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April 24, 2006 4:10 PM PDT
Microsoft piracy check comes calling
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Microsoft is taking its fight against software piracy to the desktop.
Starting Tuesday, the software maker will push out a test tool that checks whether the copy of Windows a PC is using is properly licensed. It will be sent to millions of people in the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, Microsoft said Monday.
Following download and installation of the "Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications" tool, users of a pirated copy will see alerts at startup, login and during their use of the operating system. The alerts read: "This copy of Windows is not genuine; you may be a victim of software counterfeiting."
Those who use a legitimate copy of the software won't see any messages, Microsoft said.
People will be able to decline the tool download, said David Lazar, director of the Windows Genuine program at Microsoft. Once installed, the alerts can be suppressed by right-clicking on them when they appear during the running of Windows, but the tool can not be uninstalled, according to Microsoft.
In addition, Microsoft this week is kicking off Office Genuine Advantage, which checks on installations of the productivity package, which includes Excel and Access. The plan is to test out the program initially in seven languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish.
The efforts are part of Microsoft's antipiracy fight. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) was launched in September 2004. Since last July, Windows XP users have had to validate their operating system to be able to download additional Microsoft software, such as Windows Defender, Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer 7. Hackers, however, have repeatedly found ways around the checks.
The alerts include a link that goes to a Web site that explains what people with pirated versions of Windows need to do, Lazar said.
Earlier, Microsoft confronted people with the piracy checks when they attempted to download such add-ons. The switch to desktop alerts was introduced on PCs in Norway and Sweden in November 2005, then expanded to the Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Poland, and Taiwan in February. Tuesday's move is a further expansion of the trial program.
The WGA expansion is a precursor to the antipiracy features Microsoft is building into Windows Vista, the update to the operating system expected in January 2007. In Vista, certain operating system features will only work as long as it is a properly licensed copy.
Microsoft isn't pushing Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications out to all Windows users, but to a random subset, Lazar said. It is using its Windows Automatic Updates feature to deliver the tool. Automatic Updates, typically used to deliver security fixes, is enabled on the PCs of most Windows users, according to Microsoft.
To date, more than 150 million PCs have participated in the WGA program, according to Microsoft. About 65 percent of users in seven countries have accepted the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications tool download, it said.
Microsoft's piracy checks won't prevent users from getting security updates. Regardless of whether a system passes the genuine test, security updates have been available to all Windows users, via either manual download or Automatic Updates.
See more CNET content tagged:
Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage,
alert,
Automatic Update,
piracy,
copy
from their friends...
I see a Mac Mini in my future.
I agree with the guy that said if Windows was worth the price...
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/04/wga-notifications-this-copy-of-windows.html
Last i checked a student version of Office that are special. only costs 149$ and include everything except MS Access (but if you have MySQL or MSSQL 2005 Express who really needs it). Also Student versions of Visual Studio and any other software you can think of exists. Almost forgot MS gives away fullworking versions of VS under the express name for nothing.
Most are discounted between 100$ to as high as 1400$ (windows server platform Enterprise). Even the cals for schools and the result student user are at a high discount. Not to mention if you goto the MS events you can usually get software from them for free.
- Mike
The version of XP at my office always fails WGA checks, even though it is a full licensed and legal copy. However, I have 3 pirated copies of XP at home that always pass. I bought legal copies of XP when WGA was coming worried that I would take an outage, but WGA always passed them so I never got around to installing the legal copies. Of course, 2 of those machines will be Linux is a couple weeks.
First, I think MS needs to learn how to target ACTUAL pirated copies before it starts freaking out customers by annoying popups. It used to be Windows was just prone to spyware... now it IS spyware.
Boycott Vista
Most computers come with Windows pre-installed and with some software to use plus there are discounts for some programs and open source / shareware programs available (I use WorkBench instead of MS Projects).
Many people steal because it's easy, cheap and "cool"! They could get a "legal" version but that would take effort, possibly some money and be considered "geeky".
Unfortunately it's difficult to chase down piracy, from sharing your software with friends, buying it from those "discount" spammers or from getting a cheap computer from a shady (or not so shady) company!
In each of these examples the actual "pirate" is a different person (the user, spammer/"seller" or computer seller).
M$ Windows pricing is dumb. Who can simply afford to spend $800 on 4 legal copies of Windows XP Pro for a family of four's computers? Microsoft's actions regarding priacy are getting more and more heavy handed. Where does it stop? Consumers are not like F!&*king wet washcloths that can so easily be wrung out!
Microsoft needs to implement some type of household licensing so that people can upgrade their home computers reasonably.
Microsoft needs to lower the pricing of the OS, plain and simple. They justify their ever increasing prices with all the new whizbang features that most people don't really give a damn about. The OS doesn't need to be packed to the rim with every new possible feature. If people really want those features, then they would be willing to buy them as a seperate standalone add-on. Trim the bloat from the OS. Stop bundling functionality that isn't critical so the prices can be lowered.
Everyone boycott Windows Vista!!
None of it will install (Saying that I need to validate windows), and M$ support are scratching their heads, because I have sent countless verifications of my product ID number. (the number itself, Screenshots of my number, and even been asked to (and have) downloaded activeX controls to verify my number.) All of these methods, each time have revealed that I have a legit copy of windows (OEM installed by Hewlet Packard).
I'm still going 'round with their support center to resolve this. I keep telling them that it must be their software, (Because it's the only stuff I can't download) and they keep telling me I need to prove that my copy of windows is O.K., even though I have - REPEATEDLY.
I'd un-install the WGA utility, forget about the free stuff, and write off my experience as just another botched download, but the WGA utility is UN-INSTALLABLE.
After researching public reaction to the WGA Program (Which is how I ended up here), I'd also like to say....
I have seen endless debates regarding WGA, on whether or not it is O.K. to pirate software. - It isn't
It also isn't O.K. for M$ to breathe down my neck because I asked why one of their programs wasn't downloading properly.
I have also looked at debates among I.T. professionals about the ethics of M$ "Peeking" into their systems, and wanting to know just what is being sent back to M$. - Ethical? I don't know, but they do look. When there is a problem with WGA (like what I'm dealing with), they suggest you go to a support page that sends you an activeX control that peers into your system and generates a report. The bit of this report you can see details everything from what bios version you have to what browsers, and programs you have installed. Who knows what's on the whole report, because the ActiveX control sends that back to them. I have read a story on another website (http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1684754,00.asp) which says that a German audit firm confirms no personal information is sent to M$, but to me the programs I use and what hardware I have is as personal as it gets, short of sending back actual file content. For me, that's the same as if my landlord asked for entry into my house to take an inventory of everything in my home.
If M$ is going to start acting like creeps, I see a Mac in my near future.
So far the whole experience, including everything I've looked up on the subject, reminds me of one of those old movies where some hulking Nazi says "May I Zee Your Papers Please?"
- Can't uninstall .......
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by keldon85
June 4, 2006 5:56 PM PDT
- I can think of one feature built into windows that uninstalls this quite easily, and will 'Restore' your PC back to its state before the installation
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