What else does WGA check for?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Todd and Margo Chester
  • Start date Start date
T

Todd and Margo Chester

Hi,

I have a customer that got tagged by WGA,
who has his original disks from a large PC
manufacture (it rhymes with hell). They
look legit. Their tech support said just
to reinstall them (XP Home, SP zero). This
seems a little severe, as he is on SP2.

Other than XP-SP2 and Office, what else does
WGA check for? Is there some other bugs
that might mess with WGA?

-T
 
Todd said:
Hi,

I have a customer that got tagged by WGA,
who has his original disks from a large PC
manufacture (it rhymes with hell). They
look legit. Their tech support said just
to reinstall them (XP Home, SP zero). This
seems a little severe, as he is on SP2.

Other than XP-SP2 and Office, what else does
WGA check for? Is there some other bugs
that might mess with WGA?

-T
Click to expand...

From the horse's mouth:

Information collected during validation
Q: What information is collected from my computer?
A: The genuine validation process will collect information about your
system to determine if your Microsoft software is genuine. This process
does not collect or send any information that can be used to identify
you or contact you. The only information collected in the validation
process is:

* Windows product key
* PC manufacturer
* Operating System version
* PID/SID
* BIOS information (make, version, date)
* BIOS MD5 Checksum
* User locale (language setting for displaying Windows)
* System locale (language version of the operating system)
* Office product key (if validating Office)
* Hard drive serial number

Q: How does Microsoft use this information?
A: The information serves three purposes:

* It provides Web page flow, tailoring the pages you see based on
your responses.
* It conveys demographics, which help Microsoft to understand
regional differences in Windows or Office usage.
* It confirms user input. User input is often compared

Alias
 
Todd said:
Hi,

I have a customer that got tagged by WGA,
who has his original disks from a large PC
manufacture (it rhymes with hell). They
look legit. Their tech support said just
to reinstall them (XP Home, SP zero). This
seems a little severe, as he is on SP2.

Other than XP-SP2 and Office, what else does
WGA check for? Is there some other bugs
that might mess with WGA?

-T
Click to expand...

WGA is a pilot program. It could check for whatever MS wants
it to check for. Is it buggy? Those who have installed WGA
have now joined the ranks of beta-testers.
 
Yup,
Read that "spin", However the reality is different then what the
mouthpiece spewed
Jeff
 
Ghostrider said:
WGA is a pilot program. It could check for whatever MS wants
it to check for. Is it buggy? Those who have installed WGA
have now joined the ranks of beta-testers.
Click to expand...

Everyone who uses a Microsoft product is a beta tester.

If not, there would be no need for service packs.

--
Rhonda Lea Kirk

Insisting on perfect safety is for people
without the balls to live in the real world.
Mary Shafer Iliff
 
Rhonda said:
Ghostrider wrote:




Everyone who uses a Microsoft product is a beta tester.

If not, there would be no need for service packs.
Click to expand...

The inventor of the Service Packs was really IBM. The purpose
of the Service Packs was to introduce updated system files to
meet the rapid developmental changes that were in progress at
that time, in the early to mid-1980's. The Service Packs gave
the service engineers the capability to maintain equipment at
approximately the same level and they were true improvements.
I would not equate Microsoft's current use of "Service Packs"
to be in the same context but agree with you wholly that we are
all beta-testers. The group to which I am administering is still
locked into Windows 2000 Professional-SP4 as the "standard" and
will be for some time until security issues concerning XP and
some of its proclivities and vulnerabilities are settled.
 
What OS or Software doesn't need some fix or patch. I've used OS8, VMS,
UNIX, RTEA and other Operating Systems over the years and they all have
updates/fixes/patches or what ever you want to call them.

JS
 
aka@ said:
From the horse's mouth:

Information collected during validation
Q: What information is collected from my computer?
A: The genuine validation process will collect information about your
system to determine if your Microsoft software is genuine. This process
does not collect or send any information that can be used to identify
you or contact you. The only information collected in the validation
process is:

* Windows product key
* PC manufacturer
* Operating System version
* PID/SID
* BIOS information (make, version, date)
* BIOS MD5 Checksum
* User locale (language setting for displaying Windows)
* System locale (language version of the operating system)
* Office product key (if validating Office)
* Hard drive serial number

Q: How does Microsoft use this information?
A: The information serves three purposes:

* It provides Web page flow, tailoring the pages you see based on
your responses.
* It conveys demographics, which help Microsoft to understand
regional differences in Windows or Office usage.
* It confirms user input. User input is often compared

Alias
Click to expand...

It also collects your IP address when accessing the Update Page (As per
Automatic Updates help file) to generate aggregate statistics.......
 
Alias said:
From the horse's mouth:

Information collected during validation
Q: What information is collected from my computer?
A: The genuine validation process will collect information about your
system to determine if your Microsoft software is genuine. This process
does not collect or send any information that can be used to identify
you or contact you. The only information collected in the validation
process is:

* Windows product key
* PC manufacturer
* Operating System version
* PID/SID
* BIOS information (make, version, date)
* BIOS MD5 Checksum
* User locale (language setting for displaying Windows)
* System locale (language version of the operating system)
* Office product key (if validating Office)
* Hard drive serial number

Q: How does Microsoft use this information?
A: The information serves three purposes:

* It provides Web page flow, tailoring the pages you see based on
your responses.
* It conveys demographics, which help Microsoft to understand
regional differences in Windows or Office usage.
* It confirms user input. User input is often compared

Alias
Click to expand...
What web page flow? Do you mean the language used? What has hard drive
serial number got to do with web pages or demographics? It sounds to me
as if MS is trying to track people as well as authenticating Windows.
 
No software is ever perfect.

Rhonda Lea Kirk said:
Everyone who uses a Microsoft product is a beta tester.

If not, there would be no need for service packs.

--
Rhonda Lea Kirk

Insisting on perfect safety is for people
without the balls to live in the real world.
Mary Shafer Iliff
Click to expand...
 
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