The Last Genuine Copy of Windows XP

When will the last genuine copy of Windows XP fail to successfully run Microsoft's ever-growing gauntlet of anti-piracy weapons? If you think about, it would seem to be just a matter of time until all copies of XP are deemed counterfeit. The only question is just how long after Windows Vista ships that day will come. Back when Microsoft first rolled out what was then the "voluntary" Windows Genuine Advantage (WG

When will the last genuine copy of Windows XP fail to successfully run Microsoft's ever-growing gauntlet of anti-piracy weapons? If you think about, it would seem to be just a matter of time until all copies of XP are deemed counterfeit. The only question is just how long after Windows Vista ships that day will come.

Back when Microsoft first rolled out what was then the "voluntary" Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program, I observed that this was already getting to be an old story with Microsoft. As with product activation, adding yet more anti-piracy locks on Windows would predictably do little to stop the real software pirates but figured to cause problems for some honest customers down the road. Sure enough, the result of forcing WGA on customers who want Windows updates has been a building crescendo of complaints on the Gripe Line -- and elsewhere -- about authentic copies of Microsoft's validation tool identifying authentic copies of XP as non-genuine.

"Tried to use Windows Update today," one reader recently wrote. "Previously, you could opt out of downloading the WGA tool. Now, however, you are forced to download the tool as part of the Microsoft Update program, just to be able to download other updates. I tried the 'Change Settings' link to disable the use of Microsoft Update. So far, so good. Go back to Windows Update site and guess what? Still need to download WGA in order to download other updates. Something is very, very wrong here."

Things get more wrong once WGA registers a false positive when checking for counterfeit copies of Windows. "I bought my PC about three years ago and it had a product key on top to verify that the XP operating system was good," another reader wrote. "I have upgraded over the years with the latest Microsoft fixes. I have done verification several times and tried to follow the rules. I was verified last year when I loaded Microsoft Antispyware program. Last week I received a pop-up to indicate that a new release of Antispyware was available. I replied yes to upload the program, then it indicated that it would validate my system. I replied yes to that message. After that, my system now gets the message that I may be a victim of software counterfeiting. If I want to stop these pop-ups and remove the message, send them $149.00 and they will give me a valid operating system. I looked on their list of invalid systems and I cannot find my number. I sent them a message and the indications are they will not help. If I do not like it, sue. What can a person do? Suing costs more than $149.00."

Just because a customer's version of XP has been validated as genuine in the past doesn't mean it won't be invalid the next time.