Re: Windows Genuine Advantage: The Reality
- From: James <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:08:12 -0500
As this is not related specifically to JFW, it really doesn't belong on
this list. As such, any responses should be sent off-list to the original
poster, who's email address is will-pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx . In future, it
would be appreciated if topics like this were run by me before posting.
James,
List Admin
At 08:22 AM 1/27/2005, you wrote:
>Hi All;
>Apologies for the cross-post, but I wanted to get information about
>Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) to as many people as possible given the
>recent claims about it's accessibility.
>
>As some of you may have heard, Microsoft are planning to roll out the
>Windows Genuine Advantage program in the second half of this year. The
>aim of the program is to detect whether you have a genuine copy of Windows
>installed, which is something beneficial to the consumer, as it affords
>consumer protection seeing as it's often hard to tell whether software a
>person has brought is genuine or not.
>
>Windows Genuine Advantage has been running as a pilot for some time now,
>with those visiting the Microsoft Download section, who download certain
>software packages, and whose language is set to English, simplified
>Chinese, traditional Chinese, Norwegian or Czech, being invited to
>participate. As someone who has participated in the Windows Genuine
>Advantage pilot, I can say that I, as a daily user of JAWS, have
>encountered no problems.
>
>The program works by downloading an active-x control to your computer that
>checks the authenticity of the installed copy of Windows. It is an
>automated process, with the only reason it will prompt you for a product
>key being that you are yet to activate the copy of Windows that you are
>running. It then stores a key on your PC for future use, meaning that you
>only have to undergo the process once, unless you delete the key off the PC.
>
>Those who do not validate as genuine will still be able to receive
>security updates through automatic updates. If a copy of Windows fails to
>validate as genuine, information and help on how to deal with the
>situation will also be offered to the user.
>
>So, we as blind people have nothing to fear from Windows Genuine
>Advantage. It requires us to enter the product key no more times than we
>currently do, and there is not anything to be afraid of. Be assured,
>Microsoft are working hard to make their software accessible, something
>that is demonstrated by the improvements in accessibility between Visual
>Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2005, and if you ever have any feedback
>regarding accessibility, you can pass it to Microsoft in the following ways:
>1. Through the Microsoft.Public.Enable.Issues news group, which is run
>from the msnews.Microsoft.com nmtp news server, or your ISP's nmtp server.
>2. By emailing mswish@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or feedback@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>For more information on genuine Microsoft software, including tips on
>determining whether a piece of software is genuine or not, go to:
>http://www.microsoft.com/genuine
>
>Thanks for reading
>
>Will Pearson
>Microsoft MVP (Visual Developer/VC++)
>For information on the Microsoft MVP Program, go to:
>http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
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