Leveraging the lessons learned from the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) changes made in Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft is planning to make several changes to the way that WGA works on Windows XP Professional, which it calls the most pirated version of the product.
In a post at the Windows Genuine Advantage blog, Microsoft said:
This release will be offered to the most pirated edition of Windows XP and therefore to users with the highest likelihood of having a non-genuine copy, those using Windows XP Pro. We’re also offering it to those using editions based on Pro code such as Tablet and Windows Media Center, but plan to narrow the offering to Pro in future releases.With this update to WGA Notifications in Windows XP, we’ve implemented a couple of related features that draw on the notifications experience we designed for Windows Vista SP1. After installing this version of WGA Notifications on a copy of Windows XP that fails the validation, most users will discover on their next logon that their desktop has changed to a plain black background from whatever was there previously.
You can see the way this looks above. A user can change the background back, but every 60 minutes the screen will change back to the above. That’s just the start of Microsoft’s nagging.
A translucent “ask for genuine Microsoft software” logo along with a “You may be a victim of software counterfeiting” message will also appear above the system tray. You can’t interact them, but this is a plus and a minus, as it won’t prevent the user from continuing to use the software.
As with the changes for Vista’s WGA, this is all about bugging the user, er, victim of a counterfeit copy until they get a genuine copy.
BTW, don’t misunderstand: Microsoft’s comment about XP Pro only means that the changes to WGA will apply to that OS and OSes derived from it, but the current WGA experience will still persist on XP Home.
