Persistant downloading of updates

[PaulFXH]

Hi
Over the last week or so, EVERY time I boot up my machine (which could
be 2-5 times per day), the small yellow "Downloading Updates" icon
appears in the tray/notification area.
However, it only stays there for about 20 seconds and then disappears.
While it is in the tray, mousing over it shows a balloon claiming that
the download is 0% complete. However it never seems to progress beyond
0%.
This certainly doesn't seem right and I certainly have NEVER seen this
behaviour before.
Anybody know what's going on and should I be worried?

TIA
Paul

Dell 4550 Desktop
WinXP Home SP2
CPU P4, 2.53 GHz
1.0 GB RAM
Int HD 80 GB ntfs, non-partitioned
Ext HD 160 GB ntfs, non-partitioned

 

[Richard Urban]

That is the new version of WGA trying to install. I experienced this myself
till I went to the Update web site and manually downloaded it.

My computer was unresponsive each boot - until the icon went away. I
couldn't start any program.

I am not going to get into the good/bad of WGA, but if you have a valid and
activated copy of Windows XP on your computer, I would say that you should
install it.

If you do not have the foregoing you will have to learn to live with the
condition.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[wally]

"For the first time, though, Microsoft is offering guidelines on how to
remove WGA Notifications. "

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+Heres+how+to+halt+WGA+alerts/2100-7350_3-6088669.html?tag=nefd.pop

 

[PaulFXH]

Richard Urban escreveu:

That is the new version of WGA trying to install. I experienced this myself
till I went to the Update web site and manually downloaded it.

My computer was unresponsive each boot - until the icon went away. I
couldn't start any program.

I am not going to get into the good/bad of WGA, but if you have a valid and
activated copy of Windows XP on your computer, I would say that you should
install it.

If you do not have the foregoing you will have to learn to live with the
condition.

Hi Richard
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I downloaded the WGA update from the Windows update site and that
removed this annoyance.
But, it all sounds a little too "cloak and dagger" to me. I have
Automatic Updates turned on, so why didn't it just download and install
and be done with it rather than relying on a program of unexplained
nagging?
Paul

 

[Richard Urban]

I can not say why it didn't download/install automatically.

The fact that it doesn't, and the fact that it caused my machine to hang for
about 2 minutes each, and every, time I booted into Windows causes me great
consternation.

There has GOT to be a better way from the consumers point of view.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[wally]

There is....

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+Heres+how+to+halt+WGA+alerts/2100-7350_3-6088669.html?tag=nefd.pop

 

[Richard Urban]

When you do that it just tries to reload again as an automatic update. But
it fails. That is what was causing my system to hang.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[wally]

Looks like Microsoft is trying to play a "beat the hackers" game with WGA.

Although I support their right to do whatever they want with their software
(remember that you only bought the rights to *use* the OS - you do NOT own
your copy of Windows), they are fighting a losing battle if they think that
they can simply update the WGA (daily it seems) in an effort to stay one
step ahead of the hackers.

They should really wise up and make the damned OS affordable. Making the
full OS as affordable as Linux may actually INCREASE their revenue stream
because more people (especially in 3rd world countries) could afford the OS.

With ANY distributed software there will always be a % of stolen software.
That's just life in the PC age.

If you want people to pay for your software, you MUST have portions of it
that are online services. And those need to be good enough to make someone
want to pay for them.

Anybody can compete in the software market. Anybody can crack your
distributed software (given the time, CPU power and inclination to do so).
That's what makes it so unprofitable.

Microsoft, just like everyone else, needs to make their software affordable
and they need to have innovative features that nobody else has.

For instance.....Windows Messenger - If Trillian can interoperate with all
major IMs, why can't Microsoft?

That's just 1 example....I've got dozens of them, but you get the point.

Looks like we're gonna be caught in the crossfire between Microsoft and the
hackers (mostly in China and Russia).

Well, good luck and keep your head down.

Wally
Overheard in an IRC Chat room..."The problem with America is stupidity. I'm
not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't
we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve
itself?"