[evilfantasy]

With Windows 7, 'Genuine' is out; 'Activation' is in

Microsoft will be changing to name of it’s activation and validation system from “Windows Genuine Advantage” to “Windows Activation Technologies” according to a report by Mary-Jo Foley.

However, the “Genuine” brand isn’t completely disappearing. A press release states that Microsoft will continue to deliver genuine updates and notifications for XP users. The program has been criticized for its punishment tactics and false-positive results, even though Microsoft has fixed some of these problems in Vista SP1.

According to Microsoft, Windows 7’s activation will be built on the same software protection platform that was part of Vista, with some minor tweaks made for Windows 7.

“In Windows 7 we modified this process: When customers choose to activate later they will see a dialog box highlighting how activation helps them identify if their copy of Windows is genuine and be allowed to proceed immediately without a 15-second delay. In Windows 7 we’ve made changes so that users will see more informative notifications messages and be able to more easily complete the tasks they need to.”, said Joe Willians, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows in a Q&A session.