Is your Windows Genuine?

NEW DELHI: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. today announced the launch of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) 1.0 in India.

WGA is part of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to protect its customers from counterfeit software and to support partners through education, engineering, and enforcement of policies and laws.

WGA has been designed to encourage the use of genuine software, and will provide greater value to the users of genuine Windows products over

those using counterfeit versions.

Some of the offers that will be immediately available to users of Genuine

Windows Software are Windows Media Player 10, the recently introduced

anti-spyware beta and Photostory 3.

Some other offers expected in the next quarter are on anti-virus software for home & business consumers, broadband packages, small business accounting software etc. These offers will be refreshed continually based on feedback from genuine Windows users to further enhance their PC experience.

Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Rishi Srivastava, Director, Windows

Client Business Group, Microsoft India said, "A research conducted recently

in India indicated that nearly 50 percent of consumers, who use counterfeit

software today, do so unknowingly. They either don't know what they stand to

gain from buying genuine software, or don't know how to tell whether they

are getting genuine or counterfeit operating system with the PC they buy.

WGA addresses both of these concerns and we are certain that customers in

India will derive tremendous value from this initiative."

"We launched WGA following an extensive 10-month pilot in various countries

and received feedback from more than 40 million customers who chose to

participate," he added.