Does Microsoft Security Essentials Shut Down Illegal Copies of Windows 7? [closed]

To answer the question in the title (I don't have a cracked version to try it on), no, it shouldn't shut it down by itself (who knows what Microsoft will do if they find out you have a pirated copy though...). The validation check is there to encourage you to use legal copies of Windows. Microsoft stopped being quite so militant (although I really couldn't say I blamed them...) about pirated software and instead made you validate to get some of their free utilities. A lot of nonessential but cool (powertoys, etc) utilities and optional updates (critical updates and security patches don't require validation) require you validate as well. It really is nothing more than a way of checking to see if you deserve a reward for playing nice.