Ars technica

Internet Explorer 7 was a long time coming, and with the rise in popularity of Firefox, expectations were high. One thing that most users didn’t expect, however, was an additional Windows Genuine Advantage check, baked into every copy of the installation routine for IE7. Now, according to a post on Microsoft’s IE blog, this WGA check is going away with the latest IE7 update, at least for Windows XP users.

The move is remarkable because it is the first time that Microsoft has
removed WGA checks from a product in order to increase the
attractiveness of that product. It’s difficult to see this as any but
an attempt to get as many users as possible to install IE7, even those
who have pirated Windows.