Yeah I know about the OEM/retail key and matched CD thing, and it's another pain in the ass that does nothing to curb piracy.
Same with slipstreaming, yep I could've done but since I don't expect to reinstall it's not worth the hassle as I'd have to download everything anyway. I've had this laptop for about 2.5 years, and the only reason it needed reinstalled is cos I replaced the drive. I managed to gut out all the crap from the original install and it was working fine. Even more interesting than slipstreaming is nLite (
http://www.nliteos.com/) which makes it loads easier to get rid of all the junk M$ force upon you, which I normally spend ages doing by hand after installing Windows.
You've just given me yet another reason for preventing WGA infecting my computer, if it also prevents the installation of Media Player 11 (or indeed any version above 6). I've been using Media Player Classic for years now, it does a much better job without all the bloat, DRM and advertising, and the icing on the cake is that it's completely free and open source. If I had the choice my OEM Windows would have been the EU "reduced media" version without M$'s crappy media player, and while they're at it they can remove Messenger (I use Trillian Free or Gaim), Net Meeting, Outlook Express and all the other junk I don't want but M$ have made as difficult as possible to remove for the purposes of leveraging their desktop monopoly into other markets.
Back to the original point, I thought a corporate version with corporate key didn't require activation, which is why it's the method of choice for pirates. So no WPA crack required.
I don't know the solution to piracy, but I do know that it's not WGA. Quite simply it will do nothing to deter pirates, and plenty to annoy "Geniune" customers like me, who see absolutely no "Advantage" from my perspective. Big brother is indeed watching you, and just because they claim no personal information is ever sent, are you happy to believe that the contents of those encrypted packets have absolutely no connection to you? Who knows what's in them, so personally I'd rather not let them cast their beady eyes over the contents of my machine thank you.