Windows Genuine Advantage

My first entry for the New Year and it is about software piracy. I started in the IT industry as a programmer so I understand what it takes to develop, market and maintain a piece of software. A lot of time, effort and money. In principle I do not agree with software piracy, however as far as the evil empire Microsoft is concerned it could almost be seen as justified. Especially for Windows itself.

You can buy a PC from DELL with Windows for a little over £200, and you can buy Microsoft's own retail version in the shop for just under the same £200. So what is the perceived value of Windows? Probably from DELL or any other major vendor at about $10, yet if I build a PC I have to pay a lot more than that even for an OEM Windows licence which legally cannot be transferred to my next PC. This is one of the reasons why when I started my PC-fix-IT business, I quickly stopped building PCs and began buying them instead. I could not justify to my customers the added purchase price of the Windows software.

I've recently started to have people asking me why the desktop background on their computers has turned black and little messages have appeared that their version of Windows is not genuine. Upon investigation it appears that there is no license sticker on the computer case, no Windows XP CD-ROM and no itemised invoice with the price of Windows included. Usually a friend built it and sold it to them and they assumed legal Windows was included in the price. The only resolution in these cases is to do a System Restore back to before the time that the Windows Genuine Advantage update was installed and then turn off Automatic Updates. Not the best solution for them, for me or for Microsoft.

They could purchase a legal version of Windows XP from Microsoft for £96. A lot of money for old, soon to be unsupported software. They can still purchase a OEM Windows pack with an extra bit of hardware that they don't want. Then format their hard disk drive and reinstall Windows, applications and data. Windows Vista would be a better choice here if their present hardware could support it. Or they could use the money to put towards buying a new DELL with a $10 Windows Vista licence.

My advice is to do the latter as the perceived value of Windows is so low.