What's Genuine About Windows Genuine Advantage?
|
After a rash of reports the week of June 4 that Microsoft has been collecting on a daily basis information on users who have opted into the company's Genuine Advantage anti-piracy program, it seemed like time to separate FUD from fact. Here is Microsoft Watch's attempt to provide answers to some of the most commonly asked Windows Genuine Advantage questions. Q: What is Genuine Advantage? A: WGA is Microsoft's latest program designed to thwart software piracy. It is designed to check whether consumer and small-business customers are running legitimately licensed copies of Windows XP. There are two components to Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA): WGA validation and WGA notifications. Validation determines whether the copy of Windows installed is pirated or not. Notifications nag users who Microsoft believes are not running "genuine Windows" and "suggest" where they can "learn more about the benefits of using genuine Windows software." Microsoft launched WGA in September 2004. Since then, Microsoft has expanded its WGA pilots around the world. In April 2006, Microsoft announced it plans to apply Genuine Advantage to Office, as well. Q: Do I have to validate my Microsoft software? Or is it optional to do so? A:The Validation component of WGA became mandatory in July 2005 for Windows XP users looking to download any kinds of Windows-related updates and fixes. Microsoft is continuing its policy of allowing even those who can't prove they are running non-pirated copies of Windows to still obtain critical security fixes, however. Q: When does Genuine Advantage collect data from my PC? What kind of data? The first time a user runs the WGA validation check, Microsoft's servers collect the following information: "None of this information is considered personally identifying Information," according to Microsoft, meaning that a user's identity cannot be discerned from the information WGA collects automatically. Q: Microsoft recently acknowledged that its Genuine Advantage servers are pinging users' PCs on a daily basis. Why was Microsoft doing this? A: It seems to be the Notifications, not the Validation, component that has been "phoning home" to Microsoft from users' systems on a daily basis. Microsoft officials claim the daily call home is a "safety check" that it implemented when it first rolled out the Notifications pilot program earlier this year. If Notifications went amok on Microsoft's side, Microsoft wanted a way to terminate the program quickly, officials said this week. Officials acknowledged they did not communicate Microsoft's implementation of a daily system check to users until the week of June 4. Q: What information has Microsoft been seeking/collecting during the daily WGA system check? A: PCs that have done the initial WGA Validation check do not send information to Microsoft each time they are booted up, according to the Redmond software maker. However, the WGA Notifications program has been doing a daily check to determine if WGA should run or not. According to Microsoft, however, no identifying system or user information is sent to Microsoft as part of this daily check. Q: Is Microsoft intending to continue the daily WGA server-side-check process? A: No. On June 8, Microsoft announced plans to change its WGA system checks: "As a result of customer concerns around performance, we are changing this feature to only check for a new settings file every 14 days. This change will be made in the next release of WGA. Also, this feature will be disabled when WGA Notifications launches worldwide later this year. " Q: If users block or disable Genuine Advantage, will Microsoft still ping their machines? A: No. If someone chooses not to accept the WGA Notifications pilot, it is not installed on their machine and therefore does not do the daily server side check, Microsoft officials said. Q: Given these facts, is WGA technically spyware? A: Of course, Microsoft's answer is no. But spyware is all in the eye of the beholder. If users are not properly notified about exactly what software a vendor installs on their systems and/or about the function and purpose of that software, it sure sounds like spyware to us. |
Comments (7)
I do not blame Microsoft for wanting a validation tool. Operating systems are NOT free and people who steal through peer-to-peer are thieves and cheapskates who want something for nothing. This is why they need to at the monet have DRM for music as well for the download services. If I was a music artist, and I may soon be, I would not want people stealing and recopying my music and giving it away for free to others who did not pay for it. Justification of why we do things does not validate stealing or hacking or finger-pointing! So therefore I am not afraid of this and I never have been. SO QUIT YOUR WHINING!
Posted by Ernie Mink | June 13, 2006 4:55 PM
Every time you move to a new webpage, or do a search, or turn your computer on, or run a MS Office application - Windows sends out a packet to Microsoft's IPV6 server - and receives no response back. In other words, the IPV6 traffic is nothing more than a spoof to send data back to Microsoft all day long.Do you think your tracks are covered? No, they are not. If you block the sending port and site, the software switches to another port and another site, and keeps doing to until it reaches Microsoft again.It takes a while, but you can eventually block all this traffic. But I am sure with some future update, Microsoft will change the servers used, or make do with other ports and the holes will be opened once again for mass data collection.
Posted by Kokuryu Tenchi | June 13, 2006 4:56 PM
MS Sucks!
Posted by MS Sucks! | November 13, 2006 4:31 PM
Microsoft is starting to scare me... and i paid full 200$ price for my Windows Home edition... so I should have nothing to worry about right??? mmmmm I'm scared, what if our activation fails and someone else activates my serial number on their computer? Will Microsoft blame me for now having "pirated software"? Will it be enough that I have the box and disk... will they demand my receipt? And since i threw away the receipt will this be "proof" that I am a theif now?
And it's getting really annoying to have to "validate" my innocence everytime I want to update Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player or Windows Defender.. then they praise me "Thank you for using Genuine Windows" as if that makes me feel any better about being called a theif.
I think I am just gonna switch to mac... at least they aren't so paranoid.
Posted by cj | November 14, 2006 3:32 PM
an easy way how to get rid of Windows Genuine Advantage Validation:
WGA Fucker
http://wga.releaselog.net/
Posted by Alex | January 9, 2007 6:33 PM
I understand the impetus behind WGA in that it’s designed to thwart piracy. BUT, once it is determined by WGA that the operating system is perfectly legitimate, why isn’t that enough for Microsoft?
Tell me why that bloated software (WGA) has to connect to the Microsoft servers on every start-up in order to constantly validate the operating system, especially after it has already been validated/passed inspection? And yes, despite what is said here: WGa STILL PHONES HOME EVERY TIME I START UP my computer.
This slows my system down to a crawl as well…making me one very unhappy customer. Grr.
Posted by Microsoft is really pushing it this time | March 24, 2007 8:53 AM
http://wga.releaselog.net/ does not work...my browser cant find it
Posted by Jeff | March 27, 2009 10:20 PM