEMs. Any revenue "lost" to MAS is a rounding error on thier toilet paper budget for thier offices.

Both those posts on reddit are people being paranoid (especially the pchelp post, that user is self-admittedly ignorant), perhaps not wrongly, but it is open source and used frequently enough I'd imagine someone would have said something if there were issues.

Personally, I've used it probably 3-4x without any issues. Take that for what you will.

EDIT: Manual instructions are here if you wanna be really, really sure.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Ensuring everyone runs Windows maintains their monopoly and also keeps the user data siphon net as wide as possible. They don't give a shit as long as you are feeding them personal data and are using Windows.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 hours ago

Because they don't make Jack shit on consumer licenses.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago

I've had no issues with it so far. Its been my go to for awhile. But I don't use windows for anything important. Malware bytes scans don't find anything.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I've always just used the KMS activation method from ms guides dot com. Avoids running anything local (that's not already baked into Windows). I haven't had to use it for a year or so but my machines are still working so I am pretty sure it is still current.

The KMS method can be batch scripted too so it's a single run for your family member.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I looked at the source code, and there was a bunch of binary encoded payloads, that loaded other binary encoded payloads, that called out to external resources. It might be fine, it might not. But I noped out of it.

I'm okay with the activate Windows watermark, at least I know I only have to worry about Microsoft

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

well that's concerning. They can be doing something shady under the hood...

mass grave of botnets maybe?