Windows Genuine Advantage

On August 25th Microsoft released a tool called WGA Notifications to help fight piracy. WGA Notifications is downloaded with Windows Updates and, once installed, checks it’s key database for validity. If a Microsoft component on the machine (Windows, Office, etc) is determined to be non-genuine, a popup is displayed informing you about the problem. Microsoft says this program is not spyway, that it doesn’t send any machine or personal information to them, but a recent lawsuit claims different:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=5369

If you have a machine which has a pirated copy of Office or Windows, I would strongly suggest either purchasing a legal copy of this software (if not purchased), report to Microsoft a paid-for pirated copy, or look at an open source alternative such as OpenOffice. I would not be surprised if, in the near future, these pirated programs identified by WGA Notifications suddenly start experiencing issues or simply refust to start.

Microsoft’s WGA Website:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/AboutNotifications.aspx

Microsoft Piracy Website:
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/reporting/default.aspx