Paul Thurrott bitten by pirate XP, not WGA

Paul Thurrott has an update to his July 20th WGA article.

Windows Genuine Advantage is a Microsoft initiative, the most visible part being a software program that determines whether your copy of Windows is legal. It first appeared as an optional step when downloading software from the Microsoft site but has since been upgraded to a “critical update”. In his orginial article Thurrott tells how one of his copies of Windows was flagged as being a pirated copy, despite being a legitmate MSDN version.

However, in an update on July 29th, it turns out that his copy was using a pirated license key after all. Thurrott explains that he bought the Windows copy in question from an online retailer, and apparently the online retailer supplied a pirated key. Which clears that up. However, he does leave me with a couple questions.

Why not use a MSDN version of Windows XP MCE orginially?
He says he bought the copy of XP MCE from an online retailer to “to see what the experience would be like”. He doesn’t clarify what experience he means. If he means the XP MCE experience, why not use his MSDN copy? If he did mean the experience of buying a copy of XP MCE online, it seems a little strange to spend about $150 for the experience of recieving a Windows CD in the mail.

Why not name the online retailer?
If he did mean the experience of buying a copy, why not name the retailer, and properly detail his experience and warn people not to use them? If he didn’t name the retailer for legal reasons, why not at least let us know if Microsoft are investigating them?

What are the first 2 sets of numbers in a Windows license used for?
This is not a question for Thurrott, but if WGA only sends the last 3 sets of a license to Microsoft for validation, does that mean the last 3 sets uniquelly identifiy the license key? If so, what are the first 2 sets used for? Is it a checksum?

What does he mean about IE6 saving passwords on Windows 2000?
He says: “the version of IE 6 included with Windows 2000 can save Web passwords”. What on earth is he talking about? Is he implying IE6 on Windows XP can’t save Web passwords?

Why throw away a USB cable?
This is the question I really want answered. I’d hazard that Thurrott might have a cable closet, like any long term techie, and probably has plenty usb cables. Even so, you can never have enough USB cables. Things just don’t come with USB cables anymore, printers and second hand equipment in particular. Your local big box knows this, and will charge you $40 for one. I’ve been caught out a couple times, knowing I should wait for a $10 mail order cable, but paying 4 times that to get one straight away. It’s not like he threw away something obscure like a SCSI or firewire cable, USB cables are just plain handy.

And, finally, will we ever have anwsers?

Two disclosures, I’m a Mac user and a borderline compulsive hoarder, particularly of useful tech stuff.