WGA: Friendly Face, or Saving Face?

The notifications tool extends to nuisance level Microsoft's WGA antipiracy program. Once installed, the software checks--or in Microsoft parlance "validates"--that Windows is legitimate. If Windows fails the test, the user receives occasional popups, at computer startup or when waking from sleep, that the software is counterfeit.

The updated WGA Notifications will roll over weeks and months, before being available worldwide. "This is optional," referring to updated notifications tool, said David Lazar, director of Microsoft's Genuine Windows initiative.

The first iteration of WGA Notifications created unnecessary confusion. When in beta, the anti-piracy download was identified as an important or seemingly required update to people going to the Windows Update Website. Microsoft also dispatched the update through Windows Automatic Update. While Microsoft claimed the notifications tool was optional, only by reading the licensing agreement, or EULA, would anyone eventually understand the download wasn't required.

The updated tool is clearer. Consumers go through a Wizard process that explains "what Notifications is and what will be done before installation," Lazar said.

Microsoft's attempts to make WGA Notifications easier to understand and more clearly optional only addresses some of the complaints raised about the first iteration. Unresolved: appropriateness of Automatic Update as delivery mechanism for the anti-piracy tool.

"We do feel justified in sending this update through Automatic Update," Lazar said.

Automatic Update distribution raises, again, questions about the tool's role. Microsoft has never explicitly committed the update mechanism to security or operating system patches, but that was its primary function, until recently. Earlier in 2007, Microsoft started pushing non-security software, such as Internet Explorer 7, through Automatic Update. Windows Vista goes further, with an option for receiving Microsoft and third-party software via the auto-update mechanism.

The Automatic Update delivery mechanism can place unnecessary burdens on IT organizations already besieged by patches to manage. Microsoft offers businesses two options, Lazar said: Use Microsoft's Software Update Server to manage WGA Notifications or have end users refuse the update.

Lazar defends the practice, contending that users running in standard mode don't see the pop-up notifications. "When the administrators log in they'll get the messages," he said.

The updated WGA Notifications doesn't fully address another contentious topic: Phoning home. During the beta, the software checked in with Microsoft on a daily basis. Microsoft modified, but didn't fully back up the phoning home mechanism when releasing the first WGA Notifications. As part of the update, Microsoft reiterated that the program would be ongoing and changing. The company plans to roll out a new version of WGA Notifications every 90 to 120 days. Conceivably then, Windows users could be prompted to install or re-install the update every three to four months. The process raises questions about how optional really is the software.

Microsoft also reserves the rights to invalidate Windows as part of the ongoing WGA updates. A computer that validates today could be invalidated in three months, as part of Microsoft's antipiracy efforts.

The risk of false positives remains, too. My mother unwittingly downloaded and installed WGA Notifications. The tool invalidated her computer, and she receives popups claiming her software is counterfeit. I got and setup that computer for her. She has the original software--and from a major PC manufacture, I might add.

Lazar said that Microsoft "scrubbed messaging [to be] friendly and non-accusatory," in the notifications and on the Genuine Advantage Website.

My mom feels accused by the popups, or so she tells me every time we speak. Maybe she will get help. "We want to do right by your mom," Lazar said.