Windows Genuine Advantage Gets More Lenient

Troglodyte writes in with word that Microsoft is revamping its Windows Genuine Advantage program so that it labels fewer users pirates. WGA now has a third category besides "genuine and "not genuine," called "not sure." Quoting: "[I]t's quite obvious what is going on here: Microsoft has added 'not sure' as a way of cutting down on the number of false positives associated with WGA. As many as one in five PCs were failing WGA checks, but this new setting should both reduce this and give Microsoft the chance to investigate further the kinds of things that are landing folks in the 'not sure' category."

Comments

Re:I got a better idea

[alexhs]

Companies pirating mass quanities of MS software was a major concern Really ? Why ?

Not only did it kill MS revenue Really ? Never heard that. Please show us the numbers of MS sales plumetting...

it screwed consumers as they thought the copies they were buying were legitimate. Really ? How would that screw them ?

(Rest of your babble built upon baseless and wrong assumptions. How can that be modded +5, this is just plain revisionism)

Re:Most of you must not remember win95/98

[danpsmith]

because in those days 1 copy of windows would supply dozens of people (family, friends, their family, etc).

Do you _really_ expect people to buy a copy of an OS for each machine in their home? Because it's not going to happen, ever. The only way MS has gotten away with this "you can't reuse your OS" crap is because there is a copy of Windows they pay you to use with every installation. If consumers had to go out and buy one box per computer, you'd better believe there'd be an uproar about this.

Re:I got a better idea

[bill_mcgonigle]

Don't you think that if that were a workable idea, companies like Apple would have embraced it already, what with Steve Jobs's stance on DRM and all? I guess you've never had to type in the 128-digit code and pass retinal verification from your iSight to reinstall Mac OS X on your Mac....