Windows Genuine Advantage, an integer part of Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts under the Genuine Software Initiative umbrella, suffered a massive worldwide server infrastructure outage over the course of the past weekend. As an immediate result, the WGA labeled all genuine copies of Windows Vista and Windows XP going through the validation mechanism as pirated. While users have no problems whatsoever using non-genuine copies of Windows XP with just the minimum impact of a scare following the WGA validation failure, the same cannot be said for Windows Vista. Microsoft's latest operating system has the anti-piracy mechanism built-in, and if a copy is detected as pirated, the platform moves into Reduced Functionality Mode allowing access only to the most basic functionality.

"Earlier on 25 August we began receiving reports of Windows Vista customers running genuine systems but experiencing failures when attempting a Windows Genuine Advantage validation. This situation has since been resolved and validations are now being processed successfully. We've since learned that very few customers were affected. Sr. Product Manager Alex Kochis and a team of engineers have been working on the issue," revealed Nick White, Product Manager at Microsoft.

"We've been receiving reports on our forum and through customer service starting last night that Windows Vista validations have been failing on genuine systems. It looks now as though the issue has been resolved and validations are being processed successfully. Customers who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating on our site (http://www.microsoft.com/genuine). We encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to do this now. After successfully revalidating any affected system should be rebooted to ensure the genuine-only features are restored," explained Kochis.

Revalidation seems an easy answer for the Redmond company, and in fact no additional explanations have been offered to users. However, on the Windows Genuine forums, frustrated users have lashed out at Microsoft, trashing Windows Vista and threatening to migrate back to Windows XP. And the fact of the matter is that the latest Windows Genuine Advantage incident brings into focus the mechanism's failures. Microsoft has so far failed to make public any data related to the false positives the WGA is generating, while simultaneously alienating users of genuine Windows operating systems.

"Customers who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating. I'd encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to visit this site now; after successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure that genuine-only features are restored. Alex will [provide an update] as more information comes to light," White added.