Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

[Muse]

My sister in law had quite a problem from it. She had a Dell (IIRC), preloaded with XP Pro by Dell and eventually was getting persistent nags from Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications. So, now that my ~2.7 year old Lenovo Thinkpad T60 is getting messages from Windows Update that Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is a recommended download, I'm gunshy. The XP Pro on it is as installed by Lenovo, so it's certainly licensed but I've been denying the download/installation. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[corkyg]

It is essential if you want to stay activated with Microsoft update support. All it does is check your system and certify that it is bonafide.

My T60 gets an update to Genuine Advantage now and then. No big deal unless you are running a purloined copy of Windows.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Muse
My sister in law had quite a problem from it. She had a Dell (IIRC), preloaded with XP Pro by Dell and eventually was getting persistent nags from Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications.

What was the problem with it? That she was getting messages that she needed to update WGA? Or something else?

 

[SanDiegoPC]

I've seen plenty of times where that checker has gone awry and caused false-positives. Required a call to Microsoft to sort it out. In the past year I've seen that a half dozen times on XP computers. I always shut off automatic updates and this is one reason why.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SanDiegoPC
I've seen plenty of times where that checker has gone awry and caused false-positives. Required a call to Microsoft to sort it out. In the past year I've seen that a half dozen times on XP computers. I always shut off automatic updates and this is one reason why.

Interesting, SanDiegoPC, because she and her computer are in San Diego... well, La Mesa, virtually San Diego! You turn off automatic updates why? To stop the WGA tool from installing itself?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Muse
My sister in law had quite a problem from it. She had a Dell (IIRC), preloaded with XP Pro by Dell and eventually was getting persistent nags from Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications.

What was the problem with it? That she was getting messages that she needed to update WGA? Or something else?

I think her messages were that she didn't have a genuine installation of Windows. Mostly she ignored it, but on the rare occasions when she did a reboot (i.e. shut down, restart sort of thing), she'd get nasty messages. I think there were other times when it was in her face.

 

[redbeard1]

The new WGA creates a Scheduled Task Job to keep nagging you to install it. Delete the job and the start up installer nag screen goes away.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: corkyg
It is essential if you want to stay activated with Microsoft update support. All it does is check your system and certify that it is bonafide.

My T60 gets an update to Genuine Advantage now and then. No big deal unless you are running a purloined copy of Windows.

No, it's not.

There are actually two parts to Microsoft's Genuine Advantage on XP. The first part loads when you go to do an MS update.

The second phase is phone-home malware, and should never be installed. That's the actual "WGA update", that comes through Windows Update. Always deselect that one and click "Hide this update", then it won't install. (Unless you have an ever-so-not-helpful "security suite" installed, that automagically re-enables auto updates and re-enables all of the updates for you. Verizon Security Suite and MS OneCare are known to do such things. Therefore I cannot recommend installing either one of those programs as well.)