There are about 3 or 4 companies who built products they sell for Windows that do exactly that: install a background service that keeps pinging their servers.

There are about 3 or 4 companies who built products they sell for Windows that do exactly that: install a background service that keeps pinging their servers. Some courts had said that Microsoft was killing the competition by bundling "free" stuff into Windows. To me it looks the other way - their weak OS only gives people chance to make money by compensating for its deficits.