From Microsoft’s syrupy commercials, consumers already know a little bit about what the cloud can do. When they’re stuck in an airport, for example, Windows 7’s cloud features let them enjoy recently-recorded TV shows from their PVR at home while they wait for their flight. From a consumer standpoint, access to pictures, movies, music, and documents on the go is a big part of the cloud’s attraction right now.

For Microsoft, however, there’s another consumer-facing Windows feature that stands to benefit greatly from kicked-up cloud features: Windows’ anti-piracy measures.

Microsoft has battled Windows piracy for years, and to this point has only really succeeded in delaying ambitious crackers. Eventually, a .DLL exploit is found and Windows Genuine Advantage fades sheepishly into the background. WGA might resurface later on with renewed vigor and more intrusive alerts (and even black out your wallpaper), but someone invariably finds a workaround. Even latching on to other Microsoft products like Security Essentials, Internet Explorer, or Windows Media Player doesn’t seem to do much more than annoy.

With the latest Windows 8 build (8064) that has been delivered to Intel, it’s clear that the company is taking strides to make sure that its upcoming OS isn’t quit so easy to pirate. For starters, the generic volume license keys that were so easily exploited during the early days of Windows 7 leaks will no longer be an option for pirates. Product keys also won’t be shipped in the prodkey.txt file included in the build packages. Instead, installers will need to retrieve a unique key from a Microsoft web page.

There’s also a good possibility that the recently-surfaced fast booting patent could come into play as well. If Microsoft does indeed have designs on using a remote server to push OS code to systems at boot time (even if it’s cached locally for extended periods), that code would be a very clever place to embed activation-related programming. Even if a crack was discovered, it would be neatly undone during a subsequent start-up sequence — similar to the way Microsoft’s now-idle Windows Steady State could turn back the clock an entire Windows installation after rebooting.

A lot of talk about Microsoft needing to match Apple’s aggressively low OS upgrade pricing has been bandied about, and one way Microsoft could help keep sticker prices down is by delivering a bulletproof anti-piracy system. Keeping the ratio of paid Windows licenses versus pirated ones would allow Redmond to remove any price padding against counterfeits it builds in.