A day soon after Microsoft rolled out a refresh of World wide web Explorer (IE) seven that no lengthier needs Windows Genuine Validation (WGA) checks, industry watchers are speculating regarding why the organization did so.The IE crew,
Office 2007 Activation, for its component,
Windows 7 Code, will say absolutely nothing much more than what it posted on October 4 towards the IE Group Blog:“Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously,
Windows 7 Code, we’re updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users”In other words: Microsoft was worried that “pirates” might not be protected by all the security goodness the enterprise has added to IE, so it decided to remove piracy checks from the IE seven download process.Not surprisingly, there are other theories regarding why Microsoft removed WGA from the browser. Perhaps Microsoft decided that WGA was enough of a deterrent to result in IE 7 failing to gain marketshare as fast as the firm would like. From Ars Technica:“The move (to release an IE 7 refresh sans WGA) is remarkable because it is the first time that Microsoft has removed WGA checks from a product in order to increase the attractiveness of that product. It;s difficult to see this as any but an attempt to get as many users as possible to install IE7, even those who have pirated Windows.”According to data from the market researchers at Net Applications, IE 6.X currently has 42.75 percent of the worldwide browser market. IE seven has 34.6 percent. Firefox 2.0 has 13.7 percent. Both IE 7 and Firefox 2 share is growing, Net Applications says (though given Firefox;s smaller user base, Firefox is growing a lot more quickly).I think Microsoft;s move to decouple WGA from IE7 as aimed less at attracting the “pirated software” crowd — as large as that contingent may be. Instead, I think Microsoft realizes that it is losing browser share to Firefox (and, a lesser extent,
Office 2007 Activation Key, other competitors) primarily among more technical users. These kinds of users are additional likely to be among those who are anti-WGA, I;d wager, equating repeated authentication checks with DRM.[Poll=14]Other reasons you think Microsoft might have pulled the WGA plug on IE seven? Do you expect the firm to cut WGA from other products, too? If so,
Microsoft Office Pro 2010, which ones?(Microsoft Net Explorer 7. Image by kk+. CC 2.0)