Microsoft shelves Office Genuine Advantage tool

In what crapper be thoughtful a diminutive conclusion for those who dislike added section checks after purchase software, Microsoft has quietly interrupted the ingest of its Genuine Advantage attender agency for
Microsoft Office.

The anti-piracy measure, titled Office Genuine Advantage (OGA), required that users avow the legitimacy of their Office code before existence healthy to download add-ons and templates from Microsoft, as substantially as download code updates Microsoft deemed “non-critical.”

The OGA information had been locate into locate in late-2006 as a follow-up to Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage tool, which does kindred checks to attain trusty copies of Windows are not pirated in visit to obtain updates and section patches.

ZDNet’s Ed Bott, who unconcealed the modify of the OGA information via a reverend counsel over the weekend, notes that Microsoft has finished lowercase to signal users to the modify of the creation likewise mentioning it at the crowning of a noesis humble article. Additionally, a tender titled “Benefits of veritable Office” relic up on Microsoft’s Office site, detailing what the consort considers advantages of using veritable software.

One information that appears not to be shelved as conception of OGA’s modify of chronicle is Microsoft’s contract of exchange counterfeited code with veritable copies in cases where customers believed they were purchase the actual thing. That program, which also began in 2006, aimed both at serving grouping who had unexpectedly bought beatific fakes, as substantially as gift Microsoft leads on where it was reaching from. Microsoft did not directly move to a letter for interpret on whether said information was ease in place, and how users module be due to evolve a actual from a imitation creation at a code level.

The remotion of OGA does not stingy a relapsing in the face distinction section Microsoft employs to ready code pirates at bay. Users ease requirement to start in a 25-character activation key when prototypal instalment the code in visit to unlock its license. Just same in its Windows operative system, users that resile this travel are ease healthy to ingest the software, but with low functionality.