Jiong looking at the knock-off version of Microsoft's black screen software

From Microsoft's claim of initiating the Genuine Advantage Validation Program for Windows XP Professional and Office on the 20th day of this month (for more detailed information), computers with pirated copies of Windows XP Professional will be forcibly subjected to a "black screen" (the desktop background will turn completely black) every hour, while Office's menu bar will be tagged with a "not genuine" mark. The event has caused widespread panic at the beginning, then great surprise, and now people are calmly watching the developments. Such dramatic changes in just two days are truly speechless. Even more exaggeratedly, various imitation black screen software have appeared online, and the simulation of black screens is becoming increasingly "mature". This time, Microsoft could be said to gain here but lose there.

The widespread panic was mainly due to the majority of people not understanding the details, blindly assuming that the black screen would be similar to a blue screen crash. After explanations online, people realized that it was different. Microsoft denied that black-screening pirated users would be illegal, stating that it would only involve the desktop wallpaper turning black every hour. This is the origin of the "great surprise".