Microsoft overhauls antipiracy technology for Vista and Longhorn

Microsoft Corp. confirmed Wednesday that it plans to overhaul its anti-piracy technology in Windows Vista and plug a loophole associated for a long time with corporate customers. With the move the software giant hopes to avoid problems associated with similar efforts in Windows XP.

Volume licensing customers, as companies that buy large amounts of software from Microsoft are known, are currently issued a single key for each application or operating system, irrespective of the number of machines that the software is to be installed on. The keys do not have to connect to a Microsoft server to validate, making them vulnerable to loss or theft, as many corporations store their license keys as strings in plain-text files. Stolen volume license keys, in turn, often end up on the Internet, where they are reused millions of times by pirates and unwitting users.

Under its Software Protection Platform (SPP), business customers of Microsoft will be have two options when they install software. Starting with Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn, expected to launch in 2007, companies will have one of two choices. The first is to receive a validated Multiple Activation Key (MAK) directly through the Internet from a Microsoft server during installation. This, feel analysts, may turn out to be popular with smaller customers.

The second option, which analysts feel would be embraced by larger corporations, is for companies to install a Key Management Service (KMS) on an internal server to validate PCs during the installation process, and every 180 days thereafter. The KMS application will encrypt the keys and hide them on the server.

Microsoft officials have said that companies that still have their Vista volume keys lost or stolen and used by pirates won't be penalized, though they may be required to reinstall and change their key.

It is expected that SPP may prove to be simpler for consumers and small businesses than the current Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program for Windows XP. Those installing or upgrading to Windows Vista will have their license keys simultaneously and invisibly validated in the background. For customers who get Vista preinstalled on new PCs the one-time validation will have already been done by the original equipment manufacturer.

This will sidestep the problems associated with Windows XP, where users downloaded and installed a WGA plug-in, which checked to see whether they were running a legitimately-licensed copy of XP. This became controversial when some users complained this year that Microsoft tried at one point to disguise and slip WGA past them as a needed operating system update. There were also complaints that WGA mistakenly declared legitimate copies of Windows to be illegal.

SPP, however, will not be included in Office 2007, which is expected to ship by the end of the year.

Another controversial aspect will continue to dog Microsoft however with Vista. It has said that its policy of restricting the use of OEM licenses of Vista to their original PCs has not changed. Users who change their PCs for whatever reason will find that they cannot reinstall their OEM copy of Vista on another computer.