Microsoft is taking its fight against software piracy to the desktop.
Starting on Tuesday, the software maker will push out a test tool that checks whether the copy of Windows a PC is using is properly licensed. It will be sent to millions of people in the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, Microsoft said on Monday.
Following download and installation of the "Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications" tool, users of a pirated copy will see alerts at startup, login and during their use of the operating system. The alerts read: "This copy of Windows is not genuine; you may be a victim of software counterfeiting."
Those who use a legitimate copy of the software won't see any messages, Microsoft said.
People will be able to decline the tool download, but once it's installed it can't be removed, said David Lazar, director of the Windows Genuine program at Microsoft. Users can also suppress the alerts by right-clicking on them when they appear during the running of Windows.
In addition, Microsoft this week is kicking off Office Genuine Advantage, which checks on installations of the productivity package, which includes Excel and Access. The plan is to test out the programme initially in seven languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish.
The efforts are part of Microsoft's antipiracy fight. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) was launched in September 2004. Since last July, Windows XP users have had to validate their operating system to be able to download additional Microsoft software, such as Windows Defender, Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer 7. Hackers, however, have repeatedly found ways around the checks.
The alerts include a link that goes to a Web site that explains what people with pirated versions of Windows need to do, Lazar said.
Earlier, Microsoft confronted people with the piracy checks when they attempted to download such add-ons. The switch to desktop alerts was introduced on PCs in Norway and Sweden in November 2005, then expanded to the Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Poland, and Taiwan in February. Tuesday's move is a further expansion of the trial programme.
The WGA expansion is a precursor to the antipiracy features Microsoft is building into Windows Vista, the update to the operating system expected in January 2007. In Vista, certain operating system features will only work as long as it is a properly licensed copy.
Microsoft isn't pushing Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications out to all Windows users, but to a random subset, Lazar said. It is using its Windows Automatic Updates feature to deliver the tool. Automatic Updates, typically used to deliver security fixes, is enabled on the PCs of most Windows users, according to Microsoft.
To date, more than 150 million PCs have participated in the WGA program, according to Microsoft. About 65 percent of users in seven countries have accepted the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications tool download, it said.
Microsoft's piracy checks won't prevent users from getting security updates. Regardless of whether a system passes the genuine test, security updates have been available to all Windows users, via either manual download or Automatic Updates.
Talkback
I can see where malicious hackers could find useful ways of exploiting this 'desktop warning' by creating a piece of malware that replaces it for one that impersonates legitimate warnings and does various other things instead of just warning, like searching out users who lack certain security patches. Or for example release a 'patch' against the desktop warning to catch people who don't understand what the hell is going on with all these warnings on their system, and then maul them after coaxing them to download the fake patch.
User Ignorance is now and will be for a long time to come a very fertile playground for malicious opportunities.
Then again, it's also another half-assed attempt from Microsoft to establish their presence and make it known to people they want their profit's worth. They could be working on a more secure environment with for example a Service Pack 3 for Windows XP instead of writing silly programs that check the validity of a source and then spam the user with (mostly) useless warnings.
I imagine Ballmer and Gates will be gleefully data mining the database they will build with this tool for the thieves that owe them money.
Once they turn over the list to the Business Software Alliance these despicable EULA violators will be getting a chance to explain their illegal use of Microsoft products a district attorney in their home town.
I want to thank Bill Gates and his army of flying monkeys for pushing the "Windows Genuine Advantage" patch out to my Windows XP Laptop yesterday. Now it won't run at all, stopping with a blue screen in the log-on process.
So far nothing has fixed it and I am, of course, reluctant to use the "Recovery Wizard" and wipe and load my machine.
My next step is Linux on my laptop...
Like Bill Gates is not rich enough...............
I think Microsoft have got a real cheek..I bought my PC second hand with Windows already in place and have no intention of paying £90 to Microsoft for a problem that was not of my making. After the nasty little tool installed itself on my PC I had no less than five popups every time I turned it on and I found it impossible to log off. I have managed to get rid of the popups.. all in all not a good advertisement for MS ..
Anon