Besides the practical side of it (technical issues) it's also the subjective side of it. All this stuff is not preventing people from illegally downloading software. It's only annoying the legitimate users. How would it feel like when someone would visit your house - unannounced - once in a while to check if your TV is legal?
All this just gives people yet another reason why they don't want to buy a legal copy ....
Also, why do they call it genuine advantage? Why don't they just be transparent and open about it? A nice friendly popup message telling:
Most people would not have any problem with this."A lot of people are illegally using our software. We want to make sure your copy is legal. Therefore a small program is installed which will check your version each time you download our updates. You won't notice anything and we will not do anything other then checking your product key. Guaranteed. Thanks for your understanding".
But, as it is now, they are doing stuff behind my back, trying to get as much info as possible without my consent, trying to sell me more windows software, etc (yes I did do some reading since yesterday).