Microsoft Quietly Retires Office Genuine Advantage

[Char Jackson]

Microsoft Quietly Retires Office Genuine Advantage
By: Chloe Albanesius
12.20.2010

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374549,00.asp?obref=obinsite>

Microsoft has quietly retired its Office Genuine Advantage anti-piracy
program.

A note on the Microsoft Support page says simply that the "program has
been retired" and provides a link to a page that explains the benefits
of using a "genuine" version of Office.

(Rest of article at link above, with additional info at link below.)
<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/microsoft-quietly-shuts-down-office-genuine-advantage-program/2798>

 

[Chuck]

Microsoft Quietly Retires Office Genuine Advantage
By: Chloe Albanesius
12.20.2010

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374549,00.asp?obref=obinsite>

Microsoft has quietly retired its Office Genuine Advantage anti-piracy
program.

A note on the Microsoft Support page says simply that the "program has
been retired" and provides a link to a page that explains the benefits
of using a "genuine" version of Office.

(Rest of article at link above, with additional info at link below.)
<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/microsoft-quietly-shuts-down-office-genuine-advantage-program/2798>

Pure speculation - -
1. Another scheme is in the offing.
2. Major customers required that the "call home" features be disabled,
or the call home functions call the customers server, instead of elsewhere.
3. There may be a conflict with certain types of security related
software and features. (Perhaps including Microsoft's own offerings?)

While we are at this, an unrelated item is interesting, and has to do
with what looks like an "artificial" memory size limit imposed on win
32b versions by Microsoft. (Evidently, from as far back as at least win
2k, and to currently win 7.)

www.geoffchappell.com/viewer.htm?doc=notes/windows/license/memory.htm

 

[Char Jackson]

While we are at this, an unrelated item is interesting, and has to do
with what looks like an "artificial" memory size limit imposed on win
32b versions by Microsoft. (Evidently, from as far back as at least win
2k, and to currently win 7.)

www.geoffchappell.com/viewer.htm?doc=notes/windows/license/memory.htm

That was a very interesting article! Thanks for providing the link.

 

[SC Tom]

Pure speculation - -
1. Another scheme is in the offing.
2. Major customers required that the "call home" features be disabled, or
the call home functions call the customers server, instead of elsewhere.
3. There may be a conflict with certain types of security related software
and features. (Perhaps including Microsoft's own offerings?)

While we are at this, an unrelated item is interesting, and has to do with
what looks like an "artificial" memory size limit imposed on win 32b
versions by Microsoft. (Evidently, from as far back as at least win 2k,
and to currently win 7.)

www.geoffchappell.com/viewer.htm?doc=notes/windows/license/memory.htm

Excellent article. I found the part about updating from XP to XP SP2 to be
especially true. I found the reasoning behind it a while back, but this
article explains that and the other OSes quite well.
I got a patched kernel (well, probably hacked would be a better word) from
here http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/32-bit-ram-barrier.html?lang=EN
for my Windows 7 32-bit notebook, and I can see and use all 4GB that I have
installed. (Warning: the site contains a lot of ads not suitable for all
people.) I've been running it for more than a year now with no problems,
BSOD's, freezing, or anything detrimental. Granted, I'm probably not using
it to the limit, but it's good to know it's there when I need it.