After a raft of valid complaints folks ,MS has decided to relent a bit and give users more info on the process and why it may be failing for many genuine users.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/11/29/6122Microsoft released a new version of its not-so-popular Windows Genuine Advantage Notification Tool (WGA) for Windows XP this week, and thanks to consumer complaints, the company has made the tool much more upfront with information compared past iterations.
While older versions of WGA installed quietly and ran as a background service unless your system was flagged, the new release comes with an installation wizard that provides users with increased details about how the software works. The wizard also has an option to automatically update the software every 90 to 120 days so that users can ensure that they're always running the latest version of the WGA.
In the case that a system would fail the WGA check, a user is greeted with details as to why the system didn't pass the test. Prior releases of the WGA simply told a user that he may be the victim of software counterfeiting, but failed to go into great detail as to why. For systems where authenticity cannot be determined, Microsoft has created a new category of failure called "indeterminate" which allows a user to go through a series of troubleshooting steps to help decipher the problem.
Initially, the service will only be available to four known compromised product keys (FCKGW anyone?), but over the coming weeks it will be distributed worldwide through Automatic Updates.
It seems Microsoft can pay the music industry/extortionists a levy on its Zune player but cares little for stealing your net connection for its own use, how hypocritical :roll:
