Microsoft revamps scary WGA notifications again

I read the 790 words in Microsoft's explanation of the changes it's making to the Windows XP Professional version of the increasingly-misnamed Windows Genuine Advantage system, and I think I've got a decent understanding what it actually does. It's Microsoft, of course, so you never know.

Here's the gist.

Microsoft starts by assuring us that "we're making it easier to install and stay up to date with the latest release of WGA Notifications" because, you know, customers have said they want the "simplest, shortest way of installing" WGA. (Most customers I know want nothing at all to do with the Big Brother technology, but I guess easier is the next best thing.) So while this blog post doesn't come out and say it, expect another version of WGA to be forced on you in the near future when you run Windows Update.

Microsoft is also "increasing the effectiveness of notifications and aligning experiences across Windows XP and Windows Vista," which is a long way of saying that the new WGA for XP throws up a black screen instead of your normal Windows background if it believes you're running a pirated version of the OS. (You can change the background, but every hour it'll go black again.)

There's also a new translucent notification on the bottom right of the screen (you can see it in the screenshot above), which will overlay anything you try to put on top of it. In other words, you can no longer dismiss the alert, but you can click through it. It's sure to make for great screenshots.

That's the guts of the news. (I'll spare you the blathering about how WGA is all about providing you, the user, with a "great" and "compelling" "experience" with Windows.) There's nothing about any changes to the functionality of a computer stricken by WGA effects, so hopefully you won't face the once-per-hour reboot that you get if a Vista computer fails a WGA check—the dreaded "reduced functionality mode." (Update: Microsoft rightly notes that reduced functionality mode was taken out of Vista as part of Service Pack 1.) Microsoft would surely tell us if it was going to do something like that... right? Right?

LINK: Update to WGA Notifications for Windows XP Professional