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It would be so easy to dis Vista, particularly given last week's XP OEM licensing extension, but Microsoft's program makes sense. Windows XP is the right focus.

The new program, GGWA (Get Genuine Windows Agreement), complements another, GGK (Get Genuine Kit), launched in summer 2006. Microsoft channel partners fulfill both programs, which provide businesses a way to get legal copies of Windows XP on PCs that shipped without operating systems or that are loaded with unlicensed software.

"The channel partner serves our mutual customer and continues to be that trusted advisor," Cori Hartje, Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative director, told me this afternoon.

Microsoft is more concerned about getting business customers legal than chasing them down and branding them as software pirates. Through the GGK program, Microsoft partners provide CD media to businesses, which Hartje said was too much hassle for many IT organizations.

"This latest offer fills in a hole we had in this area," she conceded.

Through GGWA, Microsoft partners provide businesses with licenses rather than actual media, in what Hartje described as a "volume-licensing kind of way." While GGWA is fulfilled and managed like volume-license purchases, there is no association with Open, Select or other plans.

"It's a single transaction," she said. "This is a legalization offer."

Both programs seek to resolve a legalization licensing issue specific to Windows and not other Microsoft software. Businesses purchase full Windows licenses on new PCs; volume-licensing programs offer upgrades. Technically, businesses cannot use their volume-licensing contracts to put software on PCs that Hartje described as "naked" or those with unlicensed operating systems.

"Because XP has been sold on new PCs, there wasn't an easy licensing option," she said.

Partners set GGWA pricing, which Hartje estimated would be between $165 and $200 per Windows XP Professional license. She expects the channel will approach customers with unlicensed software about getting legal.

"Partners know they have customers in this situation, but they've been quiet about it because they didn't have a solution to offer them," Hartje said.

The focus on XP licensing isn't surprising, given that it's the operating system running on most Windows PCs. Microsoft also is banking on Activation 2.0 curbing Vista piracy.

That said, "Time will tell if this is a Vista solution," Hartje said, referring to possible future enhancements to the program.

In the meantime, partners could provide an upgrade path to Vista through the Software Assurance program, which isn't required to participate in GGWA.