Ruh, roh: Windows Genuine Advantage goes belly up

Just when you thought Microsoft might catch a PR break after public Google miscues, word leaks (erupts?) that its reviled  Windows Genuine Advantage service went belly up on Friday.  At that time Microsoft techs promised a fix by Tuesday.

You know WGA: It’s Microsoft’s big brothery way of checking your customers’ Windows bits and bytes to make sure they’re legal. It’s all about keeping everyone legit and happy. Yeah. Right.

The outage was addressed by early Saturday afternoon eastern time, but not before the you-know-what hit the fan. In a big way.

Engadget headline: “WGA servers down: Everyone’s a pirate today.”

ZDNet UK header: What’s Windows Genuine Advantage? Three days off work.”

Of course that one was written before Microsoft fixed the issue within a day. Is that what the company means about  “under promising and over delivering”?

Barbara Darrow, a Boston-area journalist, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net