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Windows Genuine Advantage now supports Firefox


Scarecrow Man
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I was downloading Microsoft Anti-Spyware (Windows Defender) and noticed microsoft asked me to install a plug-in. I read a bit down the page and noticed it was installing a plug-in for Firefox.

Yes WGA now supports Firefox!

The genuine validation process will collect the following information about your PC:

  • OEM product key
  • PC Manufacturer
  • OS version
  • PID/SID
  • BIOS info (make, version, date)
  • BIOS MD5 Checksum
  • User Locale (language setting for displaying Windows)
  • System Local (language version of the operating system)

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/11/windows...e-supports.html

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The initial WGA 1.0 program downloaded an ActiveX control to check the authenticity of your Windows software. Since it was an ActiveX control, only Internet Explorer (IE) users could use it.

But the recent growth of Firefox has forced Microsoft to rethink their strategy.

I think that Microsoft now realise that Firefox is growing in popularity but I can't help but feel that it is going to be short lived as when IE7 is released, there will be nothing to choose between the different browsers.

IE7 also offers tabbed browsing which, incidentally, is one of the major reasons why I now have Firefox as my default browser.

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I think that Microsoft now realise that Firefox is growing in popularity but I can't help but feel that it is going to be short lived as when IE7 is released, there will be nothing to choose between the different browsers.

IE7 also offers tabbed browsing which, incidentally, is one of the major reasons why I now have Firefox as my default browser.

Yes, but FF has built quite the fanbase, and Microsoft has a very bad track record with IE. Personally, I think the changes they're making are too little too late... There's nothing revolutionary about IE7 whereas with FF, while it did mimic most properties from other browsers (namely Opera), it was free (as in libre) and open source and had the bleeding-edge features... This helped dramatically, and will in the future as Linux continues to grow (no Linux port of IE, but there is still Opera...)

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Yes, but FF has built quite the fanbase, and Microsoft has a very bad track record with IE.

Yes mainly to do with security, I forgot about that advantage.

What I like about Firefox (and I suppose this also applies to other alternative browsers) is the fact that the browser is seperate from the operating system unlike Internet Explorer which if infected with malware, this malware can infect Windows itself?

At least that is what I am led to believe.

Anyway, I have now installed the WGA plug-in and now I have no reason to use IE at all :dry:

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... I also have the IE tab extension installed and I can run Windows Update on my PC.

That sounds like a good idea, so I installed the IE Tab extension. Now what - how can I open an IE tab? Checked http://ietab.mozdev.org/ but there is no information how to open an IE tab...

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Tried that, then went to http://update.microsoft.com/ which gave me this message

Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site.

To use this site, you must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.

To upgrade to the latest version of the browser, go to the Internet Explorer Downloads website.

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Actually there is a way, and has been for quite some time now Pat. (before IETab)

http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/

Possibly can also be done via http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/mozilla.htm* which is an ActiveX control for Firefox, but I have not tried.

*Version 1.5 is still in TEST (AKA BETA) phases. (Insert usual BETA can ruin your computer rant here)

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Ah - that explains it! You run Windows Update (which seems to work), and I run Microsoft Update (which doesn't)

Yes that appears to be the case although I would have thought that the update would work in both cases as they are basically the same thing!

I think he meant the ActiveX plug-in, not Firefox.

Oh right! :biggrin:

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  • 3 weeks later...

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