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Microsoft disclosed Monday that over one in five Windows installations were deemed non-genuine through the company’s Windows Genuine Advantage program, which requires users to validate their operating system before downloading updates from the company.
Since WGA launched in July 2005, over 512 million users have attempted to validate their copy of Windows, Microsoft said. Of those, the non-genuine rate was 22.3 percent. 56,000 reports have been made by customers of counterfeit software, which grants that user a free replacement copy of Windows.
Microsoft does admit to as many as 571,000 false positives (corrected on 1/25 per a correction in the original article – ed.) and you have to wonder how many legitimate paying customers were too baffled to actually complain, particularly given the anemic 56,000 who bothered to dropped a dime with a freebie in the offing.
Whatever the real number of pirated copies all this may be morally commendable, but the real question is how many scofflaws did it turn into paying customers? Aside from the 56,000 freebies there isn’t likely to be a clear answer. The next act in the morality play will be the Windows Vista Software Protection Program which has rather more draconian penalties than WGA.
A selection of Microsoft goodies from Santa’s sack:
Visions of sugarplums danced in their heads – Merrill Bets On Yahoo!-AOL Merger, but they don’t rule out Microsoft. Most interesting part:
Merrill also highlights this tidbit: “our understanding is that AOL’s current contract with Google has a change in control clause that would allow either [Microsoft] or Yahoo! to move its traffic onto their platforms.”
And Apple must have been not naughty, but nice this year – Planned Home PC Purchases Surge, Apple Closes On HP. Also IDC says that while 3Q2006 US sales were flat, global sales are rising and laptops now outsell desktops. More on IDC’s report here.
More gifts – Microsoft Teams With Macrovision to Populate Windows Marketplace with over 1,000 games. I’d nearly forgotten about Windows Marketplace, Microsoft’s digital delivery store for PC software and more.
Mom’s Genuine Holiday Surprise - Microsoft no longer thinks Joe Wilcox’s mother is a software pirate.
Finally, a lump of coal for Windows Live Drive which may be DOA.
Wait, there’s more!
First Exploit Of Windows Vista Spotted. It doesn’t seem to be much of an exploit, but it’s notable for being the first admitted exploit for Vista. Microsoft is very precise these days on which security holes are attributable to Vista and which to programs that run on Vista.
Here it comes – Microsoft builds Vista buzz in Tokyo’s Akihabara.
Google edged out Yahoo to become the number 2 Web venue in term of worldwide visitors during November according to comScore. Microsoft is still number 1. Google results did not include YouTube which was 10th.
Microsoft fights Gmail in the workplace – it’s all about mailbox size.
Microsoft made available version 1.2 of the Team Foundation Server MSSCCI (Microsoft Source Code Control Interface) Provider which allows a range of IDEs to access Team Foundation Server, the collaboration component of the Visual Studio 2005 Team System platform.
Microsoft in legal battle over ‘Halo’ game for mobile phones. Follow the link for Todd Bishop’s explanation of why French game maker In-Fusio is suing Microsoft. I’m still trying to figure what playing Halo on a mobile phone could possibly be like.
Besides upselling pricey new versions of its Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft is also committed to increasing the return on its Windows franchise by reducing the “shrinkage” from piracy. To that end, Microsoft yesterday rolled out a press release complete with pictures of genuine and fake Vista packaging:
And although Windows Vista is not yet broadly available, unauthorized DVD copies of Windows Vista are already for sale on streets around the world. Users unaware or looking for an inexpensive version of the software are risking, at minimum, losing their money, and worse, exposure to the security risks associated with acquiring and running counterfeit software.
… With the exception of products purchased by customers under volume license agreements, users can be confident that 100 percent of the copies of Windows Vista advertised for purchase or download prior to the January 30, 2007 consumer general availability date are counterfeit, and that any new PC purchased and pre-loaded with Windows Vista prior to general availability is improperly licensed or counterfeit software, and carries a risk of hacks, Trojans or other malware.
While there undoubtedly are unknowing users who end up with counterfeit goods, I suspect that most piracy involves customers who are fully aware of the clandestine nature of what they are buying and thereby indifferent to the nuances of the packaging. For them the deterrent is the Vista Software Protection Platform announced in October and related Microsoft actions and that’s actually the meat of the press release. Basically Microsoft promises to routinely retire compromised product keys and also release Vista updates that target specific counterfeit versions as they are discovered.
In particular, Microsoft released the first such Vista update this week to counteract the so-called “Frankenbuild:”
Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a number of attempts at workarounds for Vista product activation. As of now there are at least two distinct workarounds that have worked to some degree, but I’m sure there are more on the way. One of these workarounds we have affectionately named “frankenbuild” because it involves cobbling together files from an RC build and with an RTM build to create a hybrid that bypasses activation.
… Windows Vista will use the new Windows Update client to require only the “frankenbuild” systems to go through a genuine validation check. These systems will fail that check because we have blocked the RC keys for systems not authorized to use them. In other words, the wrong key is being used. The systems will then be flagged as non-genuine systems and the experience will be what we announced back in October …
All this is certainly exciting, but the ultimate objective is to make more money so the real question is how many conversions to paying customer status will be accomplished and that’s obviously still up in the air, if it is even measurable.
IDC suggests that “Microsoft’s anti-piracy campaign will drive customers toward Linux,” but Joe Wilcox disagrees and reasons that Windows XP is the pirate’s best friend. I suspect they are both right: Linux for political reasons in the developing world and XP because of its familiarity to pirates despite the newly strengthened Windows Genuine Advantage program. Then there’s the third option we are seeing now: head to head combat, Microsoft vs. the pirates. The pricey new versions of Vista make piracy an even more lucrative pastime and almost certainly guarantee more entertainment to come.
Ever since Microsoft snuck out the Office Genuine Advantage copy protection scheme in October, there’s been speculation as to what the full implications would be for Office 2007 and whether there would be a “reduced functionality mode” just as was implemented in Vista for copy protection. Well, Mary Jo Foley has spelunked the Microsoft Knowledge Base and found the Office 2007 kill switch. Hit the link for the details, but basically Office 2007 will only read documents, but not create or modify them if you fail the OGA activation test.
As I’ve observed before, there’s no particular objection to Microsoft protecting their products. It’s just that the sorry record of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is such that there’s an expectation of a non-negligible number of annoyed legitimate customers. Since the Office 2007 reduced function mode is only triggered by an activation test, the potential for annoyance is less, but with the ongoing OGA validation check which apparently uses different technology than WGA, the customers will now get to see if the Office folks did a better job.
Update Nov. 22: Microsoft says this isn’t new news and empasizes the difference between activation and validation.
