Microsoft has updated software that verifies whether a copy of Windows is genuine in its Windows XP Professional edition, making it similar to the notification in Windows Vista and thus more persistently visible to users.

In a blog posting attributed to Alex Kochis, a Microsoft director of product marketing and management, the company said it made the changes to the Windows Genuine Notification (WGA) alerts for XP Pro because it is “the product edition that is most often stolen.”

Now when a version of Windows XP Pro is found to be pirated or counterfeit, the next time a user logs on to the system, the desktop screen background will be black, replacing whatever custom desktop may have been set by the user. This will reappear every 60 minutes, even if a user resets the screen’s background. Previously, this was not a part of the WGA notification for Windows XP Pro.

Another new feature of the alert system is to put the PC into “persistent desktop notification” mode, with a banner at the bottom of the screen informing the user that the copy of Windows is not genuine. The notification is translucent and users can interact with any objects underneath it; however, it will continue to appear on the screen until a user installs a genuine copy of Windows.

Microsoft said the update to WGA also simplifies the installation of the alert system on Windows XP Pro. In addition, the company has improved its ability to detect non-genuine copies of Windows.

Users have had mixed reactions to the WGA program, which Microsoft launched two years ago as part of an aggressive program to eliminate counterfeit and pirated versions of Windows. While some think it’s a good way for Microsoft to prevent use of non-genuine Windows software, others found the program irksome and an intrusion, particularly when it would peg systems they knew to be genuine as pirated or counterfeit.

The program even at one point was thought to be acting like spyware by sending information from people’s computers back to Microsoft. However, Microsoft said it only provides information about whether the copy of Windows is genuine, not any other information about the user or the PC.

Microsoft first distributed WGA only to users of Microsoft’s download services who wanted to install add-on software, excluding security releases, for Windows XP. Eventually, it became an automatic part of Microsoft’s update services and then was built directly into Windows Vista as the company developed that OS.

Lincoln Spector filed this report.

According to a Microsoft representative, you will be able to activate new XP installations for the foreseeable future. The fact that the company longer sells XP “has no bearing on one’s ability to activate XP installations…”

Of course, the current rules about moving a Windows installation from one PC to another will still apply:

You can only do this with a retail version of Windows. The copy of XP that came with your computer stays with your computer. You must remove Windows from the old computer. Automatic activation will fail on the new computer. When that happens, call the toll-free number displayed on the screen and explain your situation to a human being. They will help you manually activate XP.

Email your technology questions to me at answer@pcworld.com, or post them to a community of helpful folks on the PCW Answer Line forum.

When Microsoft stopped selling new licenses to Windows XP on June 30, it gave users and PC makers a “downgrade” loophole so that those who wanted XP could still get it, even though they still had to buy a Vista license.

According to data from the exo.performance.network, 35 percent of Vista-equipped PCs have been downgraded to Windows XP. “That’s way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista,” says Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributing editor, whose company Devil Mountain Software developed the Windows Sentinel tool and analyzes the exo.performance.network data. (More than 3,000 PCs are monitored worldwide using the tool, in both the free InfoWorld Windows Sentinel version and in the more extensive version provided to Devil Mountain clients.)

The idea of a downgrade option is nothing new for enterprise licenses, since it can take several years for large organizations to plan out and deploy significant new software, under schedules that bear no resemblance to a vendor’s product schedules. But in a twist of this policy, individual users can also “downgrade” to XP from Vista Business or Ultimate (and later restore Vista if they desire at no extra cost). Most major PC makers offer users the option of downgrading to XP on at least some models, typically those sold to small businesses and gamers.

Reaction was mixed.

Shawn Wright of London, Ont. wrote: “As a computer system builder I find that the negative PR circulating about vista is overblown compared to the reality. We build over 3000 PC’s a year and 95 per cent are shipping with Vista. Our customers are sometimes cautious about the change to Vista due to bad press and the masterful marketing campaign Apple has waged. The reality is we have had few complaints and only a handful of downgrades because of compatibility with out-dated software or hardware. “

Some users have a different view.
Glen, who declined to post his last name or home town, wrote:
So far, I’ve heard no advantages to Vista save bells and whistles (Who really needs a series of panes that shuffle pictures before your eyes?) As to those saying I should suck it up and go Vista, you suck it up. My XP’s working fine and I see no reason to fork over big bucks to end up having to learn a system that I ultimately do not need at this time.

But more than 2,000 users beg to differ.

Before we removed it from this blog site, 2,125 people signed our Save XP petition, which asked Microsoft Corp. to continue offering Windows XP beyond the June 30 end of sale date. At ComputerWorld Canada, we launched our Save XP campaign last February.

Though the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant has stopped selling XP in retail stores, XP Professional is available to some users as a downgrade option with the purchase of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate.

PC manufacturers offering the downgrade option include Dell, HP, Lenovo, NEC and Sony. Businesses will also qualify for download rights if they are part of a Microsoft Volume Licensing Program.

Companies have complained to ComputerWorld Canada that upgrading to Vista is too expensive and some applications will not run on XP.

Infoworld magazine collected 210,562 on a similar petition.

One Canadian user who signed ComputerWorld Canada’s petition was Art Richmond, director of information systems for Mosaid Technologies Inc., an Ottawa-based company that designs semiconductors for component manufacturers.

“On the several occasions that we tested Vista, we found that it performed poorly in comparison to XP and that it was incompatible with much of our existing hardware and software,” Richmond wrote in an e-mail to ComputerWorld Canada. “XP on the other hand is working well as the core of our PC environment and I don’t see any need to replace it.”

Of the 50,000 enterprise users surveyed by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc., 87.1 per cent were still running Windows XP at the end of June, compared to 8.8 per cent for Vista. According to author Thomas Mendel, that implies that the majority of PCs upgraded to Vista were those running older versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000 or 98.

Mendel described Vista as the “new Coke” of software, in reference to Coca-Cola’s decision in 1985 to change the formula of its soda pop. The same year, the beverage maker scrapped New Coke and resumed sales of its old drink under the Coca-Cola Classic brand.

Microsoft is encouraging companies to upgrade to Vista through the Windows Vista Small Business Assurance, which is available to businesses with fewer than 50 employees or 25 PCs. It also said it will provides free telephone support through the end of October to companies that buy new PCs with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate between now and Sept. 30.

But this does not help users like Richmond.

“The plain truth is that nobody is moving over to Vista willingly and so Microsoft is trying to jam a failed product down our throats by killing a product that works well for us,” he wrote.

With files from Eric Lai and Gregg Keizer

Among other topics, Cringely and his team have asked users about operating systems.
Question 2 on the survey was: You’re buying a new OS. Which one would you pick?
Cringely wrote:

More than 400 people responded to this one, and the results are: Windows Vista (13 per cent), Windows XP (70 per cent), Linux (8 per cent), and the Mac OS (9 per cent).
Frankly, this one surprised me. Oh, I knew Vista would take it in the shorts, but I expected a stronger showing by the Mac OS. The Apple fanboys were probably too busy trying to get MobileMe to work to weigh in. Commenter Austin says,

“I run XP on four machines and Ubuntu on another machine. Hell will freeze over before I install Vista. Dell’s customer support may stink to high heaven but their marketing is smart to continue selling XP.”

Robert Mitchell of Computerworld filed this report, titled “Reconsidering Vista.”

OK, it’s not perfect. But Windows Vista on a new PC is perfectly serviceable for many users. In some ways, in fact, Vista is a better operating system than Windows XP. Unfortunately, XP’s heir apparent is also the most derided and discounted Microsoft operating system since Windows Me.

With all of the negative press about slower-than-expected adoption rates and the push for vendors to continue offering an XP option on new PCs, users may be left with the impression that anything is better than opting for Vista, including paying a premium to downgrade to Windows XP when buying a new PC.

That’s a bit extreme. Granted, the operating system has its share of glitches and issues. Higher-end versions are pricey, and Vista requires state-of-the-art hardware for optimum performance. But more than a year after its release, Vista with SP1 is reasonably stable and probably more secure than XP. It’s also technically more advanced than its seven-year-old predecessor.

As developers bring products to market that exploit unique Vista capabilities, such as the Presentation Graphics subsystem and support for Sidebar gadgets, users will want them. But those who buy XP with that new PC won’t have access to those applications because they will be working through an operating system designed in the late’90s to run on millennium-era hardware. What’s more, general support for that “new” XP operating system will end next April, even though many consumers will keep those machines for five years.

If users buying new PCs are going to stick with Windows, they should get machines with Vista preloaded. Sure, the incessant barking of security warnings is annoying, but those can be muzzled. Windows is the platform on which users run the applications that do the real work. Those applications will increasingly exploit and rely on Vista’s capabilities.

In a market that watches shipments as if they were movie box-office grosses, Vista has fallen short of very public expectations. But although Vista hasn’t been a blockbuster on par with Windows 95, general penetration rates for the operating system are following the same slow, steady trajectory as those for Windows XP, according to a June report by Bernstein Research.
For business, the Vista adoption calculation has many more variables. And there’s no need to rush. Enterprises can continue to install their own XP system images onto new hardware, and the security updates that businesses need will be available until 2014. By then, Vista’s successor should be established.

But there is also something to be said for staying current with your users. Vista is shipping on most new Windows PCs in the retail channel. Microsoft claims to have shipped 140 million copies as of March 2008, and it’s a sure bet that most of those licenses aren’t being downgraded to XP. That means users will increasingly be running Vista at home.

At least one wavering CIO sees this as a political issue. He worries that if users accept Vista at home and businesses wait for Windows 7, IT may look lethargic in its efforts to deploy the latest technology to meet business needs. By the time Windows 7 is ready for enterprise use, XP will be at least 10 years old. At that point, being on the trailing edge with XP could hurt IT’s credibility and make kicking off more-ambitious projects difficult, he says.

In the end, the Vista decision involves striking a delicate balance between political, technical and business issues. Wait or migrate? Both choices involve some risks.

Robert L. Mitchell is a Computerworld national correspondent. Contact him at robert_mitchell@computerworld.com.

Coca Cola decided in about 1985 that the formula for its flagship drink was a little dated, so it started shipping “New Coke,” which went over like a lead balloon.

So it scrapped New Coke and then started packaging old Coke under the label Coca Cola Classic. A Forrester Research analyst has compared Windows Vista to New Coke.

Eric Lai of Computerworld US wrote this report.

Fewer than one in eleven of the PCs being used in large or very large enterprises runs Windows Vista, according to survey results released Wednesday by Forrester Research Inc.

Of the 50,000 enterprise users surveyed by the Cambridge, Mass. analyst firm, 87.1 per cent were still running Windows XP at the end of June, compared to 8.8 per cent for Vista. According to author Thomas Mendel, that implies that the majority of PCs upgraded to Vista were those running older versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000 or 98.

“Vista is ‘new Coke,’” Mendel wrote, comparing Microsoft’s flagship OS to the ill-fated soft drink. Enterprises still on the fence about Vista would be wise, he said, to “consider following the lead of Microsoft’s important partner Intel and re-evaluating the case of Vista.”

Mendel’s comments undercut the momentum for Vista claimed by Microsoft, which says it has sold 180 million licenses for its 18-month-old operating system to PC makers and end users.

Vista still has double the share of Macs among big businesses, however. The share of Macs grew from to 4.5 per cent in June from 3.7 per cent in January 2008. Eighty per cent of those are Intel-based Macs.

Linux’s share of desktops, meanwhile, fell significantly, according to Forrester, to 0.5 per cent in June from 1.8 per cent in January.

As a result, enterprise application developers only need to “develop exclusively for Windows XP and Vista. Forget about Macs unless you’re aiming at a specific business vertical where Mac use is prevalent.”

Forrester’s study examined the Web browser as well as the desktop environments of the 50,000 users, spread out among 2,300 companies. It found that 19.4 per cent of enterprise users are using FireFox, up from 16.8 per cent at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Microsoft Internet Explorer’s (IE’s) share only slipped slightly, from 79.1 per cent in January to 77.6 per cent at the end of June.

“At least make sure that applications work on Firefox as well as IE — this is a must,” Mendel wrote.

Apple Inc.’s Safari owns only a small slice of the market — 2.4%, according to Forrester.

Both Flash and Java were nearly ubiquitous. Flash Player version 9 was on 97 per cent of desktops, while Java was on 99.9 per cent of them. But application developers shouldn’t try too hard to jazz up their apps with Flash elements — “business users don’t want to hunt for navigation nor do they crave excitement,” Mendel wrote.

Forrester also discovered that despite ever-increasing screens and screen sizes, the largest slice — 34.1 per cent — of business users are using screens between 15 and 17 inches in size with resolutions of 1024 by 768 pixels; another 25.2 per cent use screens between 17 and 19 inches in size with resolutions of 1280 by 1024 pixels.

Both have educated the masses on the true shape of the earth.

The Web site Adrants, which comments on advertising campaigns, has posted commentary on a Microsoft ad reminding Vista haters that at one point, everyone thought the earth was flat.

As Eratosthenes pointed out in his famous experiment (of which one per cent of the population may be aware), this is clearly not true.

So, if you are still stuck on XP, Microsoft is urging you to move forward, get real and face the reality that the earth is round.

Gregg Keizer of Computerworld filed this report

Microsoft offers free Vista-to-XP downgrade help
Microsoft Corp. has said it will offer free technical support to small businesses that buy new PCs with Windows Vista in the next three months, its latest attempt to convince users that moving to Vista is a good idea.

And if those efforts are for naught, Microsoft will help those users downgrade from Vista to Windows XP, the same maneuver several large computer makers, including Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., have used in recent months to continue offering the older operating system to buyers.

The offer, dubbed Windows Vista Small Business Assurance, is available to businesses with fewer than 50 employees or 25 PCs, and it provides free telephone support through the end of October to companies that buy new PCs with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate between now and Sept. 30, according to details posted on the Microsoft Web site.

Only businesses buying new hardware can take advantage of the free support; companies upgrading existing computers from, say, Windows XP, don’t qualify.

Microsoft has set up a toll-free number that will be manned weekdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. PDT. Typically, Microsoft shunts users to computer manufacturers for operating system support.

“We have such confidence in the state of Windows Vista that we’re going to all U.S.-based small businesses and we’re offering free support, one-on-one coaching and assistance via phone to help them go through and make the transition to Windows Vista,” Brad Brooks, the executive who heads Windows consumer marketing, said in a keynote address at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference yesterday.

Brooks also acknowledged the problems, real and perceived, that users have had with Vista since its general release early last year. “We had an ambitious plan. We made some significant investments around security in this product,” said Brooks. “And you know what, those investments, they broke some things. They broke a lot of things. We know that.”

But Decisions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry questioned whether free support will convince users to switch. “It will give some people a safety net,” he said, “but if you have a machine truly configured for Vista, you probably like Vista. My biggest problem is still the hardware footprint for Vista.”

To make his point, Cherry quoted from a catalog he’d recently received from a “major OEM,” a reseller that targeted small and midsize businesses. On the cover, he said, was a PC priced at US$500 that includes 1GB of memory. “I don’t see that as being really adequate to the task,” said Cherry. “But the base for all the systems [in the catalog] seems to be 1GB. I still worry about the amount of RAM in machines being sold with Vista.”

Small businesses aren’t putting off Vista because they think they’ll need more hand-holding, or even because they believe compatibility issues plague the operating system. “There’s some compatibility problems, but those are kind of being resolved,” said Cherry. “That’s not their fear. Their fear is spending that much money on hardware for a PC that can run Vista.”

Microsoft’s help desk representatives will answer any Vista questions, help users with application and peripheral compatibility problems, and point out key features of the operating system, said the company. The support isn’t permanent; it ends Oct. 31.

The program, said Microsoft, is only temporary because it’s designed to help customers make the transition to Windows Vista. “As Windows XP availability begins to wind down, we want small businesses to know we’re behind them to provide special support during this transition period,” said Microsoft in the program’s online FAQ.

But if Small Business Assurance can’t make users happy, Microsoft will walk them through a downgrade to Windows XP. “In cases where a small business customer cannot overcome an incompatibility issue and has the PC’s recovery media disc for Windows XP, we are equipped to help with a downgrade over the phone,” said Microsoft on its Web site.

Small Business Assurance is available only to U.S. customers, although Microsoft didn’t say whether it might expand the program into other markets.