Authentic XP and WGATRAY ??

[nick]

We installed legal copies of XP Pro and SP2 on my wife's
computer quite some time ago. Several years for the base
package and less for SP2. Never had a problem till today.

All of a sudden, a program called WGATRAY.EXE starts at boot
to claim that this is not an AUTHENTIC copy of XP Pro.

What would cause this?? Is this some form of malware infecting
my wife's machine? She's done periodic windoz updates with no
problems, and now this. More, it's keeping her from installing
the latest media player. What could cause this??

thanks

nick

 

[Tom Willett]

It was installed as part of the Windows Update.

See: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=905474

 

[Tom Willett]

Also look at this information provided by Carey:

Update to the WGA Notifications program introduces changes based on
customer feedback
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/jun06/06-27WGA.mspx

Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/FAQ.aspx?displaylang=en

Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/AboutNotifications.mspx?displaylang=en

------------------

 

[chuck]

Also look at this information provided by Carey:

Thanks y'all for all these helpful links.

Fact remains, we bought XP Pro, installed and activated XP Pro.

Later on, we downloaded SP2 and installed it.

Since then we have downloaded and installed updates.

Never had a problem, not a hint of impropriety.

Why, today, weeks after we installed any updates, does it choose
to pop up WGATRAY??

(BTW - I have inactivated this malware program., but I'm still
PI$$ed.) Makes me feel like a criminal.

 

[Charlie Tame]

Get together your original CD and it's key and call Microsoft to resolve
this.

MS are aware that many people bought very well done but illegal copies and
there is no assumption by anybody (Especially here) that you are guilty of
anything, so please do not feel that there's any automatic suspicion.

The problems that are potentially out there with pirated copies of the new
OS, Vista, are in my opinion so serious that the side effects of pirates
building in the likes of spyware, adware and various other types of trojan
horse and then selling pirate copies by the thousand are quite scary when
you think about them. Look at it this way, if you have accidentally bought a
pirate copy how long has it taken you to find out? Imagine that happening
with a pirate copy that's also (say) a spam robot being used by spammers
somewhere by remote control. You will eventually get shut down by your ISP
but in the time it takes to track you thousands of $ in damages might have
been done, and you would be just as innocent as you are now.

I think this is something MS have had to do or we risk the government
getting involved, and that won;t benefit anybody, besides which since the
problem is going to be related to MS products it is somewhat their
responsibility to at least try to prevent it from ever occurring.

Charlie