14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has confirmed that the behavior of Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been aligned with that of Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Updated versions of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications have started popping up on the Microsoft Download Center as early as August 25, but it wasn't until a day later that Director of Genuine Windows Alex Kochis detailed the update introduced to WGA Notifications for Windows XP Professional. This week Microsoft has started serving the new releases of Windows Genuine Advantage Validation and Notifications via Windows Update. According to the company, the Validation mechanism was adapted to be aware of the latest hacks, leaked product keys and the freshest techniques to circumvent the activation process, while the Notifications component was also tweaked.
"In this release we're making it easier to install and stay up to date with the latest release of WGA Notifications. We've changed the installation experience and are again using the Windows Update install prompt we have used previously," Kochis stated. "In this release we've also added the ability for future updates to WGA Notifications to have both the validation logic, as well as new forms of notifications, installed without additional steps. This will only be the case for those who install this latest version or future versions of WGA Notifications."
Kochis added that with the new version of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications, Microsoft intends to gun down non-genuine copies of Windows XP Professional, the most pirated edition of XP. In this regard, the Redmond giant is focusing on the most problematic areas of XP piracy, targeting not only the Professional but also the Tablet and Media Center SKUs. In accordance with the WGA Notifications release on the Download Center, the anti-piracy tools have been tailored to both XP SP2 and XP SP3.
"With this update to WGA Notifications in Windows XP, we've implemented a couple of related features that draw on the notifications experience we designed for Windows Vista SP1. After installing this version of WGA Notifications on a copy of Windows XP that fails the validation, most users will discover on their next logon that their desktop has changed to a plain black background from whatever was there previously. The desktop background can be reset to anything else in the usual ways, but every 60 minutes it will change back to the plain black background. This will continue to happen until that copy of Windows is genuine," Kochis explained.
Users of pirated editions of Windows XP, detected as such by WGA Validation, will start noticing a "persistent desktop notification" designed to inform them of the non-genuine status of the operating system. "I'm excited about how this release balances our goals of providing a great experience to those who have genuine Windows and at the same time creating a compelling experience for those who have non-genuine copies to get genuine Windows," Kochis concluded.
Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications 1.8.0031.0 is available for download here.