the benefits of genuine windows software validation

So, just last night, my laptop downloaded an(other) automatic update to my Windows software. As always, I didn’t choose the “Express” install route, opting instead to see which updates they felt my computer needed. Last night, the only update listed was called “Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications.”

Now, I had heard about this before, so I was already a bit apprehensive about it. The whole premise of this little software tidbit is that, apparently, there are a lot of pirated copies of Windows XP floating around, and Microsoft doesn’t like that all that much. So, what do they do to combat the problem?

Assume that every single one of its customers is either a pirate and thief or is, as John over at flagrantdisregard.com puts it,

too stupid to know if [they] have a legal copy of the Windows operating system.

To me, that doesn’t sound like all that brilliant of an idea. Not exactly the way you maintain good customer relations (or create them, in their case).

Ignoring what the rest of the town (or you, readers) would say about me, I accepted their Terms of Slavery Service and installed the validation program and started the installation.

The last window of the install dialog box presented me with a check box. The caption next to the box invited me to “check here to learn about the benefits of using genuine Windows software,” or something like that. Since I was actually curious how they were going to spin this little travesty of consumer trust, I checked the box and clicked “Finish.”

The next thing I saw just reinforced my feelings on the whole subject:

(click the picture to go to the flickr photo page, with all the good bits highlighted and a link to the actual-sized screenshot)

Here’s what my firewall had to say about the update (italics added):

C:\a236ba28b5abab2342ab9b\update\update.exe has modified the User interface of firefox.exe by sending special Window messages. Any program trying to modify another program using this method may be a sign of trojan activity.

Something about the fact that my firewall thinks that Windows’ own validation service is a trojan really strikes a chord of truth with me.

I really wonder how my life would be affected if I uninstalled that validation service. Would I even notice the reduction in services that Microsoft says will happen? I suppose that means I would be ineligible for further updates (which is almost reason enough to keep it on), but other than that, would I even see a difference?