Microsoft planning to expand Windows Genuine Advantage efforts

Microsoft planning to expand Windows Genuine Advantage efforts

Software giants Microsoft recently launched a new initiative called the Windows Genuine Advantage, which was targeted at getting the owners of pirated Windows OS copies to buy original ones.

However, the company found itself in massive troubles when the software was labeled as spyware by security companies and privacy groups.

Nevertheless, legal hassles have not put any dampers on the company’s goal with this initiative and they are now planning to expand the scope of the Windows Genuine Advantage program.

Microsoft is now aiming to use WGA to go after system builders, PC makers and anyone else who attempts to pirate its software. They are also planning to make key components of its Windows Vista operating system as well as some updates to Internet Explorer only available to customers running genuine Microsoft software.

The company said in a statement on these plans: “We built a set of features and a set of functionality that is only available to genuine Windows customers,” Johnson said. “Windows Defender, for example, the anti-spyware for Windows XP and Windows Vista, is available to genuine Windows customers. Windows Media Player 11.0, Internet Explorer 7.0, will be available for download for Windows XP customers who are genuine, and of course, those are built into Windows Vista. Future updates to Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for Windows Vista will require them to be genuine. And certainly there’s some premium features built into the Windows Vista operating system that will require genuine validation as well. So we’re really trying to amplify the fact that being genuine enables the set of benefits and value to access these types of features and capabilities.”