End of the Vista Kill Switch

But we're not done yet...

PC World's Techlog End of the Vista Kill Switch: A Good Start--But Not Enough

I'm used to any news involving Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy system involving headaches for innocent Windows users who are simply trying to use the software they paid for. But here's a positive development: Microsoft has announced that Windows Vista SP1, shipping early next year, will end the kill-switch measure that cripples every aspect of Windows Vista except limited Web browsing if it believes you to have a pirated copy of the operating system. (Over at ZDNet, Ed Bott has a good summary of this and other WGA changes.)

I say "believes" because WGA has had a nasty tendency to become confused and accuse paying customers of stealing their software. When it did this to thousands of users back in August, I gnashed my teeth and wrote a column telling Microsoft that it needed to either make fundamental changes to WGA or simply end it altogether.

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