The core of my team’s job is to make IE7 and Windows Vista so compelling so that people choose our products. The people who work on Windows want you to have a good experience, whether you use IE or not - for example, Windows Media Player has a Firefox plugin. I also recently got a chance to play with a new Firefox plugin that simplifies and improves the Windows validation process on that browser – since, as I said to Scoble a long time ago, it would be arrogant for the people working on a product not to use other products in that category.

I talked with Brad Graziadio, the guy who runs the Windows Genuine Advantage team, and he walked me through customer feedback. Basically, customers said “We want to make sure our PCs are running genuine Windows and have access to all the content on the Microsoft Download Center; the experience when we’re running a Mozilla browser is not great. Do something about it.” Brad’s team did. I think that’s a good thing for customers.

Microsoft wants to provide a good user experience to all Windows customers who are validating their systems. If you choose to run Firefox, I know Brad and his team want to hear feedback on this plugin. This can be given here : http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp?ICP=WGA&sLCID=us

Q: Will the validation process work with non-Microsoft Web browsers?

A: Yes, you can complete the validation process using non-Microsoft Web browsers. Users of the Firefox browser or other browsers can validate using the Alternate Method by running a small executable file. This file and validation instructions are accessed from the Alternate Method link on the Microsoft Download Center page containing the instructions for the ActiveX control. Mozilla Firefox users: although the instructions for the validation tool executable file say to open or run the file from its current location, Firefox will not present you with either of those options. Instead, save the file to your PC and then double-click on the file to run it.