Microsoft Target XP Pirates With New Updates

[GhostShip]

It looks like Microsoft is launching another round of system nuking with its latest updates, hidden amongst the normal fixes released today is a system stopping new addition to the WGA (windows genuine advantage).

http://blogs.msdn.com/wga/archive/2008/08/26/update-to-wga-notifications-for-windows-xp-professional.aspx

Starting this week, we will begin deployment of the latest version of WGA Notifications for Windows XP.  In addition to the usual updates to validation that improve WGA's ability to detect the latest stolen or fake product keys and other attempts to circumvent product activation, this release will also include a couple of other significant updates.
Simplifying the installation and making it easy to stay up-to-date

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. 

In this release we're making it easier to install and stay up to date with the latest release of WGA Notifications. We've changed the installation experience and are again using the Windows Update install prompt we have used previously.

Theres plenty of pictures shown to demonstrate when Microsoft have trashed yuor install, usually when their servers are down 

Be alert folks !

[White Stripes]

ubuntu anyone?

[SamSeeSam]

xp -essentials seems a good bet too
damn fast without all the cluttered apps and boots fast too...
Looks great too..

I try again to install ubuntu on my comp.... my last (12) attempt(s) wasn't successful at all

Heh I just turned off the windows update service

Cheers

[thunderwinds]

all microsoft is doing for me is convincing me that linux is the way to go.i already have opensuse  on one comp and it may be on all of them soon.

[Cerebral]

Microsoft is slowly killing its self by doing stuff like this, this is one of the reasons people are moving to linux.