Windows 7 DRM begins to surface

Windows 7 allows application developers to write DRM that bypasses your firewall, refuses to let you modify or disable DLLs, and to block you from mixing your audio inputs (to prevent you from recapturing DRM'ed music, presumably).

That Photoshop stopped functioning after we messed with one of its nag DLLs was not so much a surprise, but what was a surprise: Noting that Win7 allows programs like Photoshop to insert themselves stealthily into your firewall exception list. Further, that the OS allows large software vendors to penetrate your machine. Even further, that that permission is responsible for disabling of a program based on a modified DLL. And then finding that the OS even after reboot has locked you out of your own Local Settings folder; has denied you permission to move or delete the modified DLL; and refuses to allow the replacement of the Local Settings folder after it is unlocked with Unlocker to move it to the Desktop for examination (where it also denies you entry to your own folder). Setting permissions to 'allow everyone' was disabled!

Re – media: Under XP you could select 'Stereo Mix' or similar under audio recording inputs and nicely capture any program then playing. No longer

Draconian DRM Revealed In Windows 7

Update: Lots of chewy debate in the Slashdot thread, including more details — some of these DRM issues were present in Vista, others haven't been replicated on other systems. Of course, users who worry about the lock-ins imposed by proprietary software are trapped into this kind of Kremlinology about the code, arguing about what the developers intended, what was a bug, and what was their imagination — without the source code, we're reduced to playing blind-man-and-the-elephant when it comes to assessing our tools.