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Microsoft to Install Anti-Piracy App Via Auto Update

Bob2002

ULTIMATE Member
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 or uninstall it, said David Lazar, director of the Windows Genuine program at Microsoft. They can also suppress the alerts by right-clicking on them when they appear during the running of Windows.

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.

...

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39353843,00.htm

Perhaps not so strange that Microsoft should attempt this now, not too long before they launch a new version of their OS. :rolleyes:
 
They did this a while ago, it does not stop you downloading the critical updates but a quick search on google and you'll find a way round it ;)
 
Forcefire said:
They did this a while ago, it does not stop you downloading the critical updates but a quick search on google and you'll find a way round it ;)
There's nothing on google yet telling you how to circumvent Office Genuine Advantage. ;)
 
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Forcefire said:
They did this a while ago, it does not stop you downloading the critical updates but a quick search on google and you'll find a way round it ;)

No, this is not the original WGA (July 2005 ?) that could be bypassed with browser hack (AFAIK), this is software that would be installed and give "nag screens" if it found anything untoward. For the moment you can uninstall it apparently, but how long before Microsoft get serious about piracy ?
 
I can see this causing some fun at work, it turns out when we first got XP someone used a common code of the internet instead of getting the proper volume licence key.

This was only spotted about 6 months ago. :S

The OS is proerply licenced as well which is the real pain in the arse. Microsoft have really be making friends at the enterprise level recently with crap like this.
 
I wonder whether this is going to effect people's privacy rights and such like under laws, as it could be if someone found something which showed these kind of things broke privacy laws, then Microsoft would be forced to back down.
 
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Microsoft are getting so tough on piracy that a "dodgy" copy of Office XP I just loaded ( my PC crashed and burned and I needed some progs PDQ) updated without any problems when I ran update while restoring my system.

Anyone else come back from a short holiday to find XP had gone titsup??? I have a lady friend that suffered the same fate only last month, system restore doesnt fix it, neither does "repairing" via the CD. In the end I did a quick and dirty repartition and reload.
 
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