Microsoft's WGA changes today
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Genuine Advantage not proven Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage is being updated today, in what the company claims is response to customer feedback.â¦
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Although Monday was supposed to be the day when Microsoft began pushing Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) to enterprises, it changed its mind at the last minute and delayed the automatic updating for more than a ...
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has blamed an unspecified server problem for a 19-hour stretch during which paying users of Windows XP and Vista were accused by the company's WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) validation system of running pirated software. Any Vista system fingered during the episode was stripped of some features, including the operating system's Aero graphical interface. As of Saturday at 3 p.m. EDT, Microsoft said the problem had been fixed. "We are aware it is a server-side issue," said Phil Liu, a Microsoft program manager in the WGA group. "[But] the cause is unknown at this current time." "Customers who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating on our site," said Alex Kochis, senior product manager of WGA, in a blog posting. The site Kochis referred to is the Genuine Microsoft Software home page, which includes links to validation tests for Windows and Microsoft Office. "After successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure the genuine-only features are restored," Kochis continued. The validation server snafu began sometime prior to 8 p.m. EDT on Friday, when users started posting messages on Microsoft's support forums, including Vista Validation Issues, saying that their PCs had been tagged as running nongenuine Windows. Overnight, the number of users adding their accounts to the tale spiked significantly, as did the frustration index. "What in hell is going on, Microsoft?" asked a user named Hedgemeister. "SUPPORT? Where are you? Validation issues with Vista. Hello? All of us need help," wrote Gnrlbzik. "This is an absolute disgrace. Treating legitimate customers like criminals is a great way to make people want to buy your software in the future! [I'm] absolutely disgusted," added Costanza. Although copies of both Windows XP and Vista were being tagged as counterfeit during the 19 hours, users of the latter were especially incensed. The WGA antipiracy scheme for that operating system disables several features when it thinks the copy is bogus, among them the Aero graphical user interface and ReadyBoost. Early in the outage, several Microsoft customers posted what they said was the text of e-mail they had received from Microsoft support that suggested users sit tight for several days. "I'm sorry to inform you that the Windows Genuine server might be down for few days," the e-mail, attributed to Microsoft Technical Support, said. "I have escalated the issue to our Genuine team, kindly try to validate again on Tuesday 28 Aug 2007." If the message was intended to mollify users, it didn't work. "TUESDAY!?! Yeah, f that," said Nooaah. It wasn't until Saturday around 1 p.m. EDT that a non-anonymous Microsoft manager offered up information. "I guarantee that we're working on this issue right now," said Liu in a post to the forum. "My goal is to identify a FIX for this issue -- afterwards get you all what you are looking for, an explanation and cause. I promise I will have an explanation and resolution as soon as humanly possible." Users' testy relationship with WGA Although Microsoft did not identify the number of affected systems Saturday, based on the user comments and Liu's promises, it appeared to be systemwide. If so, it would be the biggest problem so far in the developer's contentious WGA program. Designed to spot pirated copies of its Windows and Office software, WGA has been mandatory since mid-2005 before nonsecurity updates or files can be downloaded from Microsoft's site. WGA has faced criticism almost since its inception, but until Friday, the most vocal complaints dated back to June 2006, when users discovered that the Windows XP version of WGA was "phoning home" to Microsoft every time the PC was booted. Those critics returned when Microsoft upped the ante with Vista by replacing the WGA messages that only nagged XP users suspected of running counterfeits with a new policy that used an RFM (reduced functionality mode) to cripple machines. In RFM, only Internet Explorer works, and then for just an hour at a time. Because RFM only allows a grace period of three days to those who previously activated Windows but are subsequently deemed pirates, any problems must be fixed quickly to prevent customers' PCs from going dark. Microsoft managed to beat the deadline. That, however, didn't mean much to some, who said this was it for their relationship with the vendor. One claimed that he was heading out the door to buy a Mac, while others swore they would switch to Linux. Others called on Microsoft to ditch WGA. "Once again the legitimate person gets screwed while the people who pirate software probably aren't even affected," said Mark in the support forum. "This whole validation process should be dropped. This is just another nail in the Microsoft coffin." Saturday's outage was not the first time the validation service has gone dark and then identified all PCs connecting with the servers as running pirated copies. In October 2006, Microsoft's Kochis acknowledged a similar blackout. "Earlier this week, a server on the back end of the WGA service experienced a bug that resulted in a temporary outage. As a result, some systems were incorrectly flagged as being non-genuine, and we want to confirm for those who contacted us about this that it was indeed an error," he wrote.
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The Department of Justice and state attorneys general are raising questions about changes Microsoft wants to make in the schedule set out for its antitrust compliance.
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SEATTLE _ Google, unsatisfied with changes Microsoft is making to Windows Vista's desktop search feature in response to an antitrust complaint, is pushing for further changes and more judicial oversight of Microsoft's practices.
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Microsoft gives us an update on Windows Home Server
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Speculation is mounting over what will be in the next version of Windows and when the update will take place.
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Plus: Microsoft to release three versions of Xbox 2. [News.com Extra]
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Microsoft is to give users three working days notice about upcoming security patches. Starting this month the software giant will provide a general summary of upcoming updates just before it releases patches
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Microsoft today announced a significant change in plans for the next major release of Windows, code-named Longhorn. The new WinFS storage subsystem will not be part of it, as had been previously planned.
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TechWeb - The glitch occurred when Microsoft updated the Windows Desktop Search tool for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP 1+.
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Microsoft denied Wednesday that its software had arbitrarily changed Windows Vista's update settings, saying that users were responsible for the modifications that generated claims of unauthorized patch installs.Reacting to reports that first surfaced last Friday, a program manager for Windows Update said today that an investigation had turned up no evidence the Oct. 9 security fixes had switched settings in Vista's AU (Automatic Updates)."From the customer logs that we received, we found that none of the updates released as part of the October security release have made any changes to users' AU settings," said Nate Clinton in a post to a company blog. "In fact, in the logs we reviewed, AU in all cases was set to 'install updates automatically' prior to the October security release."Vista allows users to turn off AU entirely, tell the operating system to check for but neither download or install any fixes, instruct the mechanism to download files but not install them; or accept all patches without any additional approval.The claims that AU settings had mysteriously reverted to the "install automatically" setting began to trickle into a message forum on the AeroXperience Web site soon after the release last Tuesday of six security updates. Several users said that AU downloaded and installed patches even though they had specifically instructed Vista not to do so.But unlike last month, when a Windows newsletter revealed that Microsoft had updated users' PCs contrary to their instructions, the newest charges were limited to AeroXperience members. No similar reports, for example, were posted to the Windows Update support newsgroup hosted by Microsoft. During September's brouhaha, that newsgroup was thick with messages about the stealth updating.Certain that AU had not run amok and changed its own settings, Clinton fingered users for the altered state of AU. "I want to stress that the Windows Update client does not change AU settings without users' consent. However, AU settings can be set or changed in the following scenarios," he said, and then listed five; all require the user to take action or accept one option from several offered."During the installation of Windows Vista, the user chooses one of the first two recommended options in the 'Out of Box Experience' and elects to get updates automatically from Windows," Clinton said was one possibility. Another: "The user chooses to opt in to Microsoft Update during the installation or the first run experience of another Microsoft application such as Office 2007."Earlier, a Microsoft spokeswoman had been more blunt. "It may be more a case of someone clicking to change their AU settings but not realizing /remembering doing so," she said Tuesday.Users on AeroXperience writing to the forum after Microsoft wrapped up its investigation accepted Clinton's explanation. "The disparity between the Windows Update control panel applet and the OOBE (Out of Box Experience) update settings page (when first running Windows Vista) seems to be what's causing the confusion," said a member identified as Bryant.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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Microsoft has made a number of changes to its Windows Live offerings, including pushing some services out of beta and adding new features to others.
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That's Systems Management Server to you Microsoft is beefing up policing for Windows licensing after going back to the drawing board on its asset management strategy.â¦
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The new version of Windows is about to make its debut for businesses. Here's what you can expect.
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Among other changes, the software giant has established a Web site designed to make it easier to understand what the program's rules are.
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I'm back, with a very interesting topic too!  Joel Spolsky, ex-Microsoft Manager and software engineering guru has a new essay, How Microsoft Lost the API War that is creating quite a big storm in the blogging communitiy.  Joel posits that the priests in the holy Temple of Microsoft have lost their way, because it has split into two factions, and the wrong faction is winning. One faction worships on the alter of backward compatibility, while the other is led by fervent priests who are proselytizing to raise up the new gods of .NET and Longhorn. Joel suggests that the new gods will cause the destruction of the holy Temple because Microsoft's great victories were built on the altar of keeping customers happy with backward compatibility. Furthermore the old gods of the Windows API continue to grow more grotesque and cruel with the passing of time, driving former worshipers into the arms of the friendlier gods of World Wide Web.  This story sounds extremely plausible. I must admit that i fit the profile of the developer who used to develop on the Window's API, is familiar with COM and Win32 who now develops mostly using PHP and Python. However I continue to develop and maintain Windows apps that keep our customers happy, and we still plan to develop new Windows apps. Some points:  Temple of the Blind? Firstly, Microsoft is still a compelling place to work for to people who feel that they can make a difference. The Temple continues to attract talented people with a Unix background. For example we have the recent hiring of Ward Cunningham, author of the Wiki.  Microsoft is still able to keep talented people like Raymond Chen, and others like him who continue to look after the Windows API, and Longhorn apparently will still give high priority to backward compatibility. Open sourcerers like Miguel Icaza are sufficiently attracted to the .NET vision to stake their careers on Mono. Longhorn and .NET are compelling technologies, so even if Win32 is not so cute anymore, M'soft is providing something that remains very attractive.  What i do see M'soft doing wrong is that they aren't disseminating the .NET runtime fast enough. It remains an optional install in XP Service Pack 2 for example. Also their IE dev team appears to be hog-tied due to political reasons; nevertheless IE remains good enough, particularly when I can embed IE as an activeX control, something I cannot do with Mozilla (AFAIK) - Update: I'm wrong.  Temple of the Spider?  Secondly, people don't merely use a web browser. They run the web browser in the OS.  So let me ask you, if you are using DreamWeaver or HomeSite or Photoshop or vi or emacs or Gimp, how many of you are willing to give it up for a java applet (or whatever your favorite technology is) running in your web-browser? Precisely.  Temple of the Abandoned?  Third, Joel makes the claim that developers are not developing to the Windows API. Well he could be right. But I bet a lot of them are still calling Win32.  If you are using a framework or IDE like Delphi or wxWindows (or .NET or VB) then you certainly are insulated from the Windows API, but that doesn't mean that you're not calling the Windows API all the time. I don't see Borland dropping their Windows version of Delphi at any point in time.   In fact, the fact that many developers are using some form of framework is a compelling argument for Microsoft to enhance the .NET framework to attract developers who are using other frameworks.  Today, not that many students learn x86 assembler, but that doesn't mean that Intel lost the CPU wars. Just because fewer people are learning Win32 doesn't mean Microsoft has lost the API wars, if the frameworks run predominantly on Win32.  Temple of the Lost  Joel even warns you in the beginning that "because I'm talking about big trends, I need to exaggerate and generalize". But you still get sucked in because Joel Spolsky is a first-class writer, in the same order as Philip Greenspun or Eric Raymond. That makes him so persuasive and plausible. But this is not Indiana Jones and doomed temples, but Steve Jobs and reality distortion fields.  Other opinions:  Harry Fuecks (PHP is ASP's upgrade path),  Dennis Hamilton (M'soft is just covering all bases), Robert McLaws (Joel is wrong in 7 points), Oliver Travers (the web is not good enough), One Run-time to Rule them all....