WAT's that - a legit Windows 7 on my PC, or counterfeit?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 12 February 2010 13:55

Your IT - Home IT

Microsoft is preparing to release a 'voluntarily' update to its Windows Activation Technologies (WAT) for Windows 7 users to detect 'more than 70 known and potentially dangerous activation exploits which attempt to bypass or compromise your PC's security', something set to give pirates the shivers and Linux lovers a Windows-bashing field day.

If you've been pirating copies of Windows 7 and deploying activation evading technologies to fool Win 7 into running on your PC and successfully downloading Windows updates, your time as a cyber Long John Silver may soon be over.

That's because Microsoft has updated its 'Windows Activation Technologies' (WAT) for Windows 7, preparing to roll out a new version to users that want to download it, but before we get to the details, here's a little abridged history.

With piracy of Microsoft's products still rampant and Microsoft founder Bill Gates once even having credited piracy with making his products so popular that Microsoft would be able to cash in on those pirate users in the future, the inevitable move towards making some of those pirates pay began in earnest with Microsoft's 'Windows Genuine Advantage' (WGA) program, with WGA the precursor to WAT.

This extended the practice of forcing users to enter in a CD key by checking the bona-fides of that key with Microsoft's online activation servers, which naturally caused pirates to simply find ways to circumvent the activation, or make copies of Windows think they were properly activated.

There was also concern that some properly activates copies of Windows would eventually be subject to some kind of Microsoft stuff-up where a previously activated copy would suddenly be marked as 'counterfeit'.

Naturally, such stuff ups occurred, enraging some users, while causing Mac and Linux fans to snigger, but in the main, it stopped most consumers from simply lending copies of their installation discs to their mates, something that grew Microsoft's user base but deprived them of cash.

Eventually, Microsoft decided to eliminate the term 'Windows Genuine Advantage', seeing as it was really more annoying than 'genuine', even though the 'genuine' term related to being in possession of a 'genuine' copy of a version of Windows.

So it renamed WGA into WAT instead, but ultimately, it's the same thing: a way for Microsoft to stop casual piracy, turn up the wattage on earning money from retail sales, and discovering illegally activated and pirated copies of Windows which then enter a 'nag' mode to get 'counterfeit' Windows users to pay up and go legit.

Given that Windows 7 has been out for a while now, and given that pirates have found various ways to bypass the Win 7 activation process, continuing work on the WAT technology comes as no surprise - and now Microsoft has an update.

Details on page 2, please read on!