Microsoft has filed 20 lawsuits against suppliers that sell counterfeit software and has published new research into the risks for users buying illegal products.

Legal action has been filed against companies that are alleged to have resold copies and counterfeits of Microsoft software.

This includes companies that sell computers with software already loaded, which can be a counterfeit program that has been used on several machines.

Mary Jo Schrade, Microsoft's senior attorney, stated: "We want to make it clear to people who try to profit illegally.

"Microsoft is determined to protect its intellectual property, while also helping protect consumers and honest resellers from the deceptive and dangerous practices of counterfeiting and hard-disk loading."

In addition, Microsoft has released the results of its latest study into the dangers of buying illegally copied software.

Of the 348 Windows XP disks that the software giant studied, 34 per cent couldn't be installed on a computer.

A sizeable 66 per cent had additional non-Microsoft programs included on the disk, which had no Microsoft security checks and didn't reflect the quality of the product.

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