Here's when mechanisms such as Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) really get on my nerves ... when they get in the way of me doing what I want!
Here's an example. Yesterday I needed to fire off a quick fax, so I launched Word 2007 (installed as part of Office 2007 Ultimate) and went looking for a quick fax template by searching Microsoft Office Online. I found a template that would work and clicked on it ... only to be faced by this:
Since clicking on Resolve Later just prevented me from downloading the template, I had to deal with the problem so I clicked Get Genuine. Here's what that told me ...
OK, because everything checked out I tried downloading the template again. Uh-oh ... back to that prompt telling me that I'm a victim of counterfeit software ... Let's try Get Genuine again ... same thing again. I'm told everything checks out, but when I tried grabbing the template, I'm told there's a problem.
Hmmm ...
I then decided to fire up the two apps listed in the prompt - SharePoint Designer 2007 and Project Professional 2007 and I then discovered what the problem was - both of these apps (apps which had previously been activated) had mysteriously decided they needed reactivating. This is odd since both had been working fine a few weeks ago. With this done I could get the fax template I was after ... problem was by this time I'd forgotten what I wanted it for!
This OGA problem highlights some serious issues with the whole Genuine Advantage mechanism. Specifically:
Multiply this sort of annoyance by the number of Office installs out there and I can see why people are upset by these Genuine Advantage mechanisms.
I'll let Bender from Futurama sum up how I feel: "This is the worst kind of discrimination. The kind against me!"