// Internet Duct Tape

In Bill and Steve’s Bogus Advantage I talked about how to disable the annoying pop-ups that appear if you are running a Windows XP machine that doesn’t pass their cryptic tests.

I’ve been playing with connecting my X-box 360 to my Windows machine for media sharing, and everything that I need requires WGA validation before downloading. Very annoying.

Download Squad has a great post where they wanted to see how effective WGA is. An astounding 42% of “Windows Genuine Advantage” failures were actually genuine. Now I don’t feel so bad that it doesn’t work for me either.

This is an unacceptable “false-negative” rate, and this highlights the problem with Digital Rights Management (DRM — copyright protection schemes to control how people use software and media). People want to use their computer to do things hassle free. By hassling them you create more “pirates” than you stop.

Why use a valid copy of Windows that doesn’t pass WGA checks when you could instead get a cracked version that *DOES* work?

>> Windows Genuine Advantage worse than we all feared

>> What to do if you see “This copy of windows is not genuine you may be a victim of software counterfeiting”

>> Microsoft admits WGA failures “coming up more commonly now”

More Stupid Windows Features

• Configuring Windows Automatic Update to use manual installations and stop rebooting the friggin’ computer
• Bill and Steve’s Bogus Advantage - Turning off Microsoft Genuine Advantage legally
• The Exorcist Redmond - Monitor Display Turns Sideways or Upside Down
• FilterKeys Must Die - Disabling this annoying application