Microsoft recently made the “Genuine Advantage” check for downloading certain software updates from its website mandatory. This means that users who want to download software like Movie Maker, Media Player and Antispyware will have to go through the “Genuine Advantage” process to prove that their copy of Windows is legit.

Since the release of Windows XP, this is the only thing Microsoft has done that actually will help them a little in fighting piracy. They have done things before like blocking certain product keys in service packs, but those were pointless as there are key generators available which can generate retail and volume license keys for Windows XP that can be used to install the product and activate it online.

But with “Genuine Advantage”, Microsoft is now able to check if the user actually used a product key released by Microsoft to install his or her copy of Windows XP. So if a key was used, which was made using a key generator, chances are that this key is not in Microsoft’s database of released keys, and the “Genuine Advantage” check fails.

This isn’t a problem for 1337 hackers, since “Genuine Advantage” has already been cracked with a few lines of java script, but it will be a problem for a lot of average users who knowingly or unknowingly bought pirated versions, or PCs with pirated versions, of Windows XP. The problem will start when they find out they can’t update their PC on Microsoft Update, or can’t download certain software from Microsoft. And this is what Microsoft wants.

Microsoft is hoping these users will contact them so they can find out where these users got their pirated version of Windows. Perhaps this will be the case sometimes, but I doubt most users will contact Microsoft, when they can just contact the people where they got the PC in the first place.
At least Microsoft now has a tool which enables them to discourage pirates a little to sell pirated versions of Windows XP.

What will happen now is that pirates are going to look for a way to find legit keys that can pass the genuine validation check. A single legit volume license key is enough for one of those small IT shops Microsoft is after, to distribute to all their customers without Microsoft having any way of finding out. Unless the key leaks to the web.

And apart from the javascript crack, it appears you can get through the “Genuine Advantage” validation, on any machine, by simply choosing “Genuine Windows Validation, Alternate Method” on the Genuine Validation page, and enter a validation code which has been known to validate correctly. ;)