Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage program en-silence

Late last week, Microsoft put an end to its Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program. The Office Notifier, the OGA ActiveX control for Internet Explorer, and the OGA plug-in for Firefox have also been retired. The change took place on December 16, was first confirmed in a KB article last updated on December 17, 2010, and found by ZDNet:

Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) has been withdrawn. For more information about the Office Genuine Advantage, please visit the following website:

When he still OGA requires users to your copy of Microsoft Office to verify non-critical updates and other downloads and addons, patterns, models, etc. Download Now users can take the content without that no further step, such as Microsoft Office or pirated.

It is important to note that the UCI is product activation differently. The first is based on Internet-based and users to files and allows updates from the Microsoft Web site while it is being applied in the software and necessary in order to use the current software. UCI rejects the product keys that were either stolen or produced largely by the passage of the first activation. OGA covers Office XP,microsoft Office 2010 Professional and ms office 2010 beta.

UCI has an equivalent in the Windows side: Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). WGA requires much more useful than the UCI download Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). Redmond did not intend to kill the WGA, at least not at this point in time.

The change is important because it implies that Microsoft OGA cost more money than they save the company, suggesting that the OGA has been largely ineffective in its goal was. the vast majority of Office users can not live without additional templates and samples: This is not surprising,  benefit  Office Genuine Advantage has been smaller.

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