WGA Notification

[Steelerz37]

Alright first off. I am using a legit copy of XP. I have an Academic version provided to me from my University since I am in the Computer Science department. I heard about the nagging, didnt really give it a thought because of this and updated last night.

Now I am getting the nag. Its not saying my key is invalid or anything, but it is saying that it can't validate my key and can't determine if my copy is legit. The only reason I can think of is because I have my drive partitioned in such a way that C: is my OS, D: is my Program Files, and E: is my Documents and Settings

I also just checked witha program to see my serial and it is the one listed on my MSDNAA sticker. Here is a cut and paste of the webpage it sends me to. Any assistance would be great.


Validation Incomplete: Product Key Inaccessible
[0x80080212]
Why didn?t my machine complete validation?

The validation process could not be completed because the validation control is unable to read the product key stored on this computer. We are unable to verify whether your copy of Windows is genuine.

What should I do now?
Please contact the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) support team for assistance.

 

[mechBgon]

So you contacted them, and what did they say?

 

[Steelerz37]

i just did that a few minutes ago, so no response yet. But I also noticed that my account, computer administrator, does not get the nag. My dad and mom, limited users, both get the nag as well the nag on the welcome screen. I changed them to admins and the nags are gone completely. They better have a fix for this I dont want them being admins, hell i shouldnt even be using an admin account.

 

[mechBgon]

Interesting. Now try switching them back to non-Admins and see if it still does it?

 

[stash]

There is a bug for limited users and WGA. They need to have write access to a file, I believe it is data.dat.

 

[Steelerz37]

Originally posted by: stash
There is a bug for limited users and WGA. They need to have write access to a file, I believe it is data.dat.

Makes sense as to what I am seeing.

I changed them back to Limited Users and right away got the nag. Rebooted and still got the Welcome Screen nag, logged onto my account got a popup, but then the little star icon wasnt in my toolbar like it had been. I rebooted again and there are no signed of the nag.

I'd say thats a pretty bad bug, especially if it can be manifested in a corporate enviroment.

 

[mechBgon]

Ugh, I hope my parents and big sister don't run into that one (I built & set up their systems, and they all run Limited accounts normally)

 

[erikistired]

can you not give that file write privs?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: fisher
can you not give that file write privs?

You can, but thats a damm stupid bug and really disapoints me that it wasn't seen in testing. Something running as system should write to that file as needed and then the try icon should READ from it. Having low privledges users being able to write to it means some malware author is going to get his jolly's from blowing it away occasionally to cause the nag to occur.

Stupid stupid stupid

 

[bruceb]

See this info .. it may help out:

Microsoft is not willing to relent to crackers this time and are planning to release an update of WGADiag2.exe utility in the next few days.

WGADiag2 will also fix the problem with registry key permissions may cause the installation of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications KB905474 to fail from Windows Update:

Here's a manual fix provided by Microsoft. These permissions can be repaired using Registry Editor as follows:

1. Click Start, and then click Run
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK
3. Expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
4. Locate the subkey HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LegitCheckControl.LegitCheck
5. Right-click the subkey and select Permissions?.
6. Ensure that Administrators allowed Full Control permission
7. Repeat steps 3-6 for the subkey
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LegitCheckControl.LegitCheck.1

Microsoft has also published a kB article if the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation check process does not validate successfully on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, and you receive one or both of the following error messages:

Product Key Inaccessible 0x80080212

This problem occurs when you do not have the appropriate permissions for the Windows Genuine Advantage\Data folder. In the Permissions for Users section, make sure that Read & Execute, List Folder Contents and Read permissions are given. If the previous steps fail, start the computer in Safe Mode and rename the %allusersprofile%\Application Data\Windows Genuine Advantage directory.

Basically what you can also do is move the Folder (Windows Genuine Adwantage & sub folder Data) from where you find it in
Docs & Settings to "the Shared Documents Folder" ... that way ALL USERS should be able to access the file

You can also see the Registry Entries above & probably just create a new Sub Key for the Limited Users to give them
the Same File Access Privilege as the Admin Accounts

Hope this helps you ... let us know

 

[tyanni]

I am not a MS Basher normally. However, for all of the talk from MS about running as a limited user rather than an admin, to not test something they've released as a limited user is really really poor form.

Tim

 

[bruceb]

You really did not think they would "get it right" on the first, second or even thrid try did you ? ?
Just look at all the errors in Windows to begin with ... Now granted it has much more code,
but still it is supposed to be tested

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: stash
There is a bug for limited users and WGA. They need to have write access to a file, I believe it is data.dat.

Wow! That's one bug that you think they could have found before rolling out a product to millions of users.

 

[Budman]

As i said in an other post it's easy to remove it.

just go to system32 folder: May need to be in safemode to remove these files.

wgalogon.dll
spmgs.dll
wgatray.exe

where setup are:
C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\6c4788c9549d437e76e1773a7639582a

delete those files and problem solved.


I just renamed wgalogon.dll and wgatray.exe (c:\windows\system32\) then deleted them on the next boot.