Microsoft is to enhance the product-activation programme in its Office software to make it more like that in Windows.
Microsoft also has introduced a new program that will test to see if customers have a genuine version of its Office productivity suite, according to the company.
Windows Genuine Advantage(WGA) Extended :
Microsoft will extend its WGA programme to send alerts directly to users of pirate software, the company said yesterday.
Under a Volish scheme - the Genuine Software Initiative - Microsoft said it will provide “notifications” to consumers using non-genuine Microsoft Windows XP.
“Customers” who are running a non-genuine copy of Windows, get to have the notifications beamed “directly to their desktop” to inform them that, “the copy of Windows they are running isn’t genuine”.
WGA automatically checks that customers using Windows Update, Microsoft Update for Windows and the Microsoft Download Center have a legitimate version of the Windows operating system before they can download updates or new content from those services.
So far, more than 150 million PCs have participated in WGA, the company said.
Office Genuine Advantage(OGA) :
Microsoft launched a pilot of the Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program in seven languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish, according to Microsoft. The program will determine if pilot users have a genuine installation of Microsoft Office installed on their computers.
OGA is part of Microsoft’s Genuine Software Initiative (GSI), which is directed at reducing software counterfeiting and piracy. Microsoft already put in place Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) as part of this initiative in July 2005.
Microsoft has increased its efforts in recent years to fight software piracy and the counterfeiting of its software products. In addition to the GSI, the company has been working with hardware vendors to fight piracy and counterfeiting in countries that are prone to software piracy, such as China.
[break=Microsoft piracy pop-up is persistent]
Microsoft has been quietly piloting its Software Genuine Advantage programme in Norway and in Sweden since November.
This week, the scheme has been be extended to the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.
Details of the scheme have been avaiblable for some while on this page here, where we found the text of the message you can expect to see on your screen should you be considered a pirate:
"It appears that you could be a victim of software piracy. The copy of Windows installed on this computer is not considered to be genuine by Microsoft.
The notification will continue to display until your computer is running genuine Microsoft Windows."
Microsoft says that every time a notification is displayed, the user will receive detailed information about the specific validation failure. The information includes steps that van be taken to resolve the problem.
These don’t seem to include, “try Linux instead”.
We’ll be interested to hear how you get on..
[break=Notification]
Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications notifies you if a copy of Microsoft Windows XP is not genuine. The notification messages are displayed only on computers that have failed the Windows Genuine Advantage validation process and that are running a copy of Windows XP that is not genuine.
If you are running a validated, genuine copy of Windows XP, you will not receive notification messages.
Notification messages
The following notification messages will appear on computers that are running a copy of Windows that has failed the Windows Genuine Advantage validation process: • Logon notification
When you log on to a non-genuine copy of Windows XP, you receive the following logon notification error message:
It appears that you could be a victim of software piracy. The copy of Windows installed on this computer is not considered to be genuine by Microsoft.
The notification will continue to display until your computer is running genuine Microsoft Windows.
When you receive this message, you have the following two options:
[ul]
[li]You can click Resolve now to start the Get genuine Windows process.[/li][li]You can click Remind me later. If you use this option, an icon will be available in the notification area that you can double-click to start the Get genuine Windows process. [/li][li]Balloon notification[/li]After you log on to a non-genuine copy of Windows XP, you receive a balloon notification message in the notification area that is specific to the validation failure. You can click the balloon notification or the notification area icon to open the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Failure Web page. This Web page gives you the specifics of the validation failure and the steps that you can take to make the operating system genuine.
[li]Desktop banner text[/li][/ul]
If you use the Remind me later option, the following banner text appears on the locked desktop :
[ul]
[li]You might be the victim of software piracy. [/li][li]The copy of Windows installed on this computer is not considered to be genuine by Microsoft.[/li][/ul]
Every time that a notification is displayed, you receive detailed information about the specific validation failure. The information includes steps that you can take to resolve the problem.
Notes :
[ul]
[li]The frequency of the notification messages is determined at installation time. The notification messages continue to be displayed until the non-genuine copy of Windows has been validated as genuine. [/li][li]Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications will be deployed in Norway and in Sweden on November 29, 2005 in a limited test. [/li][li]Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications will be deployed by using Automatic Updates.[/li][/ul]