Microsoft:WGA checks every month

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thexfactor

thexfactor

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Microsoft's New Validation Policy

Microsoft has started a new policy of authenticating the Windows operating system. Previously when a user has installed Windows they had to activate the OS with Microsoft online or by phone. One could understand why Microsoft put the activation process into place, with all the pirating that was taking place with early verisons of Windows.

Now Microsoft has taken authentication of the Microsoft Validation to a whole new level. Starting now, they will be checking your operating system every month. Now, I'm not saying this development is bad or good. I'm just wondering what impact this has on our daily lives. Ever since I received an email stating this new policy I've been wondering why Microsoft felt the need to validate each copy of Windows every month and have come up with a couple of reasons why...

First, I'm sure that each month they uncover more and more previously activated Product Key's and therefore as they find out about them, they deactivate the key codes that look like they're pirated. What this means to you is that you need to be vigilant to follow Microsoft's license agreement and only have one computer running one license at a time. If you have two computers and activated the second computer by calling Microsoft to get around the online activation failure, they will be able to detect that 2 different computers are running off of one license and shut both down. There go any critical updates and extras you would otherwise get by staying legal.

Second, it gives Microsoft the opportunity to poll your hardware configuration each month. This allows them not only to see if your license is running on different computers but also gives them a general idea of what Windows users use hardware-wise. They'll know when you change video cards, motherboards, CPUs, add memory, etc. Is this a big deal? That's not for me to say. I don't mind but I'm sure there are people who would mind. With this information they can aggregate the data and sell it to companies who use that type of information and/or build new software programs that can take advantage of new hardware once they know there is a greater number of users who can run the new software, thus optimizing their ability to sell software.

One of the potential impacts I see is bandwidth. If Microsoft is checking every Windows user every month then that is however many millions of checks that get sent to Redmond, WA. Doing it once per install is one thing but now this number of checks gets multiplied by 12. Could have an impact on their bottom line at the very least, and they'll of course pass this cost on to it's customers...meaning a higher cost of software in the future.

Nothing to get alarmed about but it is something to think about.
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Microsoft's New Validation Policy - Computer Blog - Computer Repair, Networking, Information Phoenix
 
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This is true, WGA is back. It installed on my machine with an update couple of weeks ago.

Nothing that can't be taken down with the proper tools ofcourse, but if its every month, that blows :(
 
montylee said:
good news for GNU/Linux, lol!
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:clap: :clap: :clap: Me having genuine Win MCE but haven't used it from past year :cool2: Shifted to Ubuntu. They already Banned few shops in my city accusing that they was selling pirated softwares :bleh: .. Who cares when 1 using Linux :clap: :D :ohyeah: Open Source will be used widely soon. What so ever if user will be forced to buy Genuine Win they will opt for Open Source as Win cost more than normal PC that a rudimentary Indian User buy :rofl:
 
^^ true @ nearly 9000 bucks for a single license and being subjected to monthly checks like that, this will be too much to bear for genuine customers.
 
It's a royal pain... I have had Xp for a long time, this wga check also kicks in, when you have new major hardware changes. I had been fiddling around and re-building my system for a month. I have had to re-activate this computer 4 times now. This means, since I have reached the so called"maximum number of activations" I have to call MS every single time I needed to reactivate the damn thing. You can't just get straight through to an operator, you have to go through the whole activation process over the phone before it will fail you and forward to you to an operator, where of course, you have to go through the whole process again.

It's a little much, and I found it very annoying... at least there should be an option to go straight through to an operator when you know that you are going to fail standard activation due to maximum activation limit.
 
This is really irritating for genuine users. Even when activating my XP copy, I had to wait 3 days since it failed to activate online every time I tried earlier.

I would gladly move to Linux, though I play games so that I cant shift. :(
 
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