REDMOND, Wash. - Nov. 12, 1998 - Microsoft Corp. officials today confirmed the discovery of counterfeit OEM versions of the Windows^® 98 operating system in several cities in North America. OEM product is intended for distribution only on new PCs by computer manufacturers and system builders and is likely to be distributed primarily throughout the reseller channel. Microsoft investigators and law enforcement agencies discovered copies of the counterfeit product after detecting similar counterfeit product in Australia two weeks ago.

"When software pirates saturate the market with counterfeit software, customers and honest resellers suffer," said Geoff Goetz, anti-piracy program manager for Microsoft's OEM sales division. "These counterfeiters have obviously invested a great deal of time and money trying to replicate our software and security features, but that doesn't mean it is complete, working product. Resellers should be very suspicious of OEM product that is represented as 'overage' or 'unbundled' or when the price is just too good to be true. We want to make sure that software resellers know they need to turn to authorized distributors so they can obtain and sell genuine product to their customers."

In addition to working with law enforcement officials to pursue civil and criminal remedies to help put a stop to software pirates, Microsoft has developed a comprehensive Web site to support honest system builders. To ensure provision of genuine Windows 98 or other OEM products to their customers, resellers should purchase from one of the 13 authorized Microsoft^® OEM product distributors listed on the Web site, located at http://www.microsoft.com/oem/.

The counterfeit OEM Microsoft Windows 98 products mimic the Integrated Certificate of Authenticity (COA) Coverstock and the hologram on the hub of the CD of genuine products. However, the counterfeits are identifiable by the following weaknesses:

• The heat-sensitive thread is actually ink-sprayed on the Integrated COA Coverstock in segments. The imitation's color is lighter than that of legitimate products, and the word "genuine" is visible at all times.
• On legitimate products, the blue coloration of the heat-sensitive thread disappears, and the word "genuine" appears after rubbing for approximately three to five seconds. The counterfeit products require a much higher degree of pressure and rubbing to cause the blue coloration to disappear.
• As on genuine products, the counterfeit CD hologram contains an alternating image of the words "Microsoft" and "Genuine;" however, the hologram appears very irregular and rough.

Consumers who obtain counterfeit copies of Windows 98, even on new machines, could be missing key elements, such as a CD-ROM back-up copy, user manuals, product identifications and even software code. Counterfeit software products also may contain viruses and may not work as well as genuine products. In addition, product support and upgrades to new versions of software are not available to users of counterfeit product.