Microsoft WGA servers are fixed, but no word on what went wrong

Microsoft has fixed whatever caused a massive worldwide outage of its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) system that seemed to last just under 24 hours. So far, however, company officials aren't commenting publicly on what happened.

At 6 p.m. EST on August 25, I received the following statement from a Microsoft spokeswoman:

"All (WGA) servers are working properly now. Only those who experienced a validation issue between yesterday afternoon and about 11 a.m. Pacific today need to go back to the validation page."

Starting Friday evening, a number of XP and Windows Vista users reported problems when attempting to download fixes, updates and other software when they were required to validate using WGA. Lack of official information from Microsoft regarding when a fix would be coming frustrated a number of users, who complained publicly via the Microsoft Genuine Forum.

If and when Microsoft shares more on what happened, I'll update this post.