Today, October 18 2007, Internet Explorer 7 is one year old. And Microsoft has a real present in store, just the thing to celebrate such an occasion. That's right! Microsoft has come out and said it straight! The Redmond company is recommending all Windows pirates to access, download and install Internet Explorer 7 even if their copies of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 are "not genuine." At the beginning of October, Microsoft introduced the first update to IE7 since the launch in 2006, and starting at that point, Windows genuine Advantage validations are no longer mandatory for the users of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2); Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to get their hands onto the browser.

Still, at first, Microsoft's move to open up the browser to all Windows pirates, was largely a matter of perspective and semantics. At the time, Steve Reynolds IE Program Manager, had stated: "Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we're updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users. With today's "Installation and Availability Update," Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users." (emphasis added)

The protection bit generated some confusion, as scrapping WGA from the download and installation process of IE7 was interpreted as a strategy to slowdown Firefox's growth. But the fact of the matter is that Mozilla had the upper hand against Microsoft, simply because the open source browser could be accessed without any issues by all Windows users including those running pirated versions of the operating system. Microsoft would not have it! And today, on the browser's one year anniversary, the Redmond company is permitting, and even encouraging Windows pirates to grab IE7.

"Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation check is disabled. The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation check process is now disabled in the Windows Internet Explorer 7 Installation and Availability Update. Therefore, you can install Internet Explorer 7 even if the version of Windows that is installed on the computer is not genuine," Microsoft revealed in Knowledge Base article 940767.