the "Windows Genuine Advantage" servers are DOWN. DONT reboot your machines..
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"Windows Genuine Advantage" is the lovely bit of spyware that runs on XP and Vista (and is downloaded and installed as a fix). So far so good.
However, it looks like the server farm at the Microsoft end of this particular piece of nonsense is down, and anyone who's PC reboots and dials in has their copy of windows marked as counterfeit. Which means "reduced functionality mode". Or more likely, their machine crashing and their data lost, given the programming prowess demonstrated by Redmond this millenia.
Class. Microsoft implement a horrible, 1980's style spyware sniffer which relies on their servers delivering accurate results - but they cant keep their servers running. So the "normal" user gets penalised. Whist anyone out there who actually wanted to steal XP or Vista (and god knows why they'd want to do that) presumably has WGA switched off or hacked out in the first place.
So the only people actually being checked, and now thanks to their inept operations - penalised - are the very low-tech users who have paid MS (usually via the likes of Dell).
I mean, you cant make up this kind of stupidity..
I'd love to think that MS will learn from this, switch off or desensitise their WGA and stop hurting the very people who buy their product. But given that Steve "Mr Chair" Ballmer is still in charge, I know there's a snowballs chance on hell of this.
MS Dont realise that the desktop OS market is theirs to lose. And its actions like this (or Vista, or lack of investment in Explorer, or buggy automatic updates that screw your machine) that will drive people to their local apple mac store, or to the fedora/ubuntu/suse web sites..
Comments
Posted by Matthijs At 14:22:18 On 26/08/2007 | - Website - |
Anyway, it couldn't verify my license via the Internet so I had to call some phone number, type in a 20 character code TWICE, then repeat the same code TWICE to the MS rep, all just so I can use Excel. And there was a huge language barrier between me and the MS rep. His English was almost as bad as my Hindi. A couple of weeks later I upgraded my memory and started the process over again.
You can't tell me this is for my own protection when I got my software DIRECTLY FROM MICROSOFT. It's some effort at control, but it's not one I even pretend to understand.
Posted by Charles Robinson At 14:54:38 On 26/08/2007 | - Website - |
Perhaps I wasnt being clear in my original posting. I have no issue with software vendors ensuring that their licenses are paid for - I'm a software vendor too.
What I do have an issue with is such a badly designed one that paying licensed users - people who are paying your mortgage - appear to be the only people who suffer when someone within MS cant run the WGA servers properly..
---* Bill
Posted by Wild Bill At 11:08:27 On 27/08/2007 | - Website - |
@Bill, what happened in the past is that certain volume license keys were used. When that is discoverd these are added to the check. So checks in the future will help discover those installs. I don't say i agree with these things, just how they work and why they exist. WGA problems this weekend showd how vulnerable this kind of systems could be if implemented badly (or at all)
Posted by Matthijs At 12:24:33 On 27/08/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by Todd Carpenter At 18:28:49 On 27/08/2007 | - Website - |
In other words, I no longer feel that basing my business on a laptop powered by XP or Vista is reliable enough. Especially Vista - I did suffer through two months of that pain, and removed it when it decided to continually move my home directory back to a full hard drive and losing my data.
So my primary OS will be OS/X - a nice stable, secure BSD-based OS, and if/when I need windows, it'll be parallels and/or vmware.
Should hell freeze over and Vista improve to the state that its actually usable, then I have the option of running Vista as a primary O/S. However, I can only see the macbook pro lasting three years, and even I'm not that optimistic.
Now before you write me off as an avid Redmond hater - consider I've been in IT since 1985, been an IT services manager spending millions of quid a year, and consulting for the last 12 years.
Is this a hasty decision ? No. Its one I've been *forced* into.
When and why are you switching? If not, what are you doing to ensure that your business doesnt suffer?
---* Bill
Posted by Wild Bill At 21:04:14 On 27/08/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by Turtle At 04:20:29 On 28/08/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by Turtle At 04:22:18 On 28/08/2007 | - Website - |
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Posted by Chris Linfoot At 13:24:49 On 28/08/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by Father Ted At 13:26:44 On 28/08/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by Bata Srki At 19:08:58 On 28/08/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by Pedro Quaresma At 07:26:16 On 31/08/2007 | - Website - |