Today, another blog joins The Windows Blog family. Previously my Genuine Windows/WGA blog, the new Genuine Windows Blog will feature posts not only from me, but from other genuine Windows team members, genuine Microsoft software partner teams, and other guest bloggers who can shed light on not just the challenges of fighting piracy, but the work that Microsoft is doing to help protect its customers from the risks of counterfeit software.

In the meantime, we'd like to add a few links to past blog posts that you might find helpful:

• Activating Windows 7: A video that outlines the customer experience of product activation and why it's important.
• Windows Activation Technologies - Activation and Validation in Windows 7: Read more about the next generation of product activation technology that started with Windows Vista and has been updated for Windows 7.
• The Surprising Risks of Counterfeit Software in Businesses: Key research that our team supported; a white paper about the risks businesses face when counterfeit software exists within their computing environments.
• What's the risk?: Foundational research that documents the risks customers might face when searching for free or heavily discounted software online.

Thanks and I look forward to the discussions that will happen here at our new home!

- Alex Kochis, Director, Genuine Windows

When the update will be installed, no functionality of the system will be affected. If it detects and exploits you will be provided a link that would describes how you can remove the exploits. Once the exploits are removed you will be asked to activate your Windows copy with a valid product key. If you don’t want to remove the exploit then Windows may disable the exploits and then ask you activate Windows using a valid product key (surely there would be a nag screen). This update has no uninstaller.

Microsoft delivered the first update to Internet Explorer 7 in approximately a year since the version of the browser was initially made available for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. Along with some minor tweaks to the graphical user interface and a revamped first-run experience and overview, on top of a redesigned online tour and updated how-tos, the new version of Internet Explorer 7 brings a major modification to the table. Both the download and the installation of IE7 build 7.0.5730.13 are no longer connected in any way to the Windows Genuine Advantage mechanism.

Prior to the update, users that wanted to access IE7 from Windows XP had to go through two stages of WGA validation. Once their operating system was labeled as genuine beyond any doubt, the users could enjoy Internet Explorer 7. And because IE7 is essentially designed as a replacement of IE6, Windows XP users had to go through the hassles of the WGA mechanism every time they wanted to deploy and install the browser, even though their operating system had already been validated and re-validated as genuine. (more…)

Internet, internet explorer 7, minor tweaks, new version of internet explorer, operating system, validated, Web, wga, windows genuine advantage, windows users, windows xp sp2, xp

Further investigation by our WGA team has brought to light more information on the WGA validation issue affecting users this past weekend.  Alex Kochis on the WGA blog breaks down the events of the weekend that caused the validation failure, how it was identified and what was done to fix it, and changes we’ve made to WGA as a result.  The upshot is that we’re working to improve WGA, having learned much from this failure, and the team, with Alex in the lead, is taking the matter and its impact very seriously.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Among the points that Alex calls out, one is that around 12,000 customers were affected worldwide.  While I stated on Saturday that “very few customers” were affected — a poor choice of words, I will be the first to admit –, this by no means was meant to downplay the experience endured by those customers.  As Alex puts it, “one bad customer experience is one too many,” and I completely agree.  That’s the most important point and cannot be overstated.  My apologies to anyone who felt slighted by interpreting that MS’ stance was less than responsive and empathetic; I can assure you that the team worked non-stop to restore service to affected Genuine users.

I’ll not go into the details of the issue here but instead leave you to review them on Alex’s blog.  Also, Alex has invited those with questions to address them to him via his blog.

Further investigation by our WGA team has brought to light more information on the WGA validation issue affecting users this past weekend. Alex Kochis on the WGA blog breaks down the events of the weekend that caused the validation failure, how it was Read More……(read more)