This install of Windows will self destruct in 30 days
Ed Bott at ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft will soon make installation of WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) mandatory. Not only will it become a mandatory install, if WGA isn’t installed within 30 days, the install of Windows will cease to operate.
If WGA becomes mandatory, would it mean that Microsoft could prevent Windows from working if it determines – possibly erroneously – that your copy isn’t “genuine”? That’s a chilling possibility, and Microsoft refuses an easy opportunity to deny that that option is in its plans.
Chilling indeed. Maybe it’s not such a bad time for Bill Gates to retire. If MS truly decides to make a “kill switch” out of WGA, it could be the boost for Apple X and Linux that they’ve both been waiting for. I’ve already had a few problems with WGA on my home PC and have seriously considered making the full time switch. Not because I want to, but WGA is annoying at best. I don’t like that it “phones home” either.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, MS, WGA, Windows Genuine Advantage, Apple, Linux, kill switch
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June 29th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
[...] Microsoft sued over WGA On the heels of the uproar over Self-Destructing Windows installs, a lawsuit was filed in US District court(seattle) this week. The lawsuit calls Microsoft’s WGA a spyware. The suit by Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks class-action status for claims that Microsoft didn’t adequately disclose details of the tool when it was delivered to PC users through the company’s Automatic Update system. [...]