Microsoft takedown Windows and Office Validation Assistant

Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts will undertake a major overhauling. The Redmond company plans to take down both the Windows Validation Assistant and the Office Validation Assistant.

However, Microsoft is going to fill in the empty spaces left by the discontinuing of WVA and OVA with Windows Comparison Guide (WCG) and the Office Comparison Guide (OCG). Additionally there is also the Windows Genuine Advantage and Office Genuine Advantage that will survive the anti-piracy cancelled services. Still, this is not the end of the upgrades in store for the Microsoft anti-piracy programs. Feature updates and additions are also planned to be introduced.

"We're finally taking down both the Windows Validation Assistant and the Office Validation Assistant. The WVA was a prototype for WGA; it was the first tool launched that offered a web-based validation that could help find evidence that a copy wasn't genuine that otherwise might be hard for the average person to find (such as bad or leaked product keys, etc.) The good news is that we're replacing the WVA with the Windows Comparison Guide (WCG) and the Office Comparison Guide (OCG). These guides offer much of the same functionality as the WVA did by walking users through a quiz that helps them match the anti-piracy features of the products they have, but without the web-based validation. For that we're pointing people directly to WGA," revealed Alex Kochis, a senior licensing manager on the WGA team.

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