Windows Advantage Validation Process On Firefox

GraemeDonaldson writes "According to this IE Blog entry, Microsoft seems to be serious about supporting non-IE browsers. Mention is made of a Windows Media Player plugin for Firefox. The Windows Genuine Advantage validation process now works in Firefox too. From the article: 'Basically, customers said "We want to make sure our PCs are running genuine Windows and have access to all the content on the Microsoft Download Center; the experience when we're running a Mozilla browser is not great. Do something about it." Brad's team did. I think that's a good thing for customers.'"

Windows Updates?

[Anonymous Coward]

Office Updates? Microsoft Updates? Slow link response in Outlook (and other Office apps) if non-IE browser is default? There still is a ways to go for Microsoft before they can claim they are supporting browsers other than their own.

Yeah but...

[xero9]

if you try and just go straight to the downloads page you still have to download GenguineCheck.exe and paste the code in. If I hadn't read the summary, I wouldn't have known about this plugin And somethign else that's interesting.. Even after installing the plugin and closing Firefox completely, when I return to the downloads page it STILL wants me to paste the validation code in

Re:Coming next...

[HoosierPeschke]

Not next, Already here [www.iol.ie]...

Other Options beside windows update

[TubeSteak]

WindizUpdate: http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/ [62nds.com]
They've been around for a while now and aren't shady.
You use it just like the regular windows update site.
Supports Mozilla, Opera, AOL & K-Meleon (?)

AutoPatcher XP: http://www.autopatcher.com/ [autopatcher.com]
They provide windows updates every month packaged in
one big executable (Full and Lite versions available)
Available through http, ftp, & bittorrent

Alternatively, you can disrespect MS by using a cracked LegitCheckControl.DLL

Re:Windows Media Player for Firefox on Linux

[fliplap]

Why would you want that? MPlayer already plays as many, if not more, formats than Windows Media Player and is available with your choice of non-horrible non-crazy-bloated frontends.

Don't want to bother with MPlayer's issues? Xine is available as a package included in most distributions and plays everything that MPlayer does, with the exception of really weird formats. I can't say I've found something that Xine won't play.

Good thing for the customer

[thepoch]

Why is it that I always seem to read this phrase from Microsoft... and yet don't always see it in practice? If it's something that may eat their monopoly, they say it's bad for the customers. Example? Open Document Format, and Linux. OpenDocument gives people the option of choosing office suites without the worry of format troubles. That's good for the customer. Linux distributions give customers the choice of platform. That's also good for the customer. Simply these two things increases competition, possibly increasing quality and, hopefully, lowering prices. Isn't that good for customers as well?

Validation Smalidation...

[I.M.O.G.]

We already know validation can be turned off in IE as follows: Go to IE>Tools>Manage Add-ons, find Windows Genuine Validation listed there, and select disable. No more check required, and you can get all your updates.

So how do we turn it off for Firefox? Ironic that I found it easier to turn off in IE, and I haven't yet found how to do it in firefox...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

On Linux?

[icydog]

I went to the site with Firefox on Linux and it gave me a popup telling me that a page will load telling me I will need to download some file. So I push OK, and it redirects me to the same page so that popup happens again. Infinite loop. Anyone else get this?

Re:Genuine Disadvantage

[kylegordon]

ALternatively, open up IE, click Tools > Manage Add-Ons, and then disable the WGA plugin...

Re:What??

[MikoLone]

Who said anything about Active X? They said they will be making a WMP Plugin.

tagline: Mosaic?

[Blitzenn]

I don't understand your tagline regarding Mosaic. You don't have to remember it, it's an integral part of any IE browser, even today. Open your M$ browser and click Help then About. Mosaic is still there and M$ still pays licensing fees for it to SpyGlass. If you don't believe me, read the history [microsoft.com] for yourself.