Is your copy of Windows genuine?
How to Tell helps you verify that your Microsoft products are genuine.
To begin, choose the product category that best describes your Microsoft product. On the following product category page you will be able to select your specific product and the method by which you acquired it to learn more about genuine Microsoft products.
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Fancy a free copy of Office 2010 and a laptop to run it on?
Microsoft is looking for family, student or home business users of their successful Office suite to participate in the beta program for Office 2010.
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23.6.2009 Office 2003 and Office 2007 Genuine Patch
And again one article from Steve Jobs’s blog. Well, since a few weeks, most of the known Office 2007 keys do not pass the Genuine test anymore. Most likely you will be able to use it as normal and update your Office 2007, however those downloads which require Genuine Validation won’t pass.
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29.5.2007 Office 2007 Genuine Advantage
Thanks to hwh1226 for this download. Office 2007 Genuine Advantage - 05/27/2007 This will make any Office 2003 or 2007 genuine! you will be able to update with any application of Office.
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11.6.2007 Microsoft Plans Office Genuine Advantage
Despite the criticism leveled at Microsoft Corp. after its recent rollout -- and partial rollback -- of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), that tool was just the first phase in the company's latest antipiracy effort.
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28.7.2006 Office Genuine Advantage (OGA), Now Mandatory
If you don't like the mandatory anti-piracy checks that Microsoft now enforces for Windows, brace yourself. The Microsoft Office productivity and collaboration suite is about to get a similar program.
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27.10.2006 Microsoft to add the Genuine Advantage nag to Office
Microsoft is set to begin a pilot of a new Genuine Advantage anti-piracy mechanism for Office that will add a “nag-like” feature, akin to what is now part of Windows Vista, to Office.
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9.4.2008 Disable and Remove OGA Office Not Genuine Notifications Uninstall KB949810
After installing Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Notifications (KB949810) from Windows Update, OGA Validation will perform genuine test on installed Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010 software. If Office product is validated as not genuine, “This copy of Microsoft Office is not genuine” notification message will be displayed on notification area (system tray), at splash screen during Office program (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) startup, and at Office’s toolbar or ribbon with extra “Get Genuine Office” tab or element.
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18.10.2009 Uninstall Office Genuine Advantage Notifications Notifier (KB949810) with OGA Uninstaller
Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) is another initiative by Microsoft to stem the piracy and counterfeit copy of Microsoft Office business producitivity suite and applications.
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12.10.2009 Office Genuine Advantage Notifications OGA KB949810 v2.0.48.0 Released To More Markets
For users who are installing Microsoft Office 2007 productivity suite with Office 2007 Blue Edition or other illegal and pirated Office downloads, which make use of volume licensing product key (VLK) to activate (or bypass activation requirement of) Office 2007, beware of KB949810 Office Genuine Advantage Notifications update, which will inactivate Office applications and display the nagging “not genuine” notification messages.
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26.8.2009 First Microsoft Genuine Office Validation Download on Download Center
Microsoft has posted the first Office download which has Genuine Office Validation (not required yet). It is sounds.exe the download enables sound in Office 2000,XP and 2003.
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28.4.2006 What's Genuine About Windows Genuine Advantage?
An article over at Microsoft-Watch has been posted about what Windows Genuine Advantage is all about.
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10.6.2006 Windows Vista Copy Protection Cracked
More than a year after Windows Vista was introduced, hackers have finally developed a clean crack of Windows Vista.
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5.3.2008 Fancy a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for FREE?
A little bird has informed me of an official Microsoft hosted survey in which the winner(s) will receive a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate after simply filling out a 4 question survey.
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30.6.2009 Windows 7 testers to get free copy from tomorrow
Last week Microsoft had a change of heart and decided to go back on what they had previously said by offering testers on the Windows 7 technical beta program a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, in reward for their efforts in testing the new operating system.
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5.8.2009 Did Microsoft copy Mac OS for Win 7?
Yesterday there appeared an interview with a Microsoft group manager who claimed that Microsoft copied the “Mac look and feel in terms of graphics” in Windows 7.
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12.11.2009 Blu-ray BD+ Copy Protection Cracked!
It would seem that there's absolutely nothing out there, no type of copy protection system that can resist the hard efforts of ingenious "security researchers", especially when the respective system is designed to protect valuable multimedia content (namely, movies).
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31.10.2007 Throw a Windows 7 house party and get a free copy
Microsoft is looking for some Windows 7 fans to throw launch parties between October 22-29.
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3.9.2009 Want Windows 7 for 50 Percent Off? Order an OEM Copy
Missed out on the early preorder discounts? Popular retailer Newegg.com has listed the OEM prices for Windows 7, which will be offered at less than half what Microsoft will charge for a retail copy.
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26.9.2009 Turn a counterfeit copy of WindowsXP into a free Vista license!
Perhaps you have bought a license of WindowsXP Home, Pro or Media Centerd Edition 2005 from your local dealer and afterwards it turned into a counterfeit while trying to validate it through WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) program.
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29.4.2006 Vista RTM Evaluation Copy Desktop Watermark Patch
Hi there people, here's a little guide on how to get rid of that stupid "evaluation copy" watermark in the bottom right corner of your Windows Vista RTM. Some may not see it yet, but believe me it will show up after a few reboots.
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14.11.2006 Windows 'patent tax' pegged at $21.50 per copy
Windows users on average pay $21.50 to line the pockets of third party software developers such as Sun Microsystems, Novell and Alcatel-Lucent, according to a calculation by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC).
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16.4.2007 Microsoft makes a u-turn, Windows 7 testers to get free copy
In a surprise turn around, Microsoft announced today that Windows 7 technical testers will be receiving a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
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30.7.2009 Prevent 1.0 - Stop Unauthorized Copy, Delete, Move & Change of Settings
I am sure everyone has faced the situation where either their friends, colleagues, family member of kids renaming, deleting important files or changing settings like wallpaper, screen resolution etc. this is typical with younger sibling.
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17.9.2009 Windows Vista SP1 outperforms Windows XP SP2 in file copy
"Its interesting that people seem to think that Vista under performs in every area of the system which is quite an incorrect perception.
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27.5.2008 Remove and Uninstall Microsoft Office Activation Assistant - Fix Office Must Be Installed Error
On most OEM computers running Microsoft Windows operating system, regardless of it’s a desktop, notebook or laptop PC, now comes with pre-loaded trial version of Microsoft Office 2007, primarily Home and Student Edition, which is a time-limited product for evaluation if use without proper activation.
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17.8.2008 Microsoft confirms Office 12 will be Office 2007
Microsoft announced today the lineup for Microsoft Office Suites 2007.
Alongside the product branding, Microsoft has also revealed pricing for the different versions of Office 2007.
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16.2.2006 Office 12 NOT BRANDED Office 2007
Well I saw Office 12 demo's at IT Forum where the apps were named Office 2007, also as mentioned earlier on Bink.nu, the name change of all office apps now have the name Office in them. So "Microsoft Office Word" and not "Microsoft Word"
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25.1.2006 Office 2007 vs. Office 2008 – Packagings
Office 2008 is the equivalent of the Office 2007 System, but a product designed exclusively for the Mac platform, and the Mac OS X operating system, unlike its alternative for Windows.
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8.10.2007 Windows update without Microsoft Genuine 2
Not only will it keep you up to date with the latest updates from Microsoft, it will also keep software and drivers from other vendors updated. However, that functionality is currently missing.
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MS Office Validation Now Mandatory
Want to use the extra features
within Office? Be prepared to
verify that your copy of the
productivity suite is genuine.
While the so-called Office
Genuine Advantage has been
around since April, Microsoft
did not make it mandatory
until Friday...
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28.10.2006Microsoft prepares Genuine
Software initiative
The recently rolled out Office
Genuine Advantage, along with
its widely known Windows
counterpart, seems to have
made Microsoft decide to
protect all of its paying
software using a Genuine
Advantage initiative.
The new tool, named
simply Genuine Advantage
Initiative, is aimed at
protecting all Microsoft
retail desktop software other
than Windows and Office, which
will both remain under their
own Genuine Advantage. It is
based on the Office version,
but the changes it adds from
this version is currently
unknown.
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28.07.2006Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications (v1.8.0031.0)
Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is a tool to help reduce software piracy. This tool will confirm that the copy of Windows installed on the PC
is genuine and properly licensed. If it is not genuine, the tool will provide periodic reminders to help you take the appropriate action.
This is the most current release of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications. We encourage you to upgrade to this version. This release
includes enhanced features that reflect ongoing input from customers, as well as Microsofts continually improving anti-piracy technology.
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27.08.2008Microsoft to add the Genuine Advantage ‘nag' to Office
Microsoft is set to begin a pilot of a new Genuine Advantage anti-piracy mechanism for Office that will add a “nag-like” feature, akin to
what is now part of Windows Vista, to Office.
Office already currently
includes an Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) validation mechanism (for Office XP and Office 2007), but Microsoft doesn’t do
a whole lot to “punish” those it deems to be running non-Genuine versions of Office. However, as part of a
new OGA notifications pilot program — which
Microsoft is launching in Chile, Italy, Spain and Turkey, according to an April 8 announcement buried in a Q&A on Microsoft’s Web site —
Microsoft is set to turn up the unpleasantness a notch.
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09.04.2008Microsoft Kills Windows Validation and Office Validation Anti-Piracy Efforts
Microsoft's anti-piracy
efforts will undertake a major
overhauling. The Redmond
company plans to take down
both the Windows Validation
Assistant and the Office
Validation Assistant.
However, Microsoft is
going to fill in the empty
spaces left by the
discontinuing of WVA and OVA
with Windows Comparison Guide
(WCG) and the Office
Comparison Guide (OCG).
Additionally there is also the
old trust Windows Genuine
Advantage and Office Genuine
Advantage that will survive
the anti-piracy cancelled
services. Still, this is not
the end of the upgrades in
stored for the Microsoft
anti-piracy programs. Feature
updates and additions are also
planned to be introduced.
"We're finally
taking down both the Windows
Validation Assistant and the
Office Validation Assistant.
The WVA was a prototype for
WGA; it was the first tool
launched that offered a
web-based validation that
could help find evidence that
a copy wasn't genuine that
otherwise might be hard for
the average person to find
(such as bad or leaked product
keys, etc.) The good news is
that we're replacing the WVA
with the Windows Comparison
Guide (WCG) and the Office
Comparison Guide (OCG). These
guides offer much of the same
functionality as the WVA did
by walking users through a
quiz that helps them match the
anti-piracy features of the
products they have, but
without the web-based
validation. For that we're
pointing people directly to
WGA,"
revealed
Alex
Kochis, a senior licensing
manager on the WGA team. ..
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04.07.2007SP1 Unsuccessful in Preventing Vista Hacks
It seems that Microsoft has been unsuccessful with SP1 in preventing hackers from
turning a pirated, non-genuine copy of Vista into genuine copies that pass activation. The article initially looked at two of
the most popular hacks (OEM BIOS hack and the grace timer hack) but after a little digging ZDNet were able to transform a non-genuine install into a
genuine one. 'After a few minutes of searching the darker corners of the Internet and a few seconds in the Command Prompt I was able to fool Windows
into thinking that it was genuine.'
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11.02.2008Fancy a free copy of Office 2010 and a laptop to run it on?
Microsoft is looking for family, student or home business users of their successful Office suite to participate in the beta program for Office 2010.
As part of the program, users will be loaned a laptop for at least six months and receive a free copy of the final Office 2010 suite when it is
released. It's all part of a "real life stories" campaign that aims to tell the story of how you use Office to help you in your every day life,
whether that be for your work, school or college assignments, or just household tasks.
Read full story.....
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24.06.2009Caption Contest: Win Vista and Office!
Want a copy of Windows Vista
Ultimate or Office 2007, but
don't want to fork over the
cash? You're in luck: we're
giving away one copy of each!
All you need to do is come up
with a witty caption for the
following two pictures from
the Vista Launch event in New
York City...
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31.01.200722% of Windows Installs Non-Genuine
Microsoft disclosed Monday
that over one in five Windows
installations were deemed
non-genuine through the
company's Windows Genuine
Advantage program, which
requires users to validate
their operating system before
downloading updates from the
company...
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23.01.2007Safety First: Beefing Up Anti-Piracy Features in Microsoft Office
As the piracy trade becomes more sophisticated, the Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage program adopts an end-to-end approach to protect Office
customers from the risks of counterfeit software...
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25.08.2009Microsoft Debuts New Licensing Program to Enable Resellers to Help Enterprises That Are Victims of Counterfeit Software
Q&A: Cori Hartje, director of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, discusses the Get Genuine Windows Agreement and other efforts the company has
put in place to help customers become properly licensed and acquire genuine Microsoft software...
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02.10.2007Microsofts Genuine Software Initiative Makes Steady Progress on Protecting Customers
Q&A: Cori Hartje, Worldwide Director, Microsoft Genuine Software Initiative, discusses Microsofts continued investments to help customers and partners
realize the value of genuine software...
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08.04.2008Heck, I'm Son of a Software Pirate
Joe Wilcox: About a year ago,
Microsoft brandished my mom a software pirate. Now, I've been nabbed, too.
She professed her innocence, as
did I. A Microsoft support technician spent about four hours fixing mom's problem. A corrupt file trigged the piracy validation failure. I used it as
evidence that Windows Genuine Advantage does indeed generate false positives. But Microsoft disagreed, saying there was no false positive. Mom was
always legal; the system worked. Say what?
I never thought Microsoft would come after me? On Friday night, my copy of Office 2007
Ultimate failed to validate. Shoot, that makes me a pirate, too. Weeks earlier, Office 2007 activated just fine, so I was surprised by the sudden
non-genuine status. I re-ran the validation mechanism several times and once for Windows Vista. The operating system validated just fine.
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17.12.2007Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Update
Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is a tool to help reduce software piracy. This tool will confirm that the copy of Windows installed on the PC
is genuine and properly licensed. If it is not genuine, the tool will provide periodic reminders to help you take the appropriate action.
This is the most current release of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications. We encourage you to upgrade to this version. This release
includes enhanced features that reflect ongoing input from customers, as well as Microsofts continually improving anti-piracy technology.
Specific features of this version include:
- Improved Setup “ A new installation wizard provides an overview of the tool,
and shows validation results immediately at the end of the installation process. No reboot is required following installation.
- Redesigned
User Interface - The system tray notifications have been redesigned to make them more visually appealing with clear links to full details of each
message and further options for resolving any problems.
- Improved User Assistance “ Improved messaging for users who are unable to
complete validation, along with links to more and better self-help tools.
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15.12.2007Office Genuine Advantage (OGA), Now Mandatory
If you don't like the
mandatory anti-piracy checks
that Microsoft now enforces
for Windows, brace yourself.
The Microsoft Office
productivity and collaboration
suite is about to get a
similar program.
The company's Office
Genuine Advantage (OGA)
program will require mandatory
validation of Office software
starting October 27, the
software vendor quietly
disclosed today. After that
date, any Office Online
templates downloaded from
within the Office 2007
Microsoft Office System
applications will require
validation of legitimacy.
Similarly, starting in
January, users of Office
Update will have to validate
the legitimacy of their Office
software before they can use
the service, Microsoft
added.
Users
absolutely hated the first
iteration of the Windows
Genuine Advantage (WGA)
program, and their protests
pressured the company into
revising it about a year after
it launched in July 2005.
Microsoft said in a
press statement that the
validation process will be
"quick and simple" for
users. The OGA program,
currently in the testing
phase, is now available in 26
languages worldwide. OGA is a
sibling program to WGA; both
automatically check a user's
version of Microsoft software
to ensure it is not
counterfeit or pirated.
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27.10.2006Office 2010 to expand antipiracy features
In an effort to protect customers from pirated software (and protect the companys bottom line) Microsoft has announced that it is to expand Office
Genuine Advantage and Software Protection Platform.
Heres the meat of the
announcement made by Keith Beeman general manager or Genuine Software Initiative...
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27.08.2009Microsoft changes 'Windows Genuine Advantage' name
Microsoft will be changing to name of it's activation and validation system from "Windows Genuine Advantage" to "Windows Activation
Technologies" according to a report by Mary-Jo Foley. However, the "Genuine" brand isn't completely disappearing. A press release states that
Microsoft will continue to deliver genuine updates and notifications for XP users. The program has been criticized for its punishment tactics and
false-positive results, even though Microsoft has fixed some of these problems in Vista SP1. According to Microsoft, Windows 7's activation will
be built on the same software protection platform that was part of Vista, with some minor tweaks made for Windows 7.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
08.05.2009Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 £40 deal: one week left
Some of you have no doubt heard of this offer before, but many out there may not have--or they may have thought it was over. Well, it almost is. UK
students who want to get their hands on a legit, full copy of Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for less than £40 have until midnight (GMT) on 30
June 2009 to take advantage of Microsoft's long-running "Ultimate Steal" promotion. Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 contains Access, Excel,
Groove, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Powerpoint, Publisher and Word. If you want to secure your copy, you should visit the "Ultimate Steal"
promotion site.
Read full
story.....
neowin.net -
22.06.2009Windows Vista Validation Update (KB929391)
Microsoft have just posted a
Windows Vista Genuine
Validation Update to Windows
Update. The update provides
the latest information to the
Windows Vista validation
components, and is marked as
an "Important" update.
It seems that the aim
of the update is to further
prevent "cracked" copies of
Windows Vista from being able
to run. Install the Windows
Vista validation component
updates to make sure that your
copy of Windows Vista is
genuine and is correctly
licensed. If a problem is
detected, the update will
provide additional
instructions.
jcxp.net -
15.12.2006WGA Servers Encounter Glitch
Updated August 25th, 5:37PM EST
It seems Microsoft's Genuine Validation servers encountered a glitch today, after users started
to report that they were booting up their systems only to find them in reduced functionality mode.
Windows Genuine Advantage
program manager, Phil Liu, confirmed the issue today on the Microsoft Community Forums that users running Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system
may find their systems stuck in reduced functionality mode, where users are left with nothing more than an Internet Explorer window and Activation
capabilities.
Windows XP users are apparently also affected, although its effects have not been told publicly yet.
The issue is expected to be resolved by either Monday or Tuesday, but for those who have already encountered the issue, there is a quick
fix; simply visit the Windows Genuine Advantage site to revalidate your copy of Windows. Those who have yet to encounter the glitch, it is suggested
that you do not fully shut down your systems and simply put them into Sleep mode until the issue is resolved.
Update: According to
Ars
Technica, this issue is also affecting users running Windows XP. Users are also suggested to avoid anything that requires contacting the WGA
servers such as Windows Update, activation, WGA downloads and such; as it may result in your copy of Windows being invalidated.
jcxp.net -
26.08.2007
