Windows Genuine Advantage goodness

Well, I have decided to remove the names of both the innocent and the stupid.

I work for a company that provides network and server support. Recently, a small family-owned business hired us to be their tech support when their tech guy (one of the brothers) was leaving for another job. He had ended up being their tech guy because he was the most computer literate of the family. Now, he wasn't bad at it, and, most importantly, he knew his limitations. So instead of building beige-boxes, they ordered just about all of their machines direct from Name Brand Company. They had a few beige-boxes, but those were slower machines used in non-critical locations, and came with their own OSes and everything.

One of the computers bought directly from Name Brand Company, did an update, received WGA from Microsoft, and began to nag that it wasn't a genuine copy of XP Professional. Only problem is, the OS on it is the actual version that came with it from Name Brand Company. It had never been off to repair, either at Name Brand Company or some other company, nor had it's OS been reloaded. So, the guy there calls Microsoft, waits on hold, gets the run-around and, as I was informed by the person whom this is their computer, he got frustrated, cursed and slammed down the phone after waiting for hours.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and now I am their support guy. I decide to do an end-run and contact Name Brand Company. My thought is this is originally a Name Brand Company machine, they should be willing to help on this. Even though the machine is out of warranty, this is not a warranty thing, but rather a contract issue. When the business had purchased the machine from Name Brand Company, there was the understanding that all software that came with it was a valid, licensed copy, and if for some reason it was not, then it is Name Brand Company's responsibility, even if the warranty has run out.

I sit with Name Brand Company on the phone for a while, and finally talk with someone who kinda knows what they are doing. They did give me a work-around, they told me to turn off notification! Yep, that's it, don't worry about WGA saying that the copy is not genuine, just turn off the notification about it. I double-checked with them on this, and they said that is what they are advising their customers to do. Then they go on to tell me the best little bit that I just love. They said that people at their factory have been taking pictures of the products keys as they go out and then they are selling those keys. What? But this machine is 5 years old, was that happening then? Yep, it seems that this product key theft from the factory floor has been going on for years, but only has been brought to light with WGA. Their advice was, if I really wanted to take this further, to contact Microsoft on the matter.

I just love this.