Decoding Microsoft Word

By Jerry Pournelle

September 5, 2005

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Column 301 (Continued from the Previous Week)

Windows Genuine Advantage

There was a big stir in July when Microsoft announced a new Windows Update policy. In future, while Critical Security Updates would be available to everyone, only users who could prove they had Genuine Windows (as opposed to pirated copies) could obtain any other updates including new features or fixes of annoyances that weren't security threats.

This caused uproar. Many activists denounced Microsoft.

My own view was that I doubted this would last long, but I gave Microsoft full marks for realizing that it was a good idea to provide critical security updates to anyone using Windows, pirate or not.

The new Windows Genuine Advantage policy required you to verify your Windows copy before you could download non-critical upgrades. This verification was simple for some users, and a distinct pain in the derriere for others, particularly those who got their machines with Windows pre-installed but without the installation disks.

A groundswell of protest began, but it soon died—because within 24 hours of the Windows Genuine Advantage announcement, the process for verifying that you have Genuine Windows was hacked, and the hack was published throughout the Web. I won't provide it for you, but I make no doubt if you want it, you can find it.

Microsoft Activation

Alex's new laptop, the Hewlett-Packard Pavilion zd8110us (really a portable desktop replacement) came with the Student edition of Microsoft Office. There were no installation disks, and if there were registration numbers for the software they got lost as such things inevitably do. Alex put off activating Office until the last minute.

The machine is his desktop as well as his laptop, and is used for professional work. One of those jobs is managing auctions, which requires using Excel to torture data for more information.

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