Asus ships software crack, internal docs

Asus has found itself at the centre of a scandal for shipping rather more with its PCs than was perhaps intended.

According to PC Pro, amongst others, the company has managed to ship some rather embarrassing content on the recovery DVDs for certain models of laptop: a WinRAR keygen, serial codes for other commercial packages most definitely not included with the laptop, confidential documents from Microsoft – including a hush-hush guide on how to deactivate Windows Vista ready for shipping to an end user - designed for system builders use only, and internal documents from Asus itself. The latter collection includes, incredibly, source code to several Asus software packages.

The discs appear to have made their way around the world, with customers from the UK, US, and Australia reporting bizarre contamination of their recovery software. A poster on the APC Magazine forums has even posted a screenshot of some of the files – including the resume of what is presumably an Asus employee close to the source of the gaffe.

Asus has issued an apology for the mess, and has promised to look into the issue “at quite a high level.” The company also wishes to ensure customers that once the investigation is complete, steps will be taken to ensure that such a thing never occurs again.

Quite how the files – which, key generator notwithstanding, appear to be the contents of someone's home directory – ended up on a recovery disc that should, in theory, have been checked and tested several times before being shipped is still unknown. For its part, Asus is refusing to speculate.

Have you ever received any added extras when purchasing a PC, or can you only dream of the day when your laptop comes with a copy of some stranger's CV? Share your experiences over in the forums.