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Putin casts online vote using unlicensed Windows on an American Dell PC — 'Activate Windows' watermark visible in official Kremlin clip, uses foreign Dell PC despite Russian tech mandate “You can’t go wrong,” says the Russian president squinting at the screen to check that he didn’t go wrong, before thanking the computer. Russian president Vladimir Putin voted online in the State Duma elections on Friday. That’s a pretty ordinary-sounding thing for any president to do, but this filmed-for-the-press event has been widely shared outside of Russia. Why? The official video appears to show Putin voting on a PC using an unlicensed copy of Windows on a Dell PC. The president then comments, “You can’t go wrong,” as he clicks on his choice of candidate. Moreover, folks are throwing scorn at the aging Russian president’s mouse skills. If this were an audition for an eSports team, it would have been a clear fail. The above embed comes via the nonprofit Central European news aggregator Visegrad24. The magnified section of the video shows a screen effect that looks very similar to the Windows activation reminder watermark. However, the other overlay on the screen is obviously from a different computer, and it’s dated 2018. We found some established Russian media sources with the video recording, like Komsomolskaya Pravda, and there does indeed appear to be a watermark present shown on Putin's computer screen at the end of the voting clip. Russian state media source TASS explains that the vote was to elect deputies to the 9th State Duma. It says that over recent years “Putin has preferred to cast his vote remotely.” It also reveals that some former Ukrainian territories will get to participate in this vote. “For the first time ever, residents of the recently incorporated Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, will participate in legislative elections for the lower house of the Russian parliament,” says the official Russian news agency. Returning to the social media bubbling up over the Kremlin clip, some valid points seem to be raised. Putin’s comment about “you can’t go wrong” is almost a reverse Vranyo. There is hardly going to be uncertainty about the result of any vote in Russia. Hot tip: We think that United Russia, the ruling pro-Kremlin party backed by Vladimir Putin, is going to do well this year. We also note that the president seems to be voting on a foreign (Dell brand) computer. By law, Russian officials must use computers with certain levels of localization, so it might be reasonable to assume this machine was set up entirely for Putin’s voting publicity clip. That would also go some way to explain an unactivated, unregistered copy of Windows being used. It’s likely a fresh, clean copy of Microsoft’s OS run separate from any government network. As for Putin’s computer skills, it looks like his interactions with the online voting forms are largely being hampered because he can’t see properly, rather than a hand-eye-coordination issue. There are uncomfortably pregnant pauses between the 73-year-old squinting and leaning into the screen and clicking the mouse. Either Putin should wear his glasses, or the Kremlin administrators are going to need to code a Big Picture Mode for his nuclear launch computer. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. - animation303 He probably can't activate it anyway, Russia is blocked from the activation servers iircReply - Unolocogringo It took me 3 months of trying once or twice a week to activate my wife's new build.Reply Every time it was Oops something went wrong, try again later. Of course each time I was presented with a link to buy a new copy of windows. Retail disk 7 pro upgraded to 10 pro. She hates 11 about as much as she hated 8. - John musbach It seems like windows 11 doesn't really care about activation since it just does the watermarkReply - bit_user Kinda weird that React OS hasn't seen uptake by the Russian government.Reply My next bet would be that he'd use Astra Linux, Russian Fedora Remix, or ROSA Linux. Due to no shortage of alternatives, I wonder if the unlicensed copy of Windows might've been to thumb his nose at the US, in a small way? I'm sure they'll have expected such footage to be scrutinized by foreign intelligence agencies. So, it would be a way to say "hey, we're not afraid of you and your software". - ghristov Where is the power cable for this monitor, as well as the video cable from the PC? And what about the Type-A to Type-B cable to enable the monitor's USB ports?Reply - Unolocogringo Reply Looks like an AIO . Only thing needed is power cable.ghristov said:Where is the power cable for this monitor, as well as the video cable from the PC? And what about the Type-A to Type-B cable to enable the monitor's USB ports? My 27 inch monitor has a cable hider in its stand. All wires are routed inside the stand. Then my desk has a hole with a plastic cover for the wires to drop down through. Under the monitor base. = no visible wires. - ghristov Reply This is a Dell U3011 it doesn't have a dedicated cable management channel. I have the same one. It's not a AIOUnolocogringo said:Looks like an AIO . Only thing needed is power cable. My 27 inch monitor has a cable hider in its stand. All wires are routed inside the stand. Then my desk has a hole with a plastic cover for the wires to drop down through. Under the monitor base. = no visible wires. - usertests Reply It could have a small PC of any brand VESA mounted on the backside of that monitor.ghristov said:This is a Dell U3011 it doesn't have a dedicated cable management channel. I have the same one. It's not a AIO Not sure about the power cables. Maybe a hole in the desk beneath the monitor. https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics/esuprt_display/dell-u3011_user's%20guide_en-us.pdf - Vicecrow Microslop don't care if your windows is actived or not. they care about spy on you.Reply you can't do some things with windows with no license but you can run it 99% Windows today is a free spyware software.
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