Microsoft has announced it is chipping away at the problem of software piracy and will extend its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) scheme for Windows Vista and may provide sweeteners for Office users to check the legitimacy of their products.

In an interview with IT Week today (29 August), Michala Alexander, Microsoft UK head of anti-piracy, said the vendor is on track to meet targets to reduce the proportion of illegal programs.

In February, Microsoft revealed plans to reduce the proportion of pirated versions of Windows in the UK from 16.7 percent to 11.7 percent over three years. A count in May suggested the figure had already fallen to about 14 percent.

The fall was probably largely due to the WGA scheme that checks authenticity of Microsoft software, the firm claimed. “Resellers are over the moon about WGA,” Alexander said. “The good guys are winning the battle over the bad guys.”

Though WGA has been criticised for falsely indicating illegal copies were present when disks were legitimately acquired, Alexander said that problem was caused by systems integrators using one identification key when building PCs, rather than individual keys for each PC.

Microsoft said WGA will be introduced for Windows Vista “a few months” after the operating system is released. “We don’t need to build a programme for the day of launch,” Alexander said.

Alexander also predicted there is likely to be a spike in pirated Windows XP and Office 2003 sales “as people seek to get rid of excess stock” before the release of Vista.

Microsoft is also considering offering sweeteners for Office users who sign up for Office Genuine Advantage. For users of Windows XP, WGA offers incentives such as the Windows Defender anti-spyware program as a free download, but Office has not yet attracted such bonus deals.