A new version of Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications program available now no longer checks a server-side configuration of a user's version of Windows every time the user logs on to see if it is a valid copy of Windows. Instead, it periodically checks to see if the user's copy is genuine.

"Our customers have told us that they were disappointed with their WGA Notifications experience, and we have made an effort to improve that with this update," the company said in an e-mailed statement through its public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom Inc.

Tuesday also marks the end of the pilot phase of WGA Notifications, which means eventually the program will run on all versions of Windows XP worldwide that use Microsoft's Automatic Updates system. The program is currently in a phased rollout, beginning with all English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian and Dutch versions of Windows XP. Microsoft will soon offer these users the updated WGA Notifications through Automatic Updates.

Microsoft has mounted an aggressive program to eliminate counterfeit and pirated versions of Windows, and WGA is a part of that. The program was first distributed not as an automatic update, but to users of Microsoft's download services who wanted to install add-on software, excluding security releases, for Windows.

Microsoft later updated it with the WGA Notifications program, distributed as part of Microsoft's Automatic Updates, which reminds users their copy of Windows is not genuine and informs them of what Microsoft calls the "benefits" of using authentic Windows software.