"Genuine advantage"? For whom? I just downloaded two add-ons (DRM modules, as it happens) in two languages (French and English).
Each of these 4 downloads made me waste ten seconds pressing the "continue" button ("validation required" comment) before switching to "download", all within the same IE session.
Granted that Microsoft has a right to make money from their (overpriced, IMO) softwares, I feel that insisting that it's an "advantage" to be probed and queried for validation at every turn of the mouse is not only an outright lie, it's an insult to all those users who've paid good money for their operating system, in addition to being a [unprintable] nuisance.
If you must check for the OS's validity (why so often?), at least do it in the background, and once per OS session at the most. After all, only an idiot would expect a valid installation to become a pirated one in-between reboots...
Fed up with "validation required" when downloading some fixes or add-ons
