Windows Vista Team Blog : Featured News, Windows Genuine Advantage

More details on this weekend's WGA validation issue

Nick White — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:39:00 GMT

Further investigation by our WGA team has brought to light more information on the WGA validation issue affecting users this past weekend. Alex Kochis on the WGA blog breaks down the events of the weekend that caused the validation failure, how it was identified and what was done to fix it, and changes we've made to WGA as a result. The upshot is that we're working to improve WGA, having learned much from this failure, and the team, with Alex in the lead, is taking the matter and its impact very seriously.

Among the points that Alex calls out, one is that around 12,000 customers were affected worldwide. While I stated on Saturday that "very few customers" were affected -- a poor choice of words, I will be the first to admit --, this by no means was meant to downplay the experience endured by those customers. As Alex puts it, "one bad customer experience is one too many," and I completely agree. That's the most important point and cannot be overstated. My apologies to anyone who felt slighted by interpreting that MS' stance was less than responsive and empathetic; I can assure you that the team worked non-stop to restore service to affected Genuine users.

I'll not go into the details of the issue here but instead leave you to review them on Alex's blog. Also, Alex has invited those with questions to address them to him via his blog.

Addressing WGA validation issues

Nick White — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 05:39:00 GMT

Earlier today (25 August) we began receiving reports of Windows Vista customers running genuine systems but experiencing failures when attempting a Windows Genuine Advantage validation. This situation has since been resolved and validations are now being processed successfully.

We've since learned that very few customers were affected. Sr. Product Manager Alex Kochis and a team of engineers have been working on the issue and has blogged about it to keep customers up-to-date. Customers who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating. I'd encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to visit this site now; after successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure that genuine-only features are restored.

Alex will be updating his blog with information as more information comes to light.

Sting! The biggest software counterfeiting bust in history

Nick White — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:00:00 GMT

[This is a post originally penned by Alex Kochis over on the WGA blog.]

Earlier today the Chinese Public Security Bureau and the FBI announced the largest bust of counterfeit software manufacturing or distribution ever. The bust took place in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and includes arrests that took place over the last couple of weeks. While the value of the software actually seized is estimated at about five hundred million dollars, we're estimating that the value of software produced and distributed over the last few years by this particular group is closer to two billion dollars.

Beyond the sheer size of the bust, the most exciting aspect for MS' WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) team is knowing that WGA played a role in it. More than 1,000 customers in 12 different countries who had purchased counterfeits from this particular source used WGA to learn their software was counterfeit, submitted the counterfeits to Microsoft, and forensic and intelligence specialists then traced the counterfeits back to the criminal syndicate in China. Windows customers using WGA actually helped bring down the biggest software counterfeiting operation in history, as without their help, it's possible that this piracy operation would never have been apprehended.

The goal of WGA goal is not to punish the people who purchased these programs -- they are in fact victims -- but rather to give them a tool that both lets them know they have been victimized and a way to do something about it.

A little cloak-and-dagger for your afternoon :). The one on the left is the genuine article.

Keeping it real

Nick White — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 05:58:00 GMT

In a recent post to his blog, Alex Kochis, Senior Product Manager for Windows Genuine Advantage, discusses the on-going work on anti-piracy features incorporated into many of the products Microsoft releases. Part of the job is to communicate advances that keep pace with those of pirates, so his team has updated their How to Tell website -- a site dedicated to helping customers tell whether their MS software is legitimate. The site's updated look-and-feel can take advantage of higher screen resolutions; a further addition is an RSS feed to inform customers of changes to anti-piracy features in our products.

Alex also mentions the story behind the holography on Windows Vista DVD's (and other Microsoft product media), which we covered last month. The technology is called edge-to-edge holography and consists of a variety of objects embedded into the holograms integrated into product media, designed to help prove legitimacy of products consumers may purchase from various sources. Our story on the three men depicted in a microscopic photo on the Windows Vista DVD is an example of this technology.

If you've not visited the How To Tell site, I think you'll find it entertaining as well as eye-opening: entertaining because of what some people try to pass off as legitimate MS products, and eye-opening because other pirates have produced some extremely sophisticated fakes. Check it out.