Windows 7 Anti-Piracy Plans

Slatterz writes "Microsoft has announced that the forthcoming Windows 7 operating system will contain a number of piracy 'tweaks' it says are designed to protect the interests of customers. Under the new regime users will be expected to validate their software in a much more precise way than before. Other Microsoft operating systems and anti-piracy measures, including Windows Genuine Advantage, allowed users to delay 'activation,' but Windows 7 will make it harder to ignore repeated messages. According to Joe Williams, general manager for Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, counterfeit software 'delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction with our products, particularly if users do not know that their software is non-genuine.' Williams gave the example of one piracy exploit that caused more than a million reported system crashes on machines running non-genuine Windows Vista before Microsoft was able to resolve it."

Comments

The interests of customers?

[Jeremi]

it says are designed to protect the interests of customers

Hahahaha!

Re:Really?

[socrplayr813]

Actually, I've seen it quite a bit. Usually what happens is a non-techy person will ask the neighbor kid to fix their computer. The neighbor kid puts on a pirated version because of laziness, anti-MS feelings, lack of a product key, etc. The non-techy person doesn't know the difference and never does manual updates, so they don't find out until WGA tells them.

but it's now WAT instead of WGA

[ILikeRed]

Oh, you mean like that time that the Massive Microsoft WGA meltdown fingered legit Vista and XP owners as pirates?

Lot's of fun I think - but since Microsoft is changing the name from WGA to WAT you should trust them to put the kill switch in your computer ;-)

I'm so happy I can do all my computing without having anyone's kill switch in my computer... sorry was I gloating?

Re:Really?

[Jamie's Nightmare]

One of the biggest sources of piracy Microsoft is trying to clamp down on is the local "Joe's Computer Hut"-type shop. Joe puts together motherboards and chips and sells $300 computers, including Windows. But what Joe's customers don't realize is that Joe is installing pirated copies.

And I used to work for one. I took a job in Florida working for a company (AVC Concepts of Bradenton, Florida. Now defunct.) that did just that. The owner sold computers with pirated copies of Windows XP installed. Around this time in 2006, Microsoft started to distribute WGA. Needless to say, we got calls from customers who's machines were flagged running pirated copies. It was my job to pick these machines up, bring them back to the shop and replace the pirated OS with a legitimate copy.

My boss instructed me to lie to customers and tell them that they had a valid copy, but that Microsoft's own Windows Genuine Advantage was fouled up. Blame Microsoft. It's an easy excuse that customers easily accept without much fuss.

Re:What does that say about the product?

[lukas84]

You're wrong. Non-genuine versions of Windows will still receive critical updates (including security updates).

However: Only through Auto-Update - you will not be able to access the Windows Update website and select the fixes you want to install.

Re:What does that say about the product?

[Tacvek]

See the page: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/FAQ.aspx
Look for the question: Do security updates require validation?

When Windows is detected as non-genuine, the automatic updates client will only download Critical Updates. It is not possible to use the Windows Update or Microsoft Update sites in that case. However, the individual patch downloads are still available though Microsoft's download site. When downloading individual patches, you can download any Critical Update patches, but validation is required to download other patches. For non-patch downloads validation is usually not required, but it varies.