Product activation and validation in Windows 7 is built off the same Software Protection Platform that was introduced with Windows Vista. Microsoft claims the technology is much better than the one in XP: Vista is harder to pirate. However, in response to customer feedback, Windows 7 will give users more informative notifications when it comes to activation. For example, unlike in Vista SP1, if Windows 7 is not activated during the login process, customers will no longer have to wait 15 seconds to click the "Activate later" button, and instead they will be given more information on activation.

Joe Williams, general manager of Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, today gave more information on what is coming for activation and validation in Windows 7. The most noticeable change is that the technology is being renamed from the rather well-known (and hated) Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) to Windows Activation Technologies (WAT).

It's worth quoting the reasoning behind this change in full:

[T]he technology used in Windows Vista and Windows 7 is fundamentally different from that used with Windows XP. It consists of new code and the latest methods for protecting Windows in ways that can only really be achieved with the components that are built in to both Windows Vista and now Windows 7. For that reason the anti-piracy features in Windows 7 — and future versions of updates of the technology for Windows Vista — will be referred to more accurately as Windows Activation Technologies. We will continue releasing Window Genuine Advantage updates for Windows XP-based systems. We also spent time thinking about how we could make activation and validation easier for enterprises. For example, we think IT professionals will appreciate support in Windows 7 for virtualized images and volume activation technologies. When Windows Vista was being developed, virtualization was primarily a server scenario, but today many companies have it in their production environment on both the server and the client. We listened and adapted our management tool for organizations by making them more easily available.

I find it very interesting that Microsoft is moving away from "genuine advantage" to "activation technologies." In almost every WGA story that I've written, the same comments keep appearing: users demand that Microsoft explain what the "genuine advantage" is to activation. It looks like the PR department has started to pay a bit more attention and wants to make the technology's aim more clear. I guess the most popular comments will now be "What's WAT?"