Microsoft is offering a new incentive to get Windows users to turn in vendors selling allegedly counterfeit products: It is offering to replace their pirated Windows copies for free.

Microsoft announced the newest wrinkle to its Windows Genuine Advantage program on Wednesday.

Launched in September 2004, Windows Genuine Advantage is an anti-piracy program. It is designed to check whether consumer and small-business customers are running legitimately licensed copies of Windows XP. Users validate by providing Microsoft-requested system information, including their Windows product keys, names of PC manufacturers, and operating system versions, which the Redmond software company uses to determine if customers are running legitimate copies of Windows.

Microsoft has been testing the Genuine Advantage program on the Microsoft Download Center, where it has been requesting that users validate their copies of XP before obtaining certain Microsoft programs, patches and fixes for download.

Currently, Windows Genuine Advantage is an opt-in program for most users. Microsoft is testing a mandatory version of the program among Simplified Chinese, Czech and Norweigan users. But the program is set to become required for all Windows users in the summer of 2005, Microsoft officials have said.

Prior to today's announcement, if users' copies of Windows failed validation, Microsoft required them to seek help from their resellers. If the resellers failed to provide legitimate replacmenet copies, Microsoft asked the users to purchase their own replacement copies for the full retail price of $299.

In the U.S., Microsoft is now offering users running allegedly pirated versions of Windows XP Professional a different option. First, Microsoft will advise these users to attempt to get replacement copies from their resellers. But if that fails, Microsoft will offer them a completely free replacement copy if they can provide the actual counterfeit disks and receipts for the software. They also will need to fill out a counterfeit report, naming the resellers who sold the allegedly counterfeit products.

If users are unable to provide the alleged counterfeit disks, Microsoft will still offer them an opportunity to obtain replacement copies. But Microsoft will still require these users to fill out the aforementioned counterfeit reports, as well as allow Microsoft to perform a system scan of their PCs, which Microsoft says is meant to insure that "the system files are still in their original state." These users also will need to pay $149 for an electronic key for their replacement copies.

Microsoft plans to run the new replacement offers through June 30. After that, "we will look to evaluate the customer response," said David Lazar, director of Microsoft's Genuine Advantage program. Lazar said, depending on the feedback, Microsoft might expand the new options to other countries and possibly to Windows XP Home Edition.