WGA - No Kill Switch
Posted on July 2, 2006
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In a recent WGA article, I mentioned Ed Bott’s article about a theorized/alleged “kill switch” in the Windows Genuine Advantage stuff. On Friday, Computerworld.com posted an article with a quote from Microsoft denying such a thing.
“No, Microsoft antipiracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer,” said a spokeswoman with Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft’s public relations firm. “The game is changing for counterfeiters. In Windows Vista, we are making it notably harder and less appealing to use counterfeit software, and we will work to make that a consistent experience with older versions of Windows as well.”
Do we believe ‘em?
While the WGA thing calling home annoys and/or offends me, I’m not sure if I care if WGA disables unlicensed copies of Windows products. I’m legal and encourage folks I work with to be legit as well. Of course, the big caveat here is: Can you trust the WGA stuff to get it right? There are lots of stories (mostly anecdotal) about how it has either been wrong or hosed up systems… Until it is 99.99% accurate and no longer generating support calls and media hype, I’d certainly hope there’s no kill switch. But suppose its accuracy increases? Why shouldn’t MS be allowed to disable stolen software?
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Wouldn’t it be bad thought if you found out that you were running an illegal version of Windows and you find out by having a dead version of Windows. How do you get your work off? What would be smart is to give the user a warning before killing Windows. But that may be just me. Luckily I do have a legit version of Windows.