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Microsoft's latest Windows "update" is a fiasco.

Without this thing you cannot access windows update to keep your PC as secure as possible.
Some people have actually had 'nag screens' popup on their computers telling them that their perfectly legit installation of Windows is a "pirated" copy. This has happened to thousands... mostly on computers with "OEM" copies of Windows-- like Dell's -- know how many copies THAT is ??
IT techs/ managers are screaming bloody murder. Imagine having a whole network with this type of problem-- maybe hundreds of machines... now even more vulnerable to spyware/viruses/trojans.

I had seen several posts on PCHF related to this-- so I thought I'd warn everyone. I am sure once the outcry reaches epic proportions --even Redmond will be forced to respond... probably by removing this nightmare.

Many are calling the surreptitious installation "spyware" http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...sftsuit29.html

or on a par with Sony's rootkit last year... but this is on a much larger scale. :o

Dear ih8Bills,
Thank you for your feedback but the two files that keep popping up in my temp files wga error notify and wga error set. what does that mean. one file said it couild'nt identify the file so i changed the name to inernet explorer. Did ii mess something up?

I don't believe so...it is probably related to this problem-- the WGA software "calls home" every so often to check in... why I have no idea. This is why some are calling this out and out spyware. What you are probably getting is something else--perhaps your firewall ...blocking it from doing so-- resulting in 'errors'

Im wondering if this latest screw up by microsoft is really spyware as you stated ih8bills? If it calls home then does that mean even with my firewall that they can scan my system? Tell what sites i visit,if i d/l music,or burn copies of MY OWN movies? Is there anyway to find this file and delete it from the system?

No -- it probably does not give THAT much access-- it is simply verifying an authentic copy of windows is in operation. And depending on what firewall your running -- you could even block that or disable it manually. This is NOT something to panic over-- be annoyed as you want-- but it's not that dangerous. People are POed because it doesn't even do what it's INTENDED to do very well. There are ways to manually shut off the service-- but I don't know how yet.

so fare i have had one computer with it stating that it is an eligale copy of windows when it was not i had to reinstall it from a fesh copy

I have removed WGA before, and it is rather complicated but it does do the job.

1. Open Windows/System32 and locate wgatray.exe and press delete, but don't press yes just yet

2. Open Task Manager and locate wgatray.exe in the processes tab

3. Click end process then click yes on both the end process dialog and the delete dialog as quickly *** you can. If you are too slow, wgatray will restart itself.

4. Locate wgalogon.dll in Windows/system32 and delete that.

5. Locate wgatray in the Windows/system32/dllcache folder and delete that also.

6. Launch RegEdit by typing regedit in the run dialog under the start menu (or windows button r).

7. Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify and delete WgaLogon and all it's contents.

8. Restart the computer.

Remeber: Windows update will want to dowload this again unless you stop it. When you want to download updates make sure you click custom and deselect WGA tool, otherwise it will pop up it's ugly head again.

Hope this helps.

Zendithos