August 27th, 2009

Microsoft to add more anti-piracy features to Office 2010

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:57 am

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Corporate strategy, OGA, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, WGA

Tags: Antipiracy, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is adding more “Genuine Advantage” features to its forthcoming Office 2010 release to make the product harder to pirate.

The company is planning to add new volume-licensing activation technologies to Office 2010 in an attempt to thwart the pirating of volume-license keys, Microsoft officials said via a press release. Microsoft also is adding more counterfeit-detection and tamper-resistant features to Office 2010, the press release says. It sounds like Microsoft will limit the ability of Office 2010 users to do an “Anytime Upgrade” to those users who those who allow Microsoft to do a Genuine Advantage scan:

“’While future (Office) consumer installations will closely resemble what we have today, additional advantages that customers can expect include the ability to issue product keys that upgrade the installed version to one that is incrementally feature-rich,’ says (Cori) Hartje, (senior director of Microsoft’s Genuine Software Initiative).”

I found more details about some of the planned Office 2010 Genuine Advantage volume-activation changes in an August 24 posting on the Office 2010 Engineering blog.

Microsoft already has made Office more like Windows, in terms of the way it nags users who fail to activate their individual copies of a new release.  With Office 2010, volume licensees will be required to activate, too. From the August 24 Office 2010 Engineering blog post:

“Starting in Office 2010, all volume editions of Office client software will require activation.  What’s great for administrators is that Office has adopted the Windows Software Protection Platform (SPP), which means that most of what you have learned (or will learn) about Volume Activation for Windows applies to Office as well. For example, the same Key Management Service (KMS) host can be configured to activate Office 2010 clients as well as Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Also, there is no reduction in functionality in volume editions of Office 2010. Even if Office is not activated, your users will still be able to open, save, edit, and print. Office files, though users will see notifications reminding them to activate.”

Microsoft also is expanding the Office Genuine Advantage Notifications program into 13 more countries, upping the total to 41 countries.

June 23rd, 2009

A reminder: Win 7 testers, your beta is about to expire

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:05 pm

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Corporate strategy, WGA, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Release Candidate, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

If you’re one of those Windows 7 testers still running the Beta — and not the Release Candidate — of Microsoft’s next-generation client, it’s time to get the lead out.

Bi-hourly shutdowns of the Windows 7 Beta (which Microsoft released officially in January of this year) are set to begin next week, on July 1. On August 1, the Windows 7 Beta will be marked as “non-Genuine” software, with those running it becoming subject t the punishments that Microsoft has earmarked for pirates.

Testers have until August 15 to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) build, which Microsoft made available for download starting in May 2009. The RC is set to begin its own bi-hourly shutdowns in March 2010 and to be designated “non-Genuine” in June 2010.

Windows 7 is expected to be released to manufacturing in July and will be generally available starting October 22, 2009.

June 18th, 2009

Microsoft Security Essentials: What wannabe testers need to know

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:02 pm

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, Security, System builders, Vista, WGA, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Security, PC, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Desktops, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft finally broke its silence about its Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) — a k a “Morro” — June 18, after refusing for months to provide any real details on its planned free consumer security replacement to Windows Live OneCare.

Alan Packer, General Manager of Microsoft’s Anti-Malware team chatted with me today about MSE. Based on our conversation, here’s what wannabe MSE testers and customers need to know:

• MSE provides antivirus and anti-malware protection for Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (including Beta or Release Candidate) systems. It makes use of the same core engine as the Forefront Client product Microsoft offers to businesses, but it doesn’t provide the management capabilities that the paid Forefront Client — or the former Windows Live OneCare subscription offering do.
• Microsoft is making MSE available for public beta testing starting some time on June 23. It will be available in 32- and 64-bit flavors, downloadable from the Microsoft Connect site. The test version is targeted at users in English-speaking countries, plus Brazil, Israel (and some time later this year), China (in simplified Chinese).
• The beta will remain open until the final version of the MSE product is released before the end of calendar 2009. (Microsoft officials won’t provide any more specific of a date target than that.) The final product will be a free download available directly from Microsoft.com.
• Microsoft will be updating and refreshing the beta code regularly in the coming months by pushing updates over Windows Update and other Web mechanisms. MSE isn’t Microsoft-hosted, but it does include a Dynamic Signature updating service that Microsoft is touting as “cloud-based.”
• Microsoft plans to offer PC OEMs and system builders the option to bundle MSE on new PCs, but it isn’t expecting any of the big PC makers to jump, since they currently make money by preloading competing, paid offerings from third-party providers.
• Speaking of third-party products, MSE will uninstall Windows Defender if it is present on a user’s PC, as MSE is a “superset” of Defender. Upon setup, MSE also will advise users to uninstall other third-party offerings, as running multiple antivirus/anti-malware offerings degrades PC performance.
• MSE is aimed first and foremost at users who either can’t or won’t pay for antivirus/anti-malware software. There will be no registration required, no trials with an expiration date or required renewals. But Microsoft is restricting the MSE download (both the beta and final) to PCs running Genuine Windows (which has been authenticated as non-pirated).

Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, wondered whether the Windows Genuine stipulation might prove problematic.

MSE “looks like an adequate protection product, similar to Defender but for more types of malware. However, from early screenshots, it looks like they’re going to require Windows Genuine validation for use,” Rosoff noted. “That seems to undercut their stated goal with the product: to broaden the base of Windows PCs protected against malware, especially in developing countries.”

For more in-depth coverage (and screen shots galore) of what MSE is and how it works, check out my ZDNet blogging colleague Ed Bott’s gallery and coverage.

So now that we finally know more (official) specifics about MSE/Morro, what do you think? Is Microsoft doing users a service or disservice in trying to secure the perimeters of the Windows ecosystem via a free antivirus/antimalware product like this?

May 7th, 2009

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

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:56 am

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Corporate strategy, Vista, WGA, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is giving its anti-piracy/DRM technology a PR face lift with Windows 7. The “Windows Genuine” branding is being supplanted by a new name: Windows Activation.

The choice is interesting. Microsoft’s anti-piracy technology consists of two parts: Activation and validation. By emphasizing “Activation” with the new name, Microsoft is downplaying the part of its Genuine technology that has been most criticized for both heavy-handed punishment tactics and false-positive results. (Microsoft fixed some of those problems with its Genuine DRM/validation with Vista SP1.)

(The “Genuine” brand isn’t going away completely, however. Microsoft will continue to release “Genuine” updates and notifications for XP users, officials said in a press update on May 7.)

Windows 7’s Activation technology will be built on the same “Software Protection Platform” that was part of Vista, according to Microsoft. There will be some minor tweaks, officials are acknowledging. From today’s press statement (a Q&A with Joe Williams, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows):

“While we have seen success with our implementation in Windows Vista, as evident from the lower levels of piracy, we also knew we could do better in Windows 7. For example, with Windows Vista Service Pack 1, if a PC was not activated during the login process, customers would periodically see a dialog box as a visual reminder they still needed to activate their copy of Windows. Within this prompt, they could choose to activate immediately or later. But the option to push the ‘activate later’ button was grayed out for 15 seconds. Customers told us that while the prompt grabbed their attention, they didn’t understand why they needed to activate immediately and that the delay was annoying. 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.”

It sounds like some changes are in the works around enterprise Activation in the Windows 7 timefame, as well. Again, from the press statement:

“We also spent time thinking about how we could make activation and validation easier for enterprises. For example, we think IT professionals will appreciate support in Windows 7 for virtualized images and volume activation technologies. When Windows Vista was being developed, virtualization was primarily a server scenario, but today many companies have it in their production environment on both the server and the client. We listened and adapted our management tool for organizations by making them more easily available.”

Bottom line: Microsoft isn’t removing its anti-piracy/DRM mechanisms from Windows 7. Let’s see whether the company actually makes them less onerous.

April 9th, 2009

Microsoft patent loss: It's about activation not validation

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 2:48 pm

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Corporate strategy, Legal, OGA, WGA

Tags: Antipiracy, Microsoft Corp., Piracy, Business Operations, Corporate Law, Mary Jo Foley

That patent-violation ruling that, if not overturned, could cost Microsoft $388 million? (The one in which Microsoft was found by a Rhode Island federal jury to have infringed on Uniloc’s anti-piracy technology — an award the Wall Street Journal said is the fifth largest patent award in history.)

I’ve seen a few folks celebrating the patent ruling as something that could put a damper on Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage anti-piracy technologies in Windows. But it looks like it may be a little soon to dance on the WGA/OGA graves.

The Uniloc ruling applies to the product activation technology used by Microsoft, not the product validation technology. (WGA and OGA both require activation and validation, but it’s the validation technology that results in the degradation of functionality and features for software deemed to be non-genuine.)

Microsoft officials have said they plan to appeal this week’s ruling.

December 30th, 2008

Microsoft and pay-as-you-go: Been there, done that

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:35 pm

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Channel, Corporate strategy, Google, OEMs, OGA, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Resellers, System builders, Vista, WGA, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., FlexGo, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Much is being made of Microsoft’s recent patent application for a pay-as-you-go service model. But many seem to forget Microsoft has been experimenting with this model for the past couple of years via several different programs.

One of these pay-as-you-go programs is FlexGo. FlexGo, in its 2006 incarnation, was a fairly complex program involving hardware, telecommunications, retail and financial services partners, Microsoft began testing pay-as-you-go rentals of Windows XP PCs and software in Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia. In 2007, Microsoft started to shift its FlexGo focus to a pure subscription model for Vista PCs and software.

Another pay-as-you-go program Microsoft has been testing in various countries revolves around Office. The Office Prepaid Trial program also launched in 2006. In the initial trials, Microsoft relied on system builders to sell users cards that provide them three months’ worth of Office 2003 usage for a set fee. With FlexGo, an entire PC system — hardware and software — is leased; with the Office Prepaid Trial program, only Office (either Office Small Business or Office Student and Teachers Edition) is rented out.

Both FlexGo and the Office Prepaid Trial programs still exist. FlexGo seems to be known now as the Unlimited Potential Group’s Subscription Computing Program (SCP). The Unlimited Potential team also is in charge of the current Office Prepaid Edition program.

The pay-as-you-go patent for which the Softies applied dates back to the summer of 2007. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Microsoft extend these kinds of trials to the U.S. — something officials said they’d consider but so far have yet to do. It also will be interesting to see how/if new offerings like the forthcoming Office Web applications alter (or doesn’t) Microsoft’s pay-as-you-go plans.

If you could buy Web browsing, gaming and/or business computing time by the hour, would you prefer that to doing your computing locally? Do you think hard economic times could drive more users to a pay-as-you-go model? Or will users simply embrace a Windows 7 netbook running Google Docs (or Microsoft’s Office Web apps) as the new cheaper computing platform?

Update: Microsoft’s pay-as-you-go patent application was shot down by the Patent and Trademark Office.

October 7th, 2008

Microsoft quietly halts sales of third-party activation offering

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:43 pm

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Channel, Corporate strategy, WGA

Tags: Microsoft Corp., SLP Services, Microsoft Windows, Piracy, Sales Strategy, Tools & Techniques, Operating Systems, Software, Business Operations, Corporate Law

Microsoft has halted — temporarily, according to company officials — sales of its Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services product.

SLP Services is  set of technologies designed to allow third-party developers to add code protection and activation mechanisms, akin to those Microsoft embeds in Windows as part of its Genuine Advantage technologies, to their own software.

An astute reader sent me a note today, advising me to try clicking on the “How to Buy” link on the SLP Services Web page. When I did, I got the following message:

“We appreciate your interest in SLP Services, however we are currently not taking any new orders at this time. Current customers will continue to have access to the service and support for the SLP Services product through our SLPSInfo@microsoft.com email alias and our MSDN site.”

I contacted Microsoft to see what gives. I received the following statement from Thomas Lindeman, Director of Marketing for SLP Services:

“SLP Services as a business does not structurally fit within its business unit where it currently resides.  We are actively looking for a home for SLP Services and will post that information once it becomes available. In any scenario, we will continue to support SLP Services for the duration of customer contracts. We will not be taking on any new customers at this time.”

(I asked for further clarification, in terms of which business unit the SLP Services group has been part, as well as whether Microsoft might opt to kill SLP Services completely if it doesn’t find a new home. No word back yet. Update: A company spokesperson said the SLP Services team was part of the Windows business unit. “It’s hard to say specifics about the future of the program, though the company is looking to see where it might make sense to live from a broader company perspective now,” the spokesperson said.)

Microsoft rolled out SLP Services in October 2007. The underlying technology was based on assets Microsoft bought when it acquired Secured Dimensions in January 2007.

When Microsoft first unveiled its “Genuine Software” initiative four years ago, company officials said they planned to license to third parties some of the same anti-piracy technologies that Microsoft was baking into Windows and Office. Instead, Microsoft decided to provide external developers with a separate, parallel offering, namely, SLP Services.

Does the suspension of SLP Services indicate Microsoft is moving away from activation and digital-rights management? I’m doubtful. But it is interesting that with Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Microsoft killed the Genuine Advantage “kill switch”….

August 26th, 2008

Microsoft to target Windows XP Pro users with Genuine 'nagware' notifications

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:28 pm

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, Corporate strategy, Service Pack, Vista, WGA, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows XP, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is stepping up its war on software pirates by rolling out new Windows Genuine notification software for what it is calling its most pirated version of Windows: Windows XP Professional.

In an August 26 posting to the Windows Genuine Advantage blog, Director of Genuine Windows Alex Kochis said XP users should expect Microsoft to begin rolling out a new version of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) notifications starting this week. Microsoft is expecting the rollout to take several months.

The new WGA notifications, which Microsoft will deliver via Windows Update (and which already is available for download by individuals from the Microsoft Download Center), will behave like the WGA notifications introduced with Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 back in December 2007. Specifically, users whose XP copies are deemed “non-Genuine” will see their screen backgrounds default to black and notice a translucent notice, warning them that their Windows might be counterfeit.

(Update: Microsoft officials noted that WGA for XP never did default to “reduced functionality mode,” a k a, the kill switch, which was part of Windows Vista when it first shipped.

“Windows XP did not contain the reduced functionality mode commonly referred to as the ‘kill switch,’ and it still doesn’t,” a spokeswoman said. “The update simply reconfigures the notifications experience to mirror notifications in Windows Vista SP1.”)

The new WGA XP notification update is going to make it easier for Microsoft to detect stolen or pirated software, as well as fake product keys, Microsoft officials said. It will add new hindrances for users trying to circumvent product activation, as well, according to the new blog post.

Read the rest of this entry »

July 24th, 2008

Users gravitating to lower-priced Office SKUs

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 2:10 pm

Categories: Anti-piracy, CRM Live/CRM Online, Channel, Corporate strategy, Dynamics CRM, Dynamics ERP, Financial Analyst Meeting, OEMs, Office, Office Live, Resellers, SharePoint Server, System builders, Vista, WGA, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

While more and more users are choosing “premium” versions of Windows, the opposite is happening with Office, Microsoft’s other cash cow.

Stephen Elop, the head of Microsoft’s Business Division, told attendees of Microsoft’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting (FAM) in Redmond on July 24, acknowledged that more and more users are choosing lower-priced Office versions — like the Office Home & Student — rather than premium variants of the product.

(Microsoft recently introduced a new Office subscription bundle, called Equipt, that is built around a lower-priced SKU of Office and is seen by many Microsoft watchers as an attempt by Microsoft to blunt the impact of Google Docs on its business.)

Elop said that Office 2007 deployments are slightly outpacing Office 2003 ones (measured at similar points in time). He said Microsoft believes over 90 percent of businesses will have deployed Office 2007 as of summer 2009.

Update: Elop said Microsoft has sold 120 million copies of Office 2007 since launch, I see in the transcript of his remarks from FAM.

The Microsoft Business Division isn’t completely dependent on Office for growth, however. Elop said that Microsoft has a handful of billion-dollar and potential-billion-dollar businesses in the hopper. Some of the stats he cited:

• There are now 285,000 Microsoft ERP users
• There are 17,000 SharePoint customers who’ve licensed 100 million copies of that product
• There are 15,000 Microsoft CRM customers so far

On the Windows side of the house, Microsoft is playing a lot of attention to the high end of the Windows client market, as that is where Microsoft is competing most directly with Apple. But there are some significant market-growth shifts happening that ensure that Microsoft won’t be focusing exclusively on the premium market with Windows.

Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told the analysts and press attending FAM that an increasing percentage of Microsoft’s PC growth is coming from outside the U.S. In fiscal 2008, 62 percent of PC consumption was attributable to “mature” countries and 38 percent to “emerging market” ones, Turner said.

But U.S. share is contining to shrink, despite the fact that the U.S. is moving from a one-PC-per-person to a multiple-device-per-person model. Asia and Africa are becoming increasingly key, both from a PC sales standpoint and a technology-assistant standpoint, Turner said.

April 18th, 2008

Microsoft accidentally delivers Office Genuine nagware

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:27 pm

Categories: Activation, Anti-piracy, OGA, Office, Office 2007, WGA

Tags: Microsoft Corp., User, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is acknowledging that on April 15 it accidentally delivered its new Office Genuine Notifications to users outside of its planned pilot areas of Chile, Italy, Spain and Turkey.

Infoworld quotes Cori Hartje, the Director of Microsoft’s Genuine Software Initiative, on the mix-up:

“The Office Genuine Advantage notifications update (KB949810) is intended only for Microsoft Office users in Italy, Spain, Turkey and Chile. For a short time on the 15th of April, it was made available to users in other countries. A number of users who proactively sought product updates in this time frame were able to download Office Genuine Advantage notifications. We commend those users who actively seek product updates and apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this update may have created. We have taken steps to limit access to this update only to those users in Italy, Spain, Turkey and Chile.”

Some users who noticed the inadvertent KB 949810 update on April 15 called it out in Microsoft’s public Genuine Advantage forum earlier this week.

Microsoft officials said earlier this month that the company planned to add the notification mechanism to Office for users in the four aforementioned trial countries — by making it a voluntary Microsoft update — so that it would remind repeatedly those running illegal copies of Office (or those deemed illegal by Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage mechanism) to stop running pirated software. The Redmondians didn’t say when the company planned to turn on the new Office notification mechanism for all Office XP and Office 2007 users.

Update: From Microsoft’s explanation, posted April 18 to the Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) Team Blog:

“We are available to offer full assistance if you have problems or questions related to this issue, via your regular support channels. Customers who want to learn more about OGA notifications can reference the online KB Article. Customers who require support should submit a Technical Support Request for Microsoft Genuine Advantage Issues.”

Update No. 2 (on April 21): Jeff Centimano, on the Windows Connected site, notes that while Microsoft needs tighter controls on publishing, OGA notifications required admin approval in order for them to have been deployed.

Anyone participating in the Office Genuine trial (or who downloaded the OGA notification update on April 15) have any feedback about Microsoft’s latest Office anti-piracy technology?