Comments on: Microsoft: Here's how to halt WGA alerts

Along with a new release of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications, Microsoft shares how to remove the controversial antipiracy tool.

[jsmith12]

I am so fed UP with this Microhell!

Seriously, this week has been one screwup after another is really getting on my nerves.

My brother, who loves updating his machine for gaminig reasons, just found out he used up all his permited OL 'validations'. So NOW he has to waste his time on the phone with the idiots from Microhell everytime he changes something on his machine. (He wasted half an hour because he installed new meory. That is beyound idiotic! He didn't even REINSTALL his OS!)

Then today, for the THIRD TIME SINCE THIS WAG STARTED I was asked to install it AGAIN! How many times do I have to say I don't want it? I paid good money for XP pro, and I don't see why I should have to have my PC constantly scanned by Microhell just because they think I'm using an illigal copy.

I have to jump though a million hoops to validate my copy when I have to install it for whatever reason. If that's not enough for them, too bad.

[catch23]

Then don't use it

Outside of the obvious lie (exaggeration?) about adding memory causing problems with WGA, you seem to have some real issues with XP. Stop using it then. As part of the millions that use MS software with minimal problems, I'm sick to death of the whining.
If your fed up with it, go away.

[R3DL1N3]

LOL

Your off base with the memory thing.. I build Install and Support Hundreds of PC's For many, many companies and your wrong. I don't care what your brother says. Changing memory will not invalidate your XP activation. Sorry to tell you.
To quote. Microsoft uses Bios Information, CPU ID (I.E. stepping information) and Hard disk information and something off the video card as well as the machine ID
Change more then two things and you will have to re validate.
Changing Memory will not do it.. it's not even part of the equation. So please try again.

Also if you're unhappy with Microsoft.. then switch to something else, but stop whining about it. Be a man, grow some balls and do something.

as for permanent validations.. there are two unofficially, and if you wait more then say I think it was 6 months one will expire.

To further my point. I have changed my memory my video card and still have not had to re validate. But I changed the Motherboard and CPU in my other system and I had to.

So if your brother.. is swapping his hardware that often.. tell him buy better hardware in the first place.

[PDG1]

your voice has been heard

I hear yea man...
Microshaft has a right to do this stuff...
but in hindsight i think they will find that it's not wise to throw rocks at a beehive.

Catch32 is tired of people complaining... but I'm tired of people complaining about people complaining
This is what the internet was made for.
don't like then...haha... don't use it:P.

but ya... I totally don't like MS sticking their nose into my computer
I don't think I agreed to this when I bought the software.
then again... who really checks the licence agreements any more any ways?
it's become such a habit to repeatedly click okay okay okay INSTAL! as fast as you can so you can use your stuff
some day... I'm going to make a licence that software engineers can use on their software that states that users who instal it must die.
it will not state when...
but that some day they must die...
and if they don't die... SUE THE CRAP OUTA THEM!! WAHA!
ya... everyone dies tho:P so their all safe... no worries guys.

ya... Getting rid of WAG
ASAP

[G-Rant-L]

It would be microhell wouldnt it :) Funny

[qwerty75]

Easy to avoid

Manually install all updates from Microstupid, and do not allow anything having anything to do with WGA install

[arrilaser]

Typical Microsoft

Microsoft does what it wants when it wants. Now they have to put
spyware on your system that checks everytime you boot. And to
remove it, you have to do a registry hack. This is not about piracy,
but about the next generation of Microsoft products. They want to
give you a "key" that has to be checked over the internet each time
you open Word or any other Microsoft product. This was a test and
they got caught.

[The user with no name]

Not SPYWARE

not by ANY definition accepted by the community!

Under your definition my copy of software that checks home to look for free updates is spyware as well....

God I hate you liars!

[yrrahxob]

The best way

To stop all WGA alerts in one simple word. "Linux"

[chassoto--2008]

I think we will ramp up our efforts...

...to deploy alternative operating systems. We've already seen
issues with Vista license key problems preventing logons. No
thanks!

[The user with no name]

OMG...problems with BETA software???

say it aint so....

LOL

There's a reason something is called BETA...

If you had a clue you would KNOW THAT!

[up-late-again]

MS Instructions have numerous errors

I *tried* to follow the instructions in KB article 921914, but they have several errors. So WGA is still on my PC, and I wasted a bunch of time.

Step 8 said to delete a couple files, but the files didn't exist because step 3 had me rename them. Step 10 told me to delete a certain registry key -- twice! And then it told me to delete a key that didn't exist.

Typical MS ineptitude. You know, given that MS charges 2-3 times as much for WinXP as Apple does for Mac OS X, you'd think they'd provide some decent value. But all you get are security holes too numerous to count and complexity requiring user vigilance beyond reason.

[imkain]

explain to me this

Why insult MS...why do people waste their energy on complaining about the OS...So what if their a monopoly, so what if their OS has holes, so what if Mac OS X is better, so what...who really cares? The only reason I care is because of individuals who seem to stand up on a soap box and decry Microsoft for all the evil PCs in the world. I understand that Linux is a great server OS and very good Desktop OS...in the hands of knowledgeable users...and Mac OS is a great media creation PC (movies, music, desktop publishing, etc)...but let's face it folks...as long as there are mediocre consumers who want ease of use...as well as billions of computer gamers (myself included) there will always be PCs in homes and they will all be running Microsoft's Windows.

Game Over MAN!!!!

[Seaspray0]

How do you figure that?

"You know, given that MS charges 2-3 times as much for WinXP as Apple does for Mac OS X..."

Exactly how much does Mac charge for the OS? Exactly how much does Microsoft charge for the OS?

That's not exactly a figure you can put your finger on. Since OSX doesn't work on anything but a MAC, you could call the price you quote for the boxed OS the "update" price because the only reason anyone would buy it is to update the MAC OS. You can't quote the actual price of the OS because it is bundled with the computer and neither is sold seperately (would be like saying "if you buy this car, we'll throw in the engine for this much more"). Microsoft's pricing is just as flaky. You have the retail version, the update version, home or pro versions, the OEM version... and on top of that, they give a discount to the PC makers. Each of these versions are designed to put XP on your PC.

So, show me some facts to back up your statement, please.

[Tui Pohutukawa]

To you, my unfortunate brethren

who have been living on the dark side of the computing world
for so long, let me say this: Bill of Gates, the evil philanthropist
who bathes in your money every night, wants to control your
souls, your computers, and your wallets. Don't let him do it! My
brothers in alms, dare to think for yourselves, dare to think
different. Throw away your shackles, overcome bondage and
despair, and you will soon see the light.
You said that you wanted more Jobs, less Gates. How right you
were. You also demanded an iLife. How wise. But now the time
has come to take the struggle much, much further!
Repeat after me: "We want a Mac! We want a Mac! We want a
Mac! (And a Coke with ice, thanks)."

[Seaspray0]

I am not your bretheren

And I would prefer Linux over Mac anyday. If apple can't build a PC in the price range that 90% of the populace is willing to spend, or allow the hardware diversity the populace desires, then you'll have as much luck trying to convince everyone to buy a mercedes. In the meantime, I'll stick with my microsoft truck with 2 wheel drive.

[ray08]

ugh! here I go again

It's past time to use linux and stay with it. I tried to switch before and almost made a go of it, but I had some apps that only ran in win. I hate dual booting, so I got vmware. Problem there is: no games.

To free myself of this B$, I'll have to go back to linux, reformat the file system, repartition, reinstall, relearn everything I have almost forgotten. At least then I can ignore all this m$ crap!

Looks like my nights and weekends will be used up for a while. I have 3 desktops and a laptop.

[Seaspray0]

Let us know how it goes.

Please post your sucesses and failures, ray08. I am interested in your story from the perspective of a bystander. I will not criticize your choice as I believe that is a personal one each of us makes. I will be watching for your entries.

[qwerty75]

Get Suse 10.1

After the free download, you will be up and running in less then 30 minutes or so, and will rarely(if ever) need the command prompt.

An exception is if you need to install nividia drivers. You have to be in root, with X shut down, and type in exactly 2 lines on the command prompt. Hardly frightening. Nearly everything else can be taken care of in Yast, a simple yet very powerful system update and management tool.

Give it a shot. It is sleek, stable and extremely easy to use. A 70 year old with little to no windows experience can pick it up quickly.

[kiljoymccoy]

WGA comment

If the OEM that people buy from mostly( DELL, HP, Sony,...) would install the computers correctly instead of using one image and one install key than most people wouldnt even see the wga notification and when people call into get support from these OEM's if they would tell the customer it was them that messed up and that the customer needs to reinstall to correct their(OEM) mistake it would take care of alot of the issue also. If said OEM's included the install disk like they should also as need for their customer instead of putting them on a partition or not includeing it at all than the customer would have a way to correct their(oem) mistakes.

I get this from that most of the computers that dont pass WGA check are OEM machines from OEM royalties(that change and print their own Microsoft software and support their own Microsoft software)

Now i have seen alot of computers that just didnt pass from haveing a os that was installed on more than one system or they were just plain out sold a illegal copy of software, But i would say at least 75% of all the ones not passing the wga check are rouyalty OEM machines that have valid COA on the computer and is compliant software.

Just another way that DELL and other OEM Royalties support their customers IMO

[imkain]

Perfect comment

I absolutely agree with you on this. This was the thing I was trying to make a point of when this story broke a week ago. If there wasn't an issue with the OS's registry do to either something wrong done by the user, or done by the manufacturer, then that would lead to WGA issues with Windows (not a valid copy message). Instead I got flak from Mac users, Linux lovers, and supposed highly respected IT people, who considered myself an ignorant individual. The whole point I was trying to make was exactly what you had stated and I salute you for making it. I understood that because it didn't happen in my town and people weren't calling me about it that it wasn't happening...it's just the fact that if you looked around the people who were complaining oddly were privacy advocates, Linux lovers, Mac users, and hackers. I don't think I ever saw a comment from a valid Windows XP user who had an issue...or anything to that effect. The point is that if you take care of your machine and make sure EVERYTHING is up to date and correct, as well as run a competent registry fixing program...then you can basically eliminate all possible Windows issues. I know it has worked for me with the past versions of Windows...except ME (but we all know about ME). The point is that a well oiled machine will run forever. Going on 5 years without a problem.

[kiljoymccoy]

WGA comment

If the OEM that people buy from mostly( DELL, HP, Sony,...) would install the computers correctly instead of using one image and one install key than most people wouldnt even see the wga notification and when people call into get support from these OEM's if they would tell the customer it was them that messed up and that the customer needs to reinstall to correct their(OEM) mistake it would take care of alot of the issue also. If said OEM's included the install disk like they should also as need for their customer instead of putting them on a partition or not includeing it at all than the customer would have a way to correct their(oem) mistakes.

I get this from that most of the computers that dont pass WGA check are OEM machines from OEM royalties(that change and print their own Microsoft software and support their own Microsoft software)

Now i have seen alot of computers that just didnt pass from haveing a os that was installed on more than one system or they were just plain out sold a illegal copy of software, But i would say at least 75% of all the ones not passing the wga check are rouyalty OEM machines that have valid COA on the computer and is compliant software.

Just another way that DELL and other OEM Royalties support their customers IMO

[jsmith12]

But is IS MS's fault that...

They require you to re-validate winhell EVERY SINGLE TIME you change a componet in your computer. Which is total BS.

It shouldn't matter how often I change componetnts on my PC, the only time it SHOULD matter to MS is when I reinstall my OS.

They have NO need to go shoving themselves into a PC whenever something liek a graphic or sound card is changed. It's not relevant to their bussness, and it's not reinstalling the OS. Therefore they shouldn't need to worry about what I do to my machine.

It';s like having to get your house insurance re-approved whenever you paint a room. Waste of time, and totally unessisary because it's NONE OF THEIR BUSSNESS.

[PzkwVIb]

Not WGA

Revalidating is not WGA, and no single component change will trigger reverification, It takes at least two, like CPU and Harddrive. Memory changes won't trigger it.

WGA, however, is completely separate from reverification.

[Cliffro]

Upgrades dont make you revalidate

I've upgraded lot of parts on my computer, and only when i changed motherboard and processor did it make me re-activate(i did a repair install to get the proper drivers and such loaded and to avoid the dreaded non-booting pc as well as not having to format)so i didnt even get a message other than the normal activation message when installing.

I've upgraded: Sound Card, Video,Hard Drive(addon not new system drive),Memory (took out 2x512 added 2x1gig of a different speed memory)and NIC

And during those upgrades never once did i have to re-validate windows whatsoever. I did however notice that once when i removed my DVD-RW to use on a friends computer to backup data that when i booted it without the drive(getting info to print)it crashed during booting.....but once i put it back it booted normal.

but in all those updates nothing so i find some claims hard to beleive...oh yeah and i have an OEM copy i bought from an E-tailer

[kiljoymccoy]

Wga

when you purchase a Windows OS on a OEM machine you give up certain rights to make that OEM license cheaper for you to purchase on that machine.
One of these rights is the ability to move that license from the machine it was orgionaly installed on to another machine.

It has always been like this with Microsoft OEM software and you agree to it when you agree to the EULA.
In the past it was easy to take the OEM license and move it and would only be bother by the fact that you broke your EULA that you agreed to and if you were in a bisness and got audited by the BSA the fines that would come along with not being compliant.


To help prevent companies to avoid uncompliancy fines from the BSA Microsoft started activation and WGA check. This has also helped stop casual piracy from the public also. Also has prevented resellers to take one license and sell it to many diffrent people making the license get black listed and the many diffren customers that had bought the computer that their licesnes was used on many machines dont get ripped off by the reseller in these cases.

The whole reason it checks is to make sure you have a legal product and in a way is helping the consumer know that they are getting a genuine product. With over 85% of software sales on the internet being uncompliant it helps the consumer make sure they get legal licenses. The WGA check and sites like www.microsoft.com/howtotell are really helping the consumer not get ripped off as much IMO.

[Get_Bent]

This line of reasoning is pure b-s

If the old PC has been decommissioned, then there's no legitimate reason why I shouldn't be able to use that old license on a new PC -- other than Microsoft is a greedy bastard who doesn't give a damn about its users.

[willpenington]

Mac is worse...

I was using iLife, seeing what it did on my dad's mac, and I had used a few of the programs, opened a different one and I was confronted by a dialog trying to sell me iLife '06 (I was using '05) with an image and a pragraph trying to sell me!

Apple gets away with installing adware on the machiene that touches base WITH THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT! and gets away with it, then Windows trys to check that you paid, and the result is this!

Maybe we should give MS a break and look at every other operating system, without the fuzzy love, just for a bit.

[Thrudheim]

one example

I don't like marketing prompts for new versions either, but the one
prompt you got using iLife does not make the Mac platform "worse"
for this kind of thing. The iLife prompt at least includes a check
box for those who don't what to see it ever again. The only other
Apple software that does anything like this is QuickTime.

Compare that to all the crap that needs to be removed from a
typcial new OEM PC. There is a great deal of difference.

[dragonbite]

Wow.. I haven't seen THAT

I worked for somebody for a while where we were plugging in hard drives, re-formatting, partitioning, restoring partition images and otherwise cleaning out spyware and virus' off of the 2nd (and sometimes 3rd) hard drive while booting to the primary hard drive running XP and I don't remember ever having the activation issue come up.

[Get_Bent]

Microsoft needs an attitude adjustment

I'm fed up with this "all of our customers will be treated as potential software pirates until proven innocent" attitude. The more onerous these measures become, the more customers Microsoft will drive away. If they _want_ to push people to look at Windows alternatives, they're on the right track.

[adviceinc]

Spot On!

Quit complaining about Microsoft. They're a business that has become successful and lots of people continue to buy from them. There's *nothing* to stop anyone from developing an alternative that really works and that has broad market support (read... people willing to pay money for it). While there are clearly other OSs on the market, they simply have not gotten the support that Windows has (there are many reasons for this and none of them include any market advantage Microsoft may have now... they have not always been the biggest software vendor). Even today, Microsoft can't control the market. People and companies vote with their wallet.

As an aside, hardware changes, short of installing a new copy of XP don't require revalidation.

[time_wasted]

Aside Not True

You are mistaken about hardware changes.
I bought an HP Laptop that had a defective hard drive that was
replaced under warranty by HP. When XP was reinstalled on it, the
online validation failed and a telephone revalidation had to be
done, taking several minutes of my time.....which should have been
unnecessary since the software and hardware were all duly
registered in my name with the appropriate companies.

[Akiba]

Enough with the Mac spam!

Really, making speeches urging users to get a Mac everytime there is an article involving MS amounts to spam. If I really wanted to get away from all the MS issues I would use Linux. With Apple its the same problem except it extends into their control of the hardware as well.

[vgraybeard]

WGA Comment

A check for authentic Windows software at download might be acceptable but the spyware
is not. Microsoft has no legitimate reason
to check anything else nor install a program
to call home. Do they really believe that a
person would replace a piece of crap (XP) with
a less reliable pirated piece of crap? If they
are going to lie, it should at least be a lie
that had a bit og logic to it.

[holmancarey]

They just NEED to realize

MS just needs to realize that once they DO start competing with the prices Pirates sell there illegal software with they will have a much better chance of swaying non legit users over to being legit. Those that feel the $130 USD is to much to shell out for the OS will most likely NEVER put us the cash if they continue to sell at the high price. To have the reminder of there il-legit OS in there face each time they start up will eventually duscourage the majority of them to using better free alternatives to the software they need for there computers to perform there dayly functions. Of corse the free alternatives are most generally more complicated and require the user to have a want to learn how to use them and not just expect everything to "do it for you" like so many Windows XP users are used to right now.

I know when I purchased my copy of Windows XP Home Edition the computer store I purchased it from charged me $195 USD and I know for a fact they only paid $90 for it from the distributer. The shop told me that they HAD to sell the operating at that price unless it was bundeled with a "Major Hardware Purchase" which then they were capable of selling the OS for $135. Still a little pricy at the time but I had no other choice aside from buying an il-legit copy from a Pirate seller.

The bottom line is, Microsoft needs to swallow there pride and give back to the consumers that have shelled out for there OS. Lord knows they have gained a significant holding grounds in the OS industry, and most people that have purchased the OS for one PC built are eventually going to need to purchase it for additional PC's built. If MS would have taken the Server 2003 OS and removed the server portions of it to make a home user version the revenue from that would have overly funded the development of Vista (which has been delayed so long) hence the initial first purchasers prices are ensured to be unreasonably high. I understand the seinor programmer at MS has endured enough critisizm over the years with all of the OS's that have been released. Everyone that's ever used all the versions of windows has something querky to say about each one but that's just the way it is. No one can produce a "Perfect" Operating System, not right off the bat. Humanity has a long way to go before our Brain Capacity will be evolved enough to be the best at everything. They just need to realize that no matter what technology is released the people are going to scrutinize and give there critique about. If they didn't point out places of improvement and problems, the technology would never get any better. So the past 6 years MS has been devloping Vista from Longhorn without the massive critisizm from the community that all windows users would give.

I sure hope they can pull it off. If not we all may be looking for our OS's elswhere. Who knows, maybe the search giants have something up there sleevs for the OS future. That is definately something I would love to see.

[zxocuteboy]

REMOVE WGA PERMANENTLY

Here is a much better way to stop WGA! REMOVE IT!

http://www.infoblog.us/2006/06/tool-deletes-microsoft-piracy-alarm.html