Last week, Microsoft releases the final version of its updated anti-piracy tool. And this week, the crack followed. The revamped WGA Notifications tool delivers an enhanced installation and validation experience. The updated WGA tool comes with a new installation wizard, autoupdate capabilities and with validation nuances. In order to reduce the volume of false positives, Microsoft has added a gray area to the conclusion of the WGA Notifications tool.

Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is available for download from Microsoft. According to the download page, the updated anti-piracy tool published on February 21, 2007 is the version 1.7.0017. One of the core changes of the updated WGA Notifications is the fact that the tool also introduces new anti-piracy capabilities.

In the wake of the new WGA Notifications' availability a hack has already emerged. As of yesterday, via certain forums, a new crack for Windows Genuine Advantage Validation was available for download. There is however little information about the crack. The only hint that points to the new WGA Notifications is that the crack tackles version 1.7.17.0.

The lack of information contributes to the risks associated with this WGA crack. This workaround may provide a crack for the updated WGA Notifications, but this does not exclude a scenario where it is crawling with malware. The fact that Microsoft has updated the WGA Notifications tool for Windows XP after the release of Windows Vista and the fast release of the crack indicates that there is still a lot of interest around Windows XP, from both pirates and Microsoft.