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Technical Help & Discussion => General Tech Discussion, News & Q&A => Topic started by: mistybear on June 26, 2006, 11:46

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: mistybear on June 26, 2006, 11:46

http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=6296

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: sam on June 26, 2006, 11:54

interesting, at least people are still able to f*** over m$

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Sandra on June 26, 2006, 11:56

I have had to assist people to remove it on about 6 occassions so far.

Hopefully that tool will be easier than the regedit way  :)

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: chorleydave on June 26, 2006, 12:36

Well, as Bill Gates seems to think that piracy is OK (see this (http://pc-pals.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19489&highlight=) thread) I no longer have any hangups about admitting I use pirate software.

I have XP on one of my machines so that I can use Office 2003 and recieved the Genuine Advantage thing about a month ago.  However, after doing a quick Google, I found a removal tool immediately and was able to get rid of it.  I'm at work now so I can't tell you what the tool is called, but I'll have a look this evening.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: chorleydave on June 26, 2006, 17:19

It's called wgafakap.exe and came a a zipped file.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Reno on June 26, 2006, 20:32

The tools been on the top list of applications at torrentreactor.net for about 3-4 weeks now. I used it to remove the message on someones computer a week ago. Tried to remove it by hand but everytime i did the removal was temporary. I was probably using an old technique that was patched up by ms. But this automated patch worked great.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: mistybear on June 28, 2006, 03:02

I have just recieved a little  :!:  on the bottom tool bar asking me to install a new update and guess what it is. WGA Notification. So I'm glad I clicked custom instead of letting it express install.

So how do I get rid of it completely.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Sandra on June 28, 2006, 11:16

Untick the box and close the window.
It will then ask if you dont want that particular download to be shown again.

It will still come up saying that updates are available a few days later but at least it wont be doing it every hour or so  :)

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: mistybear on June 28, 2006, 11:20

Thanks Sandra, it has gone, hopefully for good.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Sandra on June 28, 2006, 11:24

No it will still ask you every few days as MS really wants you to install it  :roll:

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: mistybear on June 28, 2006, 11:36

Well at least it is asking. Both of the computers are set to automatically update, so I was worried that this particular update had already occurred. I ran Belarc last night to see if it was already there.
Is there another way to check which updates have been installed.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Sandra on June 28, 2006, 11:44

You can check your history on the windows update site.
It should show you which updates have been installed after its scanned your pc.

Hotfixes are usually listed in the Add/Remove part of control panel.

The best setting I find is to have it set to notify you when updates are ready but not to download until you select which you want from the custom mode, as you are doing  :)

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Simon on June 28, 2006, 19:55

Surely, if you are running an authentic version of Windows, WGA isn't a problem is it?  If it disables you from getting updates without it, you could be at risk from security flaws.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: mistybear on June 30, 2006, 10:30

Why does it need to report back everytime you boot up though?

It sounds a lttle suss to me. :?

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2006, 12:39

Does it?  :|  Mine doesn't.  :dunno:  You can turn off the reporting thing, but I can't remember where it is now, and haven't got time to look until later.

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: Sandra on July 01, 2006, 00:04

You get security updates regardless of the legitimacy of your OS Simon  :)

Title: Tool deletes Microsoft piracy alarm.
Post by: mistybear on July 01, 2006, 08:03

I think this covers it.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Sued_Over_WGA_Program/1151615015