When it launched in September its "Windows Genuine Advantage" pilot program, Microsoft was hoping 20,000 customers would opt into the voluntary program, via which Microsoft checks whether customers are running counterfeit copies of Windows.

But by a little over a month later, 828,000 customers had opted in, according to Microsoft officials on Wednesday. And they did so with no real incentives, admitted David Lazar, director of Microsoft's Windows client product-management group.

What led to the unexpected boon?

"People want to know if they are running genuine software," Lazar said. "And people really were interested to find out if there were any benefits for opting in."

Until Thursday, there were no tangible benefits to participating in the Microsoft Genuine Advantage program. But now, users who agree to participate in Microsoft's program will be offered up to $390 worth of software for free or reduced prices.

Microsoft is offering English-speaking Genuine Advantage participants a free copy of Photo Story 3 for Windows; five MSN Zone games for half price; a free trial version of its OneNote note-taking product; a free copy of the Microsoft Holiday Fun Pack; a hosted version of SharePoint for half-price; and a subscription to the Microsoft List Builder service for less than $10 a month.

Microsoft also will be expanding the Genuine Advantage pilot to include four languages in addition to English: Simplified Chinese (for PRC Singapore); Traditional Chinese (for Hong Kong); Norwegian; and Czech.

To participate in Microsoft's Genuine Advantage program —
which is aimed primarily at home and small-business customers —
users need to visit the Microsoft Download Center and request to download one or more of the "genuine" Windows products from that site.

At that point, users are asked whether they are willing to validate that their copies of Windows are real. They do this by activating their software, a process via which Microsoft creates a match between the customer's PC hardware profile and 25-character product key.

Users who "pass" the Genuine Advantage test will be offered the aforementioned software deals. Thos who find that their copies of Windows is pirated and/or counterfeit are not penalized, Lazar noted. In fact, Microsoft does not know the identies of these users, he said. And they will still be allowed to download the requested items from the Microsoft Download Center.

In order to further assure users that Microsoft is not collecting data on them or their systems, Microsoft recently contracted with TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH, a German auditing firm, Lazar said. That firm has verified that Microsoft's procedures and claims regarding the type of data it gathers during the Genuine Advantage sign-up does not violate users' privacy.

Microsoft advises users who discover their software is not genuine to make sure to continue to turn on Windows Automatic Updates to receive critical security updates; to return their products to the reseller or other party which sold them the product; and to fill out a "Report Piracy Now" report on the Microsoft Genuine Advantage site if the seller declines to replace the counterfeit product.

Microsoft officials are in the midst of assessing data from the pilot, Lazar said. The company has not said when or if it plans to make the validation process mandatory and whether the company plans to extend the program to other Microsoft software.