Why is WGATRAY.EXE.exe phoning home?

[Bert Hyman]

This thing tries to connect to some MS system at boot time.

Why?

What's it sending back?

Why has MS installed something on my system that by any definition is
spyware?

 

[Ricky]

Some info here..
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/04/workarounds-to-disable-non-genuine.html

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "Ricky"

Some info here..
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/04/workarounds-to-disable-non-genuine.h
tml

I'm not asking how to disable it.

I want somebody to try to give me a reasonable explanation of why it's
there in the first place and what it's doing.

"Spyware is a general term used for software that performs certain
behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or
changing the configuration of your computer, generally without
appropriately obtaining your consent."

"Sometimes the inclusion of unwanted software in a given software
installation is documented, but it may appear at the end of a license
agreement or privacy statement."

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/spywarewhat.mspx

 

[Tom [Pepper] Willett]

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

Tom

 

[Bert Hyman]

In news:#[email protected] "Tom [Pepper] Willett"

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

So, why does it have to run every time I boot? Will my genuine copy of
Windoze somehow become fake between sessions?

And, why does it try to phone home? What's it sending back to Microsoft?

 

[Guest]

It's not spyware, because it doesn't collect any personal information, or any
other information that can possibly ever be used to indentify you. All it
does is check your Windows Product ID tag, check to see if it's been reported
stolen or otherwise fraudulent, and lets you know that your computer could
contain a bootleg copy of Windows, and warns you that you may not be able to
get updates if that is the case.

Starting Windows Office 2002, unless you opted-out, all your Office Programs
reported back from time to time to deliver usage statistics, how often you
got errors, or even how often you got dialog box prompts that interrupted
you. Now, Office, Windows, Messenger, MSN Applications, and many other
programs are doing the same thing, so developers (both Microsoft and others)
can see how many times people are interupted while they work, what problems
they have, etc. Some times these programs prompt before sending information
(error reports) but many times they do not (user experience feedback
program). But these, as well, are not classified as spyware.

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

Tom

In "Ricky"


I'm not asking how to disable it.

I want somebody to try to give me a reasonable explanation of why it's
there in the first place and what it's doing.

"Spyware is a general term used for software that performs certain
behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or
changing the configuration of your computer, generally without
appropriately obtaining your consent."

"Sometimes the inclusion of unwanted software in a given software
installation is documented, but it may appear at the end of a license
agreement or privacy statement."

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/spywarewhat.mspx

 

[Guest]

All it should be sending back is your product key code along with a special
string derived somehow from the hardware configuration of your machine
(supposedly a way to pair your hardware with your copy of windows... I don't
know about lot about hardware fingerprinting).

And that is a very good question though: "why the heck does it need to
report back every time I boot?"

I can't answer that, and I'd like to have someone from Microsoft explain why
the hell they're treating customers that paid a ****load for their software
and operating systems like we're all criminals.


Sorry, just my thoughts on being treated like a thief.

In news:#[email protected] "Tom [Pepper] Willett"

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

So, why does it have to run every time I boot? Will my genuine copy of
Windoze somehow become fake between sessions?

And, why does it try to phone home? What's it sending back to Microsoft?

 

[Bert Hyman]

In

It's not spyware, because it doesn't collect any personal information,
or any other information that can possibly ever be used to indentify
you.

How do I know that?

All it does is check your Windows Product ID tag, check to see
if it's been reported stolen or otherwise fraudulent, and lets you
know that your computer could contain a bootleg copy of Windows, and
warns you that you may not be able to get updates if that is the case.

That's obviously not all it does, since none of that would require it to
run more than once, and even that one time it wouldn't have to phone
home.

What's it up to?

 

[Bert Hyman]

In

Some times these programs prompt before sending information
(error reports) but many times they do not (user experience feedback
program). But these, as well, are not classified as spyware.

Not classified as spyware by whom, exactly?

 

[Guest]

Hi Shawn,
You don't need to say Sorry, for what and whom?, we have Customers come
screaming and thinking what the heck you done to the machine after repair it
would like to check the Operating system Genuine or not and they can't get
red of it.

To tell all the customers what it is, long story and waste of time!.
MS did not do any Good whatsoever to *Vista and XP* christmas will be *slim*
for MS this year.

I have it try to download more than three times on my system!, why all these
agro?.
The problem not the users, the problem is the Big guys who they are cloning
and buying from MS the liecence for use.
We shall see what father christmas will bring this Yaer! hopefully no more
tears.
nass

All it should be sending back is your product key code along with a special
string derived somehow from the hardware configuration of your machine
(supposedly a way to pair your hardware with your copy of windows... I don't
know about lot about hardware fingerprinting).

And that is a very good question though: "why the heck does it need to
report back every time I boot?"

I can't answer that, and I'd like to have someone from Microsoft explain why
the hell they're treating customers that paid a ****load for their software
and operating systems like we're all criminals.


Sorry, just my thoughts on being treated like a thief.

In news:#[email protected] "Tom [Pepper] Willett"

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

So, why does it have to run every time I boot? Will my genuine copy of
Windoze somehow become fake between sessions?

And, why does it try to phone home? What's it sending back to Microsoft?

In "Ricky"

Some info here..
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/04/workarounds-to-disable-non-genuine
.h tml

I'm not asking how to disable it.

I want somebody to try to give me a reasonable explanation of why
it's there in the first place and what it's doing.

"Spyware is a general term used for software that performs certain
behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or
changing the configuration of your computer, generally without
appropriately obtaining your consent."

"Sometimes the inclusion of unwanted software in a given software
installation is documented, but it may appear at the end of a license
agreement or privacy statement."

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/spywarewhat.mspx

This thing tries to connect to some MS system at boot time.

Why?

What's it sending back?

Why has MS installed something on my system that by any definition
is spyware?

 

[Tom [Pepper] Willett]

Bull*s*i*

It's not spyware, because it doesn't collect any personal information, or
any
other information that can possibly ever be used to indentify you. All it
does is check your Windows Product ID tag, check to see if it's been
reported
stolen or otherwise fraudulent, and lets you know that your computer could
contain a bootleg copy of Windows, and warns you that you may not be able
to
get updates if that is the case.

Starting Windows Office 2002, unless you opted-out, all your Office
Programs
reported back from time to time to deliver usage statistics, how often you
got errors, or even how often you got dialog box prompts that interrupted
you. Now, Office, Windows, Messenger, MSN Applications, and many other
programs are doing the same thing, so developers (both Microsoft and
others)
can see how many times people are interupted while they work, what
problems
they have, etc. Some times these programs prompt before sending
information
(error reports) but many times they do not (user experience feedback
program). But these, as well, are not classified as spyware.

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

Tom

In "Ricky"

Some info here..
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/04/workarounds-to-disable-non-genuine.h
tml

I'm not asking how to disable it.

I want somebody to try to give me a reasonable explanation of why it's
there in the first place and what it's doing.

"Spyware is a general term used for software that performs certain
behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or
changing the configuration of your computer, generally without
appropriately obtaining your consent."

"Sometimes the inclusion of unwanted software in a given software
installation is documented, but it may appear at the end of a license
agreement or privacy statement."

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/spywarewhat.mspx

This thing tries to connect to some MS system at boot time.

Why?

What's it sending back?

Why has MS installed something on my system that by any definition is
spyware?

 

[Brian Wescombe]

In news:#[email protected] "Tom [Pepper] Willett"

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

So, why does it have to run every time I boot? Will my genuine copy of
Windoze somehow become fake between sessions?

And, why does it try to phone home? What's it sending back to Microsoft?

It's sending back exactly the same information as when you first activated
Windows (the installation ID which cannot identify anyone or any particular
computer)

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "Brian Wescombe"

In news:#[email protected] "Tom [Pepper] Willett"

It's part of a recent MS Automatic or Manual Live Update.
It's the WGA Notification tool, that checks to see if your version of
Windows is genuine, and it will nag you if it isn't.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/faq.aspx

So, why does it have to run every time I boot? Will my genuine copy of
Windoze somehow become fake between sessions?

And, why does it try to phone home? What's it sending back to
Microsoft?

It's sending back exactly the same information as when you first
activated Windows (the installation ID which cannot identify anyone or
any particular computer)

Perhaps.

But again, even if that's the case, why would it need to run more than
once? Why would it need to be installed permanently and, but some
accounts, surreptitiously?

 

[cala79]

Ciao se non ti funziona è perchè sbagli metodo.
Nel blog le chicche di cala di Calabrò Davide ci sono 5 modi diversi
per risolvere il problema:
http://cala79.blog.excite.it/archive/day/20060513