Microsoft battles piracy on the desktop

Microsoft is taking its fight against software piracy to the desktop.

Starting today, the software maker will push out a test tool that checks whether the copy of Windows a PC is using is properly licensed. It will be sent to millions of people in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the UK and the US, Microsoft said on Monday.

Following download and installation of the "Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications" tool, users of a pirated copy will see alerts at start-up, login and during their use of the operating system. The alerts read: "This copy of Windows is not genuine; you may be a victim of software counterfeiting."

Those who use a legitimate copy of the software won't see any messages, Microsoft said.

People will be able to decline the tool download or uninstall it, said David Lazar, director of the Windows Genuine programme at Microsoft. They can also suppress the alerts by right-clicking on them when they appear during the running of Windows.

In addition, Microsoft is this week kicking off Office Genuine Advantage, which checks on installations of the productivity package, which includes Access and Excel. The plan is to test out the programme initially in seven languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish.

The efforts are part of Microsoft's anti-piracy fight. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) was launched in September 2004. Since last July, Windows XP users have had to validate their operating system to be able to download additional Microsoft software, such as Windows Defender, Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer 7. Hackers, however, have repeatedly found ways around the checks.

The alerts include a link which goes to a website that explains what people with pirated versions of Windows need to do, Lazar said.

Earlier, Microsoft confronted people with the piracy checks when they attempted to download such add-ons. The switch to desktop alerts was introduced on PCs in Norway and Sweden in November 2005, then expanded to Denmark, the Czech Republic, Israel, Poland and Taiwan in February. Tuesday's move is a further expansion of the trial programme.

The WGA expansion is a precursor to the anti-piracy features Microsoft is building into Windows Vista, the update to the operating system expected in January 2007. In Vista, certain operating system features will only work as long as it is a properly licensed copy.

Microsoft isn't pushing Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications out to all Windows users but to a random subset, Lazar said. It is using its Windows Automatic Updates feature to deliver the tool. Automatic Updates, typically used to deliver security fixes, is enabled on the PCs of most Windows users, according to Microsoft.

To date, more than 150 million PCs have participated in the WGA programme, according to Microsoft. About 65 per cent of users in seven countries have accepted the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications tool download, it said.

Microsoft's piracy checks won't prevent users from getting security updates. Regardless of whether a system passes the genuine test, security updates have been available to all Windows users, via either manual download or Automatic Updates.

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com