Windows Genuine Advantage positively false

By Stan Beer
Monday, 27 August 2007 21:38

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft's anti-piracy spyware Windows Genuine Advantage has been shown for what it is - a dangerously flawed system which treats customers with disrespect.

WGA has never been of any advantage to users and now that it has malfunctioned and returned a massive number of false positives customers have every right to demand that Microsoft end this insulting sham immediately.

There are no doubt a lot of Windows XP users incorrectly tagged as software pirates who are feeling thankful right now that they didn't succumb to the temptation of "upgrading" to Vista. At least they didn't have functionality and features stripped from their system.

As for Vista users, many of them would be quite justified in feeling dudded right now. Assuming the majority of them bought their Vista pre-loaded on a new computer, they must be wondering what exactly does this new operating system give them that they didn't have before - aside from more headaches.

One cannot really talk about WGA without also talking about Vista. With Vista, you get an operating system that requires vastly more processing power and memory to achieve equivalent performance to XP, less availability of drivers for third party peripherals, and, for the extra money it costs, you hand your vendor the right to spy on you and disable your software. Now that's value!

Seriously though, one would think that Microsoft already has enough troubles with irate customers in other areas for the company to continue with WGA.  Microsoft is already spending more than $1 billion and counting on shoring up its problems with faulty Xbox 360 consoles.

Although it is yet to be mentioned, there is even a possibility that Microsoft could face a class action suit from Vista users who have been adversely affected by having their legally purchased software disabled. This goes beyond merely inconveniencing users by forcing them to reactivate their software online although that's bad enough. Microsoft's snafu actually stopped some users from being able to do some productive work.

As other commentators have pointed out, the name Windows Genuine Advantage is beyond laughable. It is of zero advantage for users to have Microsoft spying on them. Piracy is Microsoft's problem; it is not supposed to be the problem of legitimate users.

In its own interests Microsoft would do well to consider how much WGA is actually costing the company in terms of good will and weigh that up against how much it is actually doing to reduce piracy. Microsoft may believe that with a massive user base locked into its software it is in an invincible position and can therefore do what it likes. However, the mighty have fallen before and will do so again.

One parting thought. If piracy was such a problem for Microsoft in the days before WGA, how was the company able to grow to the size and position of market dominance it holds today?