Re: Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications application

Galen wrote:

In news:eFcqf%23faGHA.5000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
kurttrail had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Pfft...

I'll play the bad guy. If your OS is clean and not stolen property
(included for Kurt) ACCORDING TO THE EULA you shouldn't have any
problems. Follow the rules and it is not a problem.

Unless it is a false positive. Or are you saying that WGA has a
perfect track record of only finding pirated installs?

I said I'd play the bad guy - I didn't say I'd outright lie about it.
I have enough valid licenses for Windows than I'll ever be able to
use really but no... Sometimes I still end up needing to call in for
activation and I've even had times when WGA has told me that my copy
wasn't genuine. Perfect? Not even close. For the people who get false
positives it has to really be a pain. I don't know any numbers (and
I'm sure that some folks would say "one is too many")

That would be me. One is way too many.

but it's likely
a small percentage of people.

I had a problem a couple of days ago, when I went to Microsoft Update.
Before retrieving the list of patch, I need to update WGA, but it
failed.

There are so many problems that MS has created a debugging tool. Small
percentage? 1% represents how many hundreds of thousands (millions?) of
people?

So, if (and yes I say this just for you
you know) ACCORDING TO THE EULA the software's not stolen then what
seems to be a vast majority of people haven't any problems with it.

Could care less. The ill will of those that have been affected spreads
quickly.

Take the sharing of books. Except for public libraries, sharing books
is technically illegal, but the word of mouth sales generated tends to
only help the book publisher to sell more books. The opposite is also
true. As in consumers word of mouth that a product gives nothing but
problems, spreads too. The ONLY thing left insulating MS from this word
of mouth backlash, is that the major OEMs bundle Windows with every
computer. And that will not last forever. If I were a MS stockholder,
I'd be very concerned that MS's present day anti-consumer protectionism,
isn't cutting off the nose in the years to come.

Again a couple of days ago, I call up to do phone activation, and I went
through the automated BS, and when it went to transfer me to a PA phone
rep, it hung up on me before anyone answered! And that is not the first
time it has happened to me!

I guess I'm just a copy-protection problem waiting to happen, but I'm
not alone. The group has a WGA and/or PA problem posted on nearly a
daily basis. And talk about small percentages, only a mere handful of
Windows Users even know about the USENET, let alone find there way to
this particular group.

When it comes down to it, millions have had problems with MS's
anti-consumer technologies, and they all have friends. The ill-will
generated today will bite MS in the ass in the years to come, as its
dominence over the PC OS market fades.

One thing I'm certain of (more so after some watching and reading) is
that people who are going to steal the software aren't being hampered
by such things for long. It may prevent casual theft or alert people
who've had OSes installed illegally by shady OEMs but the 42 year old
man still living in his parent's basement and working his PC while
still wearing his underwear isn't going to be bothered by it at all.

He'll probably be running Linux anyway.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."


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