Can You Tell the Difference Between Pirated and Genuine Windows Vista?

Sometimes, the difference between a pirated Windows Vista copy and the genuine product is subtle enough to confuse even the most acute customer. The fact of the matter is that there is an entire underground industry built around the counterfeiting and commercialization of Windows Vista, and the bootleggers deal not only with hacking the operating system's built-in anti-piracy protections but also with mimicking as close as possible the external features designed to guarantee a genuine product. With Windows Vista, Microsoft is providing a range of online resources via HowToTell set up to help end users assess the validity of their purchase.

First off, it is important to note that if you acquired your copy of Windows Vista preloaded on a computer then you should also have gotten a Certificate of Authenticity from the Original Equipment Manufacturer or System Builder. In the image at the bottom, you will be able to see the entire span of anti-piracy measures orbiting around a genuine copy of Vista. On the first column on the left you can view COAs from OEMs and System Builders.

If you purchase and download Windows Vista online, the situation is a tad more simple. All you have to know is that only Microsoft's Windows Marketplace and the Windows Upgrade Anytime processes are offering downloads, respectively new product keys for the operating system. No other website in the world is authorized to offer Vista, or any other Microsoft genuine product for that matter, for download.

Now, the retail edition of Windows Vista has a few additional anti-piracy measures. And before anything else, make sure that you are getting the operating system in the unique box Microsoft designed especially for the platform, the Office 2007 System and Windows Server 2008. Also look for the Certificate of Authenticity, the Proof of License Label orange label with the product key number, and the complex hologram on the DVD. You can see an example of it in the second image.

Of course that you can always take a shortcut if you already purchased a copy of Vista and suspect fault play, and just download and install Windows Genuine Advantage. In the end, you should be able to spot the wolf, eve in sheep's clothing.