05 March 2007
Vista Activation Problems
A warning to all people using or considering Vista.
There appears to be some problems with Windows Genuine Advantage that causes Vista to have to be reactivated after installing or running some applications. In the case of this person it was the game 9Dragons.
After a few minutes of playing the game a window popped up stating that they system had been changed and needed to be reactivated. During the process the system was completely deactivated and if it wasn't reactivated would have stopped working within 3 days. The person now cannot play this game in the future for fear of the same thing happening.
The hope is that this did not use one of the free activations that Windows offers for Vista, but in reality it probably has. Such things like this can cost people a lot of money if Microsoft decides to not allow people to gain more reactivations after using all of their options in such situations. Extorting money from users comes to mind in this case. It could also lead people who had previously bought a legitimate copy of Vista to crack their software to avoid paying more because of faults in WGA. These people could later face further problems if MS decided to go on a piracy 'witchhunt'.
There appears to be some problems with Windows Genuine Advantage that causes Vista to have to be reactivated after installing or running some applications. In the case of this person it was the game 9Dragons.
After a few minutes of playing the game a window popped up stating that they system had been changed and needed to be reactivated. During the process the system was completely deactivated and if it wasn't reactivated would have stopped working within 3 days. The person now cannot play this game in the future for fear of the same thing happening.
The hope is that this did not use one of the free activations that Windows offers for Vista, but in reality it probably has. Such things like this can cost people a lot of money if Microsoft decides to not allow people to gain more reactivations after using all of their options in such situations. Extorting money from users comes to mind in this case. It could also lead people who had previously bought a legitimate copy of Vista to crack their software to avoid paying more because of faults in WGA. These people could later face further problems if MS decided to go on a piracy 'witchhunt'.
Labels: activation, microsoft, os, vista, wga, windows
27 October 2006
Bypassing WGA
For those looking for a way to disable Microsoft's WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) check, Haklabs has just released a step by step process.
Along with the steps there are comments by people who have tried it as well as other options. One of which is a file which patches the registry to disable WGA from checking software. The file can also be downloaded here.
Remember changing your registry can be risky, so if you're not sure how to do it, it might be better to not do it.
Along with the steps there are comments by people who have tried it as well as other options. One of which is a file which patches the registry to disable WGA from checking software. The file can also be downloaded here.
Remember changing your registry can be risky, so if you're not sure how to do it, it might be better to not do it.
Labels: microsoft, wga, windows
Office Genuine Advantage added to Office 2007
For Microsoft Office users, it is required as of today to validate the authenticity of your Office 2007 before downloading online templets with OGA (Office Genuine Advantage). From January it will be required to authenticate Office before using Office Update.
OGA is created from WGA and hopefully doesn't have similar problems with misidentification of legitimate software. It seems the direction Microsoft is going is to have such features on all versions of their software, from Office to their games.
Not knowing exactly the scope of what this feature will eventually do, I cannot say whether this is a good or bad thing. With the Vista version limiting the number of times you can install the system or authenticate the system on a computer after hardware modifications, if OGA is similar it may not be so good. People's hard drives have problems and they have to reinstall everything, some have such problems that they are reinstalling even more often. The last thing that is needed is to have a problem on your computer and have to buy a new license for Office because you cannot authenticate it again after reinstalling it for example the third time.
OGA is created from WGA and hopefully doesn't have similar problems with misidentification of legitimate software. It seems the direction Microsoft is going is to have such features on all versions of their software, from Office to their games.
Not knowing exactly the scope of what this feature will eventually do, I cannot say whether this is a good or bad thing. With the Vista version limiting the number of times you can install the system or authenticate the system on a computer after hardware modifications, if OGA is similar it may not be so good. People's hard drives have problems and they have to reinstall everything, some have such problems that they are reinstalling even more often. The last thing that is needed is to have a problem on your computer and have to buy a new license for Office because you cannot authenticate it again after reinstalling it for example the third time.
Labels: microsoft, office, oga, wga
25 October 2006
Windows Defender Released
Microsoft has released Windows Defender which was formerly known as Microsoft AntiSpyware beta.
Windows Defender has improved its ability to detect and remove spyware including the real time monitor. The definition files have also been changed so that they are smaller to allow for faster download times.
Microsoft will offer free support for installation and configuration, definition updates and errors with detection and removal, but only for a limited time after installing the software.
There is one possible disadvantage. While users should not be using pirated copies of Windows or any product, the inclusion of testing for that may not be the best option as we have already seen that it may not be accurate always. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is a part of Windows Defender and while it will not lock your system if it detects a non-genuine version of Windows, it will run at a lower functionality level. It will show all spyware, but only remove the severe ones from the list on a non-genuine Windows.
Because of WGA having a tendency to sometimes wrongly accuse a system of being non-genuine, I would not recommend getting this software for fear that one day it will stop functioning correctly. I still recommend Ad-Aware for its ease and performance.
Windows Defender has improved its ability to detect and remove spyware including the real time monitor. The definition files have also been changed so that they are smaller to allow for faster download times.
Microsoft will offer free support for installation and configuration, definition updates and errors with detection and removal, but only for a limited time after installing the software.
There is one possible disadvantage. While users should not be using pirated copies of Windows or any product, the inclusion of testing for that may not be the best option as we have already seen that it may not be accurate always. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is a part of Windows Defender and while it will not lock your system if it detects a non-genuine version of Windows, it will run at a lower functionality level. It will show all spyware, but only remove the severe ones from the list on a non-genuine Windows.
Because of WGA having a tendency to sometimes wrongly accuse a system of being non-genuine, I would not recommend getting this software for fear that one day it will stop functioning correctly. I still recommend Ad-Aware for its ease and performance.
Labels: defender, microsoft, spyware, wga, windows
05 October 2006
WGA Falsely Identifies Pirated Copies of Windows
Earlier this week (Oct. 2-3) some Microsoft Volume License Key (VLK) customers began experiences problems where Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) on their Windows XP systems was incorrectly reporting systems as non-genuine.
At this point it is only an inconvenience and a nuisance, but with Vista incorporating the feature of locking the system when the system is viewed as invalid, what is going to happen if this occurs after the release of Vista? Such an event could lead to companies running Vista servers having their network go down due to the servers ceasing their operations. This is something that can cost thousands, millions or even more lost dollars in revenue and productivity.
Such a feature is good for preventing piracy, but unless the software can be completely sure, without ever having any flaws, that the system is a pirated copy, this feature becomes very dangerous and risky for companies which cannot afford to have their computers down at any time.
This is not the first time this has happened, earlier this year there was a columnist who had something similar happen to his computer.
At this point it is only an inconvenience and a nuisance, but with Vista incorporating the feature of locking the system when the system is viewed as invalid, what is going to happen if this occurs after the release of Vista? Such an event could lead to companies running Vista servers having their network go down due to the servers ceasing their operations. This is something that can cost thousands, millions or even more lost dollars in revenue and productivity.
Such a feature is good for preventing piracy, but unless the software can be completely sure, without ever having any flaws, that the system is a pirated copy, this feature becomes very dangerous and risky for companies which cannot afford to have their computers down at any time.
This is not the first time this has happened, earlier this year there was a columnist who had something similar happen to his computer.
Labels: microsoft, vista, wga, windows, xp
30 July 2006
Removal of MS Genuine Advantage
Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is a patch that Microsoft released for Windows that checks the system for any pirated software with results that are not always accurate. This patch consists of two parts one Notification that dials Microsoft servers every time the computer is started and a second that tests for pirated copies of software, namely Windows. This part goes by the additional name of WGA Validation. The second cannot be removed without causing problems with Windows Update, but the first in not required and may leave some users concerned with the thought of it reporting to Microsoft what software you have on your computer.
For those of us who are not really happy with the thought of our computers dialing Microsoft servers every time we start our computers there is a tool to remove the part of MS WGA that dials the servers. For those interested in keeping their computer's contents a little more private, the application and more information can be found here.
For those of us who are not really happy with the thought of our computers dialing Microsoft servers every time we start our computers there is a tool to remove the part of MS WGA that dials the servers. For those interested in keeping their computer's contents a little more private, the application and more information can be found here.
Labels: microsoft, wga, windows
