Microsoft intensified its anti-piracy program by introducing an extension of the Windows Genuine Advantage program. This new program will automatically scan Windows and let users know if their MS Office copy is legal or not. Called the Office Genuine Advantage, the new program will seek to weed out computers that have counterfeit copies of Office suite.
After a user downloads and installs a Notification Tool, the PC will be scanned and if found to be illegal, a message appears saying, "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."
This message will continue to be displayed whenever you login to Windows or even at start-up. "The notification will continue to display until your computer is running genuine Microsoft Windows," the initial dialog box warns the user.
The OGA program is being launched as a pilot project in seven languages, which are Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Redmond has already introduced an Office Validation Assistant tool last November. This product will eventually be integrated with the OGA, the company said.
The program is being first tested in the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. Analysts say that this is the second step that Redmond is taking to stop piracy, "Phase 1 was withholding certain things, such as downloads. But that wasn't going to make sure that people get legal, so they went on to the next phase.
Now Microsoft's going to remind them at boot, when the system wakes from sleep, that there's something funky about their Windows," said Joe Wilcox of JupiterResearch. Microsoft is also withholding certain features in its new Operating System, the Windows Vista, which will release later this year. Only genuine copies of Vista will have full features.
