Microsoft Talks Daily With Your Computer

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker. The company said the undisclosed daily check is a safety measure designed to allow the tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, to quickly shut down in case of a malfunction." The EULA is suppose to disclose this daily call-in feature. Lauren Weinstein, who is co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility, was one of the first people to notice the daily communications to Microsoft. Report from Yahoo.com"

Comments

What kind of bullshit excuse is this?

[ScrewMaster]

... quickly shut down in case of a malfunction.

So Genuine Advantage needs to contact the mothership in order to be told that it's broken and needs to terminate?

Please.

Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this?

[ottothecow]

I hate that tool...it seems like it is the only update that gets pulled down regularily. It pulls itself down and gets installed when I finally relent to it (since I am in no hurry to update it, even though updates come out all of the time) but then it wants me to restart. That's all fine and dandy, I'll let it do its business the next time I feel like restarting.

Oh, whats this? It pops up every 10 minutes asking me to reboot and gives me no option like "remind me tomorrow"

Come on microsoft...dont force me to sit through this shit on nonessential updates

Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this?

[JonahDark1]

I'm sorry, but you've completely missed the point. I don't want my computer talking to Microsoft daily. I don't believe Microsoft has any right to know what's going on with my computer. My software is a legal copy and if they want to check that when I download updates, I'll tolerate that, but it shouldn't be sliently calling home.

Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this?

[oh_bugger]

According to some comments on a webpage posted earlier in the thread (hunt for it), people have been incorrectly accused of having non-genuine versions of Windows when they actually have completly paid for versions. If this is true then one day turning on their computer to find it's formated and not working will probably piss them off, even more if they realise it was Microsoft that did it. Also someone might deside to write some malware which fools the program into telling Microsoft that the copy of Windows is pirated, a while later Microsoft will go ahead and do the damage for them.

Whether or not Windows is or isn't the best OS to have, these people chose to pay their money to Microsoft and the excuse "It'll teach some pirates a lesson" is not enough to waste their time and money.

Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this?

[Archtech]

"If you disagree with Microsoft's actions, you are free to use another operating system or office suite or what have you".

And there you have it. As more and more users come to understand the legal facts of the matter, as expounded in this thread, they will have a strong incentive to adopt other operating systems that cost less and impose less unreasonable conditions.

In this context it is interesting to note that the difference between Windows and Linux is steadily being eroded. Indeed, in some ways Linux is distinctly superior; but the key point is that its weaknesses relative to Windows (read: buying objections) are rapidly disappearing. SuSE, to which I am in the process of migrating, is easier to install than Windows; just as efficient; more flexible; and, AFAICS, just as easy to use once you get used to it (which takes a few days). On the plus side, it's far less expensive, offers far better support, and is open and extensible.

Applications used to be a deal-breaker, but I have been using OpenOffice.org recently and it is, if anything, better than Office for my purposes. (Admittedly, I still have Office 97 which is arguably inferior to Office 2003, but why should I shell out big bucks every few years for what is essentially the same product?) Quicken used to be an issue, until Intuit suddenly withdrew from the UK market at the same time as my copy of Quicken mysteriously stopped working. So now there is really no reason why I would prefer Windows to Linux.

Whoa!

[rahrens]

Just one more reason NOT to use Windows as my operating system!

Re:Yawn

[sweetooth]

A safety feature that it doesn't need. Genuine Advantage only needs to be checked once. Upon verifying your Windows install it should never communicate with Microsoft unless specifically asked to do so. Doing anything else is highly suspicious and bad form. Failing to put this communication information in the EULA is also bad, but is likely an oversight on someones part so can probably be forgiven, we all make mistakes.

Re:Yawn

[collectivescott]

Regarding point 1: My copy of windows checks time.nist.gov, not microsoft. In addition, however, I was asked before this function was enabled, and I can disable it at will.

Regarding point 2: Where is the safety switch for internet explorer? I'm sure IE causes way more "computer explosions" than genuine advantage.

Let's be honest here. A phone-home capability in genuine advantage is suspicious, given the function of the genuine advantage program. It makes people running pirated versions of windows especially nervous. The bottom line is, if it isn't a spy tool, there ought to be an option to disable it. If it is a spy tool, get it the fuck off my computer. Period.

Re:Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? This isn't old news. Every time I have downloaded this to do installations on the computers we setup at work it says very clearly it performs a "one time check". When did "one time check" become every day? Microsoft is fucking scum.

Re:Yawn

[Agent Green]

Microsoft doesn't really give a shit about the single-use, single-pc key so much. The whole crux of the Genuine Advantage thing is to keep an eye on the corporate volume licensing keys.

If a corp. license gets out into the wild, it's going to spread like mad (duh). With all those updated PCs phoning home on a daily basis, Microsoft should be quick to get wise to whose key just slipped out and put the kibosh on it.

How many people had the FCKGW key before that got pulled in SP1? :)

remote deauthorization

[johnrpenner]

if microsoft can remotely 'unlegitimize' a copy of windows,
couldn't a virus or worm massively remotely cripple loads of machines
by exploiting this...?