Hi Shoaib,

thank you for your feedback. Let's get straight on the terms first:

We have Microsoft Update (the mechanism you go to the Website or you kick off manually), where you get all the application add-ons, drivers, patches, etc. Additioanlly we have Automatic Updates (the thing you switch on to automatically receive the update, especially the critical ones). Looking at the updates we have to distinguish between critical security updates and the rest.

So, putting it all together: With a pirated copy of Windows, you cannot access our download center nor Microsoft Update. However, if you decide to switch on Automatic Updates, you will get the critical Security Updates. We even decided to ship Windows XP SP2 to stolen installations.

However my guess is that the people knowingly having a pirated copy will not switch on Automatic Updates as they fear to be caught - in Automatic Updates we do not care whether you are pirated or not and there are governmental organizations that certy that.

Last point: A lot of people ask me, what I mean be unknowningly pirated copies: There are people buying a new PC (including the software licenses they think), where the seller actually puts a pirated copy onto the machine. This happes more often than you might probably think. Those customers might have AU switched on.

I hope this clarifies my points above

Cheers

Roger