14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy utility from Microsoft has slipped out of sight at just 18 months since its release. It is still pushed by the Redmond Company as a high-priority update but the controversial tool rests nowadays in clear and calm waters as the public attention has slowly shifted from it. Both its audience and critics are ignoring Microsoft's continuing efforts to fight piracy. Windows genuine Advantage is no longer news but merely an every day utility that is gaining additional support from the community. "They have a right to say, `If you want patches from Microsoft, you know, you should let us make sure you're not running a pirated copy of Windows,'" said Gartner analyst John Pescatore. "That's a valid claim, and with the Windows Genuine Advantage tool, I think, they tried to go a little too far."
In its 18 months of life, Windows Genuine Advantage was deemed spy-ware due to the controversial connections of its Notifications component, a part that was amputated by Microsoft, the Redmond Company concomitantly issuing a new license that explained in detail the functionality of its tool. The utility also spawned two class action lawsuits in Microsoft's home land, but considering the measures implemented by the software giant in response to the negative feedback related to the WGA, the legal actions have little to no chance of success.
The WGA was also subject to false positives reports, but the company representatives minimized the issue claiming that the erroneous reports were amounting only to a fraction of a percent of all the 300 million computers scanned by the anti-piracy utility. In the end, WGA identified an estimated 60 million pirated copies of Windows XP running on computers across the globe, decreasing the trust in Microsoft and also enhancing paranoia related to corporate control and privacy policies. The Redmond Company has actively denied the integration of a kill switch in the utility together with the mandatory level of the WGA, and is still pushing the tool as a condition for the installing of security updates. Commenting on the issues, Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division had this to say: "We're really trying to amplify the fact that being genuine enables a set of benefits and value."