WGA and Outlook: Should you be concerned?

With multiple lawsuits and hordes of irate blog postings, WGA, the Windows Genuine Advantage program, has created plenty of controversy. NOTE: If you want to know more about what this program does, and why people are so riled up over it, I've provided some background information here (opens a new window).

For us as Outlook users, the question is: "What, if anything, does Windows Genuine Advantage have to do with us?"

WGA and Outlook

To begin with, Windows Genuine Advantage doesn't directly affect Outlook. It directly affects Microsoft Windows. Whether it contacts Microsoft with information about your computer, or incorrectly flags your copy of Windows as illegitimate, doesn't affect how you use Outlook.

Unless you are opposed to the Windows Genuine Advantage program, you have nothing to worry about. Even the problems that have been reported don't appear to have any effect on Outlook.

Only if you are opposed to the Windows Genuine Advantage program, and want to keep it off your computer, and you aren't using Outlook at work (where the IT department probably controls how Windows is updated) do you need to be concerned at all. And that's only in the area of updates.

Because Windows Genuine Advantage gets onto your computer through the Windows Update and Microsoft Update services, you need to avoid installing updates that deal with WGA. That means turning off Automatic Updates and taking a few moments to look at the descriptions of the updates before installing them. That's it.

In Short...

While the Windows Genuine Advantage program is controversial and has generated a lot of activity. It isn't an issue that directly affects you as an Outlook user.

From here you can:

Return to the top of this WGA page.

Return to the Outlook Updates page.