Microsoft has been painstakingly reviewing the operations and procedures behind its Windows Genuine Advantage license validation tool, with a view to ironing out glitches that have cause problems for legitimate Windows users. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is designed to combat piracy by installing software on users" PC that periodically checks to see if their version of Windows is authentic before allowing them to download updates.
In a Tuesday Weblog entry, Alex Kochis, senior product manager in the Windows Genuine Advantage group, said the WGA team has been studying its WGA operations and processes and will handle future WGA issues more efficiently than it has in the past. WGA has been a source of much frustration for users since it was launched in 2005, and recent incidents have fanned the flames of WGA loathing among Microsoft"s customers and partners.
The WGA team has changed the way it rolls out updates to the back-end servers and has also been shoring up the infrastructure on which WGA is based. In addition to revamping its monitoring of WGA servers, Microsoft is also implementing 24x7 customer support and phone based technical support to its North American customers, Kochis wrote.