Sod off, Microsoft

I've written about the idiotic Windows Genuine Advantage here before, at least twice. This is the spyware that Microsoft wants to install on your computer so that they could snoop on your system and police that you don't use unlicensed copies of their software.

Fair enough, but they don't of course say that, instead they claim they are helping you to ascertain that you have a genuine Microsoft product and that you have not fallen a victim of software piracy and bought a fake by accident. So this WGA is just a knight on a white steed pointing out to you that your copy is a fake and then helping you to get a genuine one, i.e. it guides you to an online store where you can buy the license.

Well, I'm now had enough. Today, Windows Update doesn't allow me to download security updates to their buggy software before I install a new version of this WGA. And, do they say it does what it does, i.e. contacts the internet without me knowing and sends stuff to Microsoft? No, this time it allows me faster, safer and more updates. And of course I have no option, as this appears before any other updates. OK, I could go and find the updates manually from an incredibly cluttered list, compare them to my update history etc. etc., but I don't have time for this. Instead, I'm downloading the bloody WGA snoop. And after that I'm now able to download the dozen updates and security plugs.

But the next computer I'm going to buy will be a Cupertino-baby by Apple, and the software will not be from Microsoft either. You just lost a customer, you twits.