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Microsoft's Office nagware dead in icy water

Software giant quietly retires OGA program

Microsoft quietly yanked its Office nagware program off the interwebs last week.

The company’s Office Genuine Advantage notifications program, which Microsoft only expanded to be used in 41 countries across the globe in August 2009, was killed on 16 December.

ZDNet’s Ed Bott received word that it had been axed, after a tipster spotted the shutdown of Redmond’s OGA program.

By Friday, Microsoft confirmed the move in a terse ‘Knowledge Base’ article that reads:

“The Office Genuine Advantage (‘OGA’) program has been retired. For more information about the benefits of genuine Office, please visit the following website: Benefits of genuine Office.”

Before last Thursday, anyone wanting to download an Office add-in or template was required to jump through several validation hoops first to prove that the software he or she was running was a legit MS application.

Microsoft's decision to retire its OGA nagware is surprising, given that the vendor only expanded its anti-piracy tentacles for Office less than 18 months ago. ®

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