WGA, OGA -When do we get UGA?
User Genuine Advantage, that?s when Microsoft actually lets you use the product you paid for without nag screens and prompts all over the place -ok, it doesn't exist, but I already feel a need for it.
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1.5.2006 WGA and OGA Servers Down
According to Ars Technica, the servers responsible for activating new installs of Windows and Office are currently down due to an unspecified reason.
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20.7.2008 Genuine Advantage Cracked WGA v1.9.40.0 & OGA v2.0.48.0
This Installer will resolve both WGA and OGA validation issues. Microsoft Genuine Advantage Validation Cracked, WGA v1.9.40.0 & OGA v2.0.48.0 Release Date: September 07, 2009
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16.9.2009 About WGA, WGA Notifiction and WGA Patcher
Thanks to Matt for this article in our forum. Current WGA version- 1.5.723.1 As Of 12/18/06. Current WGA Patcher version-WGA Patcher Permanent Kit v1.0!
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19.2.2007 OGA Patcher v1.7.111.0
This is the latest version of Office Genuine Advantage Crack. This Crack will replace OGACheckControl.DLL with a cracked on automatically
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30.3.2009 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 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 WGA to be baked into Vista
My blogging colleague Ed Bott has seen the future, re: Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). And it’s not pretty.
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26.9.2006 Paradox Vista activator + WGA crack
Mrx report this activator in
our forum by words: "This is the newest Activation+WGA crack, you can download all updates for now from Windows Update."
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5.3.2007 Paradox activate + WGA for 32bit Vista
Thanks to shudogg for this post in our forum. shudogg wrote: This is the best Windows Vista Crack I have found. It is by Paradox, and some of you may have seen it in Pantheon's Vista Ultimate release.
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23.4.2007 Forget about the WGA! 20+ Windows Vista
Forget about the WGA! 20+ Windows Vista Features and Services Harvest User Data for Microsoft - From your machine! Thanks to odeeee for this post.
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1.7.2007 Vista RTM x86 & x64 WGA Cracker v1.0
One of our users report this crack. It work with all versions of RTM Windows Vista x86 & x64. Your windows will be 100% genuine and you will be able to install all updates.
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17.2.2007 Top Rated Windows Vista Cracks - When WGA Fails
inuyasha62....Is now Famous (Softpedia). There is little tangible proof of the success of the Windows Genuine Advantage mechanism. Microsoft itself has only statistics as the palpable sign of the fact that the WGA is hard at work.
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30.5.2007 Microsoft Confirms Over 50% Windows Vista Price Cut – and WGA Failure
Microsoft confirmed independent reports revealing that Windows Vista prices will be cut in half. On August 1, Zan Xiaoqin, representing 8844.com, a Beijing Federal Software online software distributor, indicated that the Redmond company will take drastic measures in China in order to boost Windows Vista in the competition with local pirated copies of the operating system.
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3.8.2007 New WGA Update to Detect and Nuke Windows Vista SoftMod Activation Crack
Microsoft has decided to tighten the grip on ability for pirates and crackers to crack and bypass Windows Vista activation scheme, by releasing an WGA update to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition based system that will detect the presence of SoftMod hack activation exploit, which is currently been pioneered by Vista Loader. However, it’s unclear if the WGA technology update will indeed detect both SoftMod and Vista Loader, or just SoftMod activation crack, which is the predecessor version to much enhanced Vista Loader.
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26.2.2009 New WGA Tool on it's way
An updated version of Microsoft's WGA Tool for Windows XP, is on it's way out thru Windows Update.
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1.12.2006 Microsoft WGA Becomes Nagware
Microsoft announced that on Tuesday it will make Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) more bothersome than ever. A new update for WGA is now on the Windows Update website as a mandatory update. Once installed, your copy of Windows will be checked for validity
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26.4.2006 Microsoft defends WGA
Under fire for reports that Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) misidentifies some genuine copies of Windows XP as pirated, Microsoft took the unusual step this week of releasing statistics about WGA's purported effectiveness for the first time via a blog.
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25.7.2006 Microsoft's WGA changes today
Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage is being updated today, in what the company claims is response to customer feedback.
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21.2.2007 WGA Update Goes Phishing
The message uses a little Windows Genuine Advantage fear mongering to cajole end users to download a fake update that realy is a backdoor Trojan. The message warns: "Please update your P.C. in maximum 12 hours otherwise your Windows will be Expired."
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22.1.2008 WGA Patcher Permanent Kit!
WGA Patcher Permanent Kit! By :
Matt Enables Pirated PC to become Genuine.
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11.11.2006 Microsoft WGA phones home?
Analysts over at the German web site Heise Online have uncovered a curious behavior with the latest Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) update.
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10.3.2007 Uninstall WGA Notifications Manually
Here are a series of steps that will allow you to uninstall those annoying WGA notifications manually from your PC.
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16.6.2007 Microsoft WGA servers are fixed, but..
no word on what went wrong. Microsoft has fixed whatever caused a massive worldwide outage of its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) system that seemed to last just under 24 hours.
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26.8.2007 Original Internet Explorer 7 without WGA!
From the Internet Explorer Team Blog: Almost a year ago, we released Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. Since then, IE7 is well on its way to becoming the most used browser in the world, and we’ve seen lots of evidence that IE7 makes it safer and easier to accomplish everyday tasks online.
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4.10.2007 Microsoft WGA Update Anti-hack
Since the Windows Genuine Advantage debut as a pilot on 9/2004 Microsoft is slowly making the program more annoying and intrusive.
In the beginning the WGA was an opt-in feature, and then slowly it became mandatory. Users who choose not to validate their copy of Windows can not download updates from Windows update (they still can download critical security updates via automatic update feature in Windows).
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4.5.2006 Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Not Spyware!
Thanks MrCobra for the heads up on this update in Back Page News on our forums.
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9.6.2006 2 Year Old Pirated Keys Defeats WGA
On July 18, Microsoft's WGA team promised to send me a disk with a product key from their blocked list. It was supposed to arrive via overnight service, but it was never sent.
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9.8.2006WGA and OGA Servers Down
According to Ars Technica, the servers responsible for activating new installs of Windows and Office are currently down due to an unspecified reason.
The issue became apparent after several users attempted to activate Office 2003 with no avail, even as early as this morning, and a Microsoft
representative confirmed that the servers were offline. Fortunately, this seems to be simply a case of prolonged downtime, rather than an actual
activation error, as was this case in August of last year, when the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software acidentally labelled legitimate installs
as pirated versions. Users affected by this issue can still take advantage of the built-in 30-day grace period until the servers are brought back
up.
neowin.net -
19.07.2008Office 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.
neowin.net -
27.10.2006XP Pro to receive WGA similar to Vista SP1
Remember how everyone was excited about how Vista SP1 received a WGA update to not block you from your computer?
Well, the same is coming
to Windows XP. (Professional only, though. Who would want to pirate XP Home?)
From the WGA Blog:
With this update to
WGA Notifications in Windows XP, we've implemented a couple of related features that draw on the notifications experience we designed for Windows
Vista SP1. After installing this version of WGA Notifications on a copy of Windows XP that fails the validation, most users will discover on their
next logon that their desktop has changed to a plain black background from whatever was there previously (see below).
The desktop
background can be reset to anything else in the usual ways, but every 60 minutes it will change back to the plain black background. This will continue
to happen until that copy of Windows is genuine.
Also, the user will see the addition of what we call the "persistent desktop
notification." This notification is similar to a watermark but works a bit differently. The image (see below) appears over the system tray and is
non-interactive in the sense that you can't click on it or do anything to it.
As with previous releases, if a copy of Windows fails
validation, notifications will appear above the system tray regularly - and we will continue to have the pre-logon message, the logon interrupt
message and the messages that appear from the system tray. jcxp.net -
27.08.2008Microsoft removes another one of WGA's fangs
This morning Microsoft announced another noteworthy change to its flagship Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program - an update to be rolled out later
this month to all Vista users that will display a WGA warning dialog box when it detects either of two common Vista activation cracks. In the same
announcement, they also for the first time showed screen shots of how WGA changes debuting in SP1 will take some of the bite out of a longstanding
Windows product activation rule as well.
Now-departed Microsoft marketing chief Michael Sievert announced last December that Service Pack 1
would drop Vista’s “reduced functionality mode” (the notorious “kill switch”) in favor of a series of notifications and
nag screens. WGA senior product manager Alex Kochis posted the details of today’s changes, with screen shots, on Microsoft’s Windows
Genuine Advantage blog today.
Read
full story.....
neowin.net -
22.02.2008Even with Vista SP1, Hackers Still Crack WGA
The fact that Microsoft has relaxed its antipiracy mechanism built into Windows Vista concomitantly with the release of Service Pack 1 failed
to stop hackers from providing a crack for the latest version of Windows Genuine Advantage Validation. Various reports point out that Genuine
Advantage Validation and Notifications versions 1.7.69.1 (1.7.0069.1) and 1.7.69.2 released in March 2008, following the March 18 availability of
Windows Vista SP1 through Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center, have been cracked.
The workaround is designed to be integrated
with pirated copies of Windows XP and Windows Vista in order to render useless the WGA Validation mechanism. According to the reports, applying the
WGA crack will permit users of counterfeit versions of Windows to access and download items from Windows Update, Microsoft Download Center and
Microsoft Update. The pirated operating systems with the cracked WGA will pass all validations on Microsoft's websites and offer anything from
updates to applications that are restricted to users of genuine operating systems only.
neowin.net - 02.04.2008
Microsoft Responds to WGA
Concerns
Microsoft late Friday publicly
responded to widespread
reports that a recent change
to its Windows Genuine
Advantage program caused the
software to contact Microsoft
servers on a daily basis. The
company says it will soon
release an update to make WGA
only call home every 14 days...
betanews.com - 10.06.2006
Vista, Acronis TrueImage 11 and GRUB Error 22
Jonathan Schlaffer: Those of you with Vista know that there can be boot problems after you have cloned your existing installation to a faster or
larger hard drive (it works best when its both). And, sometimes after cloning, there can be activation issues as well
which I have encountered in the past.
Some say those issues are gone due to updates to the way WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage)
works in Vista but Microsoft should rename their DRM protection system to Windows Genuine Annoyance.
These problems did not exist
under XP but it appears that Vista places undue importance on the hard drive when deciding whether or not to deactivate itself. I am aware that SP1
changes the way WGA works slightly but that cannot change what has happened in the past.
winbeta.org - 25.12.2007
Microsoft finally earns a passing grade (barely) for WGA
Microsoft launched its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy program in early summer 2006. Its first year was, to put it charitably, a disaster.
An epic fail. A big fat F on the years report card.
A certain amount of error is inevitable in any activation and registration
system, but those numbers were clearly too high when WGA first rolled out. In an interview last week, Microsoft WGA director Alex Kochis tacitly
acknowledged that fact, pointing out that śweve made major strides in the accuracy of the programť in the past two years.
winbeta.org - 05.09.2008
Microsoft to beef up anti-piracy checks in Vista SP1
Microsoft will change the user experience of its automatic anti-piracy checks in Windows Vista and also make it harder for hackers to bypass the
system in the first service pack for the OS due out early next year. Once Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is installed on a PC, that computer will
no longer go into limited functionality mode if a user or administrator fails to activate Vista on that system in 30 days, or if the system fails
Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation, which checks to see if a version of Vista is pirated or counterfeit. In Vista, WGA is
called the Software Protection Program feature.
In limited functionality mode, a computer will shut down after 60 minutes and then allow
only browser use. Now, instead of going into that mode, a version of Vista that has not been activated in 30 days will start up with a black screen
and a dialogue box that gives users the choice of activating Vista now or later, said Alex Kochis, a group product manager at Microsoft.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 04.12.2007
Microsoft Pledge: No More WGA Funny Business
Microsoft has been painstakingly reviewing the operations and procedures behind its Windows Genuine Advantage license validation tool, with a view to
ironing out glitches that have cause problems for legitimate Windows users. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is designed to combat piracy by installing
software on users' PC that periodically checks to see if their version of Windows is authentic before allowing them to download updates.
In a Tuesday Weblog entry, Alex Kochis, senior product manager in the Windows Genuine Advantage group, said the WGA team has been studying its WGA
operations and processes and will handle future WGA issues more efficiently than it has in the past. WGA has been a source of much frustration for
users since it was launched in 2005, and recent incidents have fanned the flames of WGA loathing among Microsoft's customers and partners.
The WGA team has changed the way it rolls out updates to the back-end servers and has also been shoring up the infrastructure on which WGA is
based. In addition to revamping its monitoring of WGA servers, Microsoft is also implementing 24x7 customer support and phone based technical support
to its North American customers, Kochis wrote.
neowin.net - 22.11.2007
Addressing WGA validation issues
From what I personally noticed while reading about the WGA issue around the web, it was much more than just a "very few customers were affected".
Perhaps Microsoft should rethink their validation strategy after this near-disaster?
Earlier today (25 August) we began
receiving reports of Windows Vista customers running genuine systems but experiencing failures when attempting a Windows Genuine Advantage validation.
This situation has since been resolved and validations are now being processed successfully.
We've since learned that very
few customers were affected. Sr. Product Manager Alex Kochis and a team of engineers have been working on the issue and has blogged about it to keep customers
up-to-date. Customers who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating. I'd encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to visit this site now; after
successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure that genuine-only features are restored.
Alex will be
updating his blog with information as more information comes to light.
winbeta.org - 26.08.2007
Windows Genuine Advantage: Learning and Improving
WGA Team: While some time has passed since the WGA temporary service outage we had back in August, I wanted to share some more about what we've
learned since then and the steps we've been taking to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
First off, we've been
taking another hard look at our operations and the tools and processes we use to run the validation service for WGA, and we've made some changes
including to how we roll out updates to the back-end servers (it was a specific upgrade to our system that analyzes product keys that caused the issue
in August) and we've been adding to and improving the tools used to make sure our infrastructure is solid. As part of that, we've revamped the
monitoring that is used to track what's happening within our server infrastructure so that we can identify potential problems faster - ideally before
any customer gets impacted. But also as part of that, we've been making changes in how we can help our customers when an issue does arise that
impacts them.
winbeta.org - 22.11.2007
Microsoft Adds Firefox Support
to WGA
Firefox users may still be out
of the luck when it comes to
Windows Update, but they can
now download files from
Microsoft that require Windows
Genuine Advantage validation
thanks to a new plug-in. WGA
checks to make sure the
Windows license is legit and
is now a requirement on the
Microsoft Download Center...
betanews.com - 17.11.2005
SP1 brings with it a softer, gentler, naggier WGA
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Windows Vista SP1 brings with it a new tweaked version of the WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) anti-piracy scheme. How does
this look to the end user?
Check out the complete SP1 WGA gallery here.
Currently Vista offers two different user experiences to those considered to be running non-genuine
installations of Vista <...> As of SP1, both these states are gone and if a system is considered to be non-genuine it will enter what I can call a nag
state. In this state users will see:
- A nag screen to activate at logon that cannot be dismissed for 15 seconds.
-
Every hour the desktop background is switched to black (it can be changed back, but after an hour its set to black again).
- Activation
dialogs and balloon dialogs appear regularly.
- Optional Windows Updates arent delivered.
So, instead of losing
functionality, the user is nagged to activate...
winbeta.org - 10.02.2008
Boost to anti-piracy check in Vista SP1
Microsoft will change the user experience of its automatic anti-piracy checks in Windows Vista and also make it harder for hackers to bypass the
system in the first service pack for the OS due out early next year.
Once Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is installed on a
PC, that computer will no longer go into limited functionality mode if a user or administrator fails to activate Vista on that system in 30 days or if
the system fails Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation, which checks to see if a version of Vista is pirated or counterfeit. In
Vista, WGA is called the Software Protection Program feature.
In limited functionality mode, a computer will shut down after 60
minutes and then allow only browser use. Now, instead of going into that mode, a version of Vista that has not been activated in 30 days will start up
with a black screen and a dialogue box that gives users the choice of activating Vista now or later, said Alex Kochis, a group product manager at
Microsoft.
winbeta.org - 04.12.2007
Microsoft clarifies WGA 'phoning home'
A post has
been made to the Windows
Genuine Advantage team blog,
explaining why the latest WGA
Notifications package sends
install telemetry when
installed or canceled.
Article continues
at source...
jcxp.net - 13.03.2007
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.
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.
neowin.net - 09.04.2008
Microsoft WGA phones home?
Analysts over at the German
web site Heise Online have uncovered a curious behavior with the
latest Windows Genuine
Advantage (WGA) update. The
update is intended to patch
the latest hole that hackers
have used to work around the
WGA utility, which checks to
see if the users' copy of
Windows is genuine or pirated.
According to tests conducted
with an Ethernet sniffer
program, if the user clicks
the close button to cancel the
installation of this WGA
update, Windows sends some
information back to Microsoft
over the wires.
This information
includes version numbers of
both Windows and WGA, the
language of the operating
system, some registry
information, and a cookie.
Some hackers are worried that
Microsoft is going to use this
information to identify
potential pirates, but
Microsoft claims that the data
is only used to try and
diagnose failures with the WGA
utility itself. The outgoing
data can be blocked, if
desired, by personal firewall
software or hardware router.
jcxp.net - 13.03.2007
Microsoft Denies Kill Switch
Earlier this week there were
reports flying about that
Microsoft was actually using
the WGA as a means to shut off
pirates or anyone who doesn?t
comply with the update. The
people at Redmond now have
made a statement to dispel
those rumors.
Microsoft Corp. today denied
speculation that it plans to
cripple copies of Windows XP
for users who refuse to
install its controversial
antipiracy tool, Windows
Genuine Advantage (WGA).
All the WGA has
netted Microsoft at this point
is bad press and even a
lawsuit or two.
jcxp.net - 02.07.2006
Microsoft sends harsh reality check to OEMs
Last week, Microsoft sent
certified letters to its OEM
partners regarding Vista's
anti-piracy technology -- or,
more accurately, what happens
if they dare ship a system
with a "non-genuine" copy of
Vista.
The answer:
The system is crippled for 30
days, then hosed entirely
until you pony up for a
license. This is apparently
what Microsoft means when it
http://oem.microsoft.com/downl
oads/public/US/wgavista/genuin
e.pdf>warns of a "diminished
user experience."
This would be fine if
Microsoft were a reasonably
competent organization and
Windows Genuine Advantage
worked flawlessly. True
pirates deserve to be
punished. But Microsoft isn't
and WGA doesn't “ at least,
judging by the many letters I
got from Cringesters who
bought legit OEM copies of XP
from major manufacturers, only
to have WGA label them as
pirates. ..
winbeta.org - 04.06.2007
