Mistakes happen. But when software publishers make mistakes with their anti-piracy programs, it always seems to be the users who pay the price. That's certainly been the case with Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program throughout its less-than-illustrious history, and now a new pilot program for Office Genuine Advantage (OGA)
Mistakes happen. But when software publishers make mistakes with their anti-piracy programs, it always seems to be the users who pay the price. That's certainly been the case with Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program throughout its less-than-illustrious history, and now a new pilot program for Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Notifications nagware has started off on the wrong foot.
On April 15th, a day when many of us are busy enough as it is, a reader saw a "critical update" for Microsoft Office in Windows Software Update Services (WSUS). As he always tries to keep the Windows and Office users at his company up-to-date, he started to download it until he saw it was something called Office Genuine Advantage Notifications (KB949810). The reader is familiar with OGA and was certain all of his Office installations were good, but he also knew he wanted no part of OGA Notifications.
"This is not just the Genuine check that happens when you try to download some of Microsoft's Office content from their web page," the reader wrote. "This is the 'always-on, installed permanently into your PC thing' like XP WGA Notifications. This is the first time I've seen it come out via Windows Update, and as a 'critical update.' The reason I'm upset is this is exactly how Microsoft pushed WGA Notifications on people, sneaking it in with security updates. And we all remember how unstable the first releases of WGA were."
Microsoft's description of the update -- particularly the fact that it was not removable - was also cause for concern. And, as is always the case, Microsoft tried to make it sound like its various anti-piracy locks are somehow for the user's benefit: "If the copy of Office installed on the computer is genuine, the software will provide periodic reminders to help you take appropriate action and protect yourself from security threats posed by counterfeit software," the update description read.
"Right, it's to help me," the reader wrote. "And what do I do when their OGA servers fail to recognize my properly licensed software? Will it only let me use the Courier font, or will I be locked out of my documents completely? I've downloaded the latest OpenOffice.Org installer and will keep it handy for the day when my users yell that Office has locked them out."
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