XP "genuine advantage" Big Brother nightmares

[kurttrail]

My apologies if I said something that may have been misconstrued. At
no point did I make claim to anything in any EULA witnessed by me. I
merely conveyed what I was told by more than one Microsoft Licensing
Representatives. I am not a Microsoft employee, Lawyer, or paid
sponsor. I believe I said OEM Licensing told me that, not the EULA.

Nobody agreed to follow the BS of a OEM Licensing Rep. Their CLAIM
isn't worth crap.

I don't make the rule, nor judgement on how someone may percieve the
rules. I am merely pointing out my anecdotal experience, in an effort
to shed light on a suspect situation. If the gentleman above actually
DOES have a legitimate copy of windows, then Microsoft may and
probably will assist him in fixing his issue. If it's pirated, then
that's the reality he has to deal with.

As has been mentioned elsewhere a ton of people are getting alse
positives, and it is supremely annoying, but it's not the end of the
world. If the software is legitimate, then the user is free to pursue
the myriad paths to a valid solution. If the software is pirated,
then... well... it's pirated, and the trap set by Microsoft just
worked.

The real solution would be to dump this malware, not having to jump
through hoops because MS's copy-protection is flawed.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[Guest]

Not to mention that the fact that microsoft's WGA tool may eventually disable
possibly illegal copies of Windows, this in it self could allow hackers to
bypass microsofts control over the WGA tool and cause widespread windows XP
failures. That would cause massive disruptions and even big brother might
have a nightmare.
Basically, its too risky as a single security flaw could open the door for a
virtual power switch on all WGA patched computers.

 

[Guest]

It is really easy to solve this with a simple phone call to ms support. Took
me about 5 minutes...

Good luck!
David.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BAAlias=BA?=]

It is really easy to solve this with a simple phone call to ms support. Took
me about 5 minutes...

Good luck!
David.

And how, exactly, did the "solve" it?

Alias

 

[Noel Paton]

Not to mention that the fact that microsoft's WGA tool may eventually
disable
possibly illegal copies of Windows, this in it self could allow hackers to
bypass microsofts control over the WGA tool and cause widespread windows
XP
failures. That would cause massive disruptions and even big brother might
have a nightmare.
Basically, its too risky as a single security flaw could open the door for
a
virtual power switch on all WGA patched computers.

MS have denied categorically any capability to do this, either now or in the
future.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read on how to post messages to NG's

 

[Alias]

MS have denied categorically any capability to do this, either now or in
the future.

And Microsoft *always* tells the truth like saying that WGA is a
"critical update".

Alias

 

[Noel Paton]

And Microsoft *always* tells the truth like saying that WGA is a "critical
update".

<chuckle>
I know, I know.... I totally agree that WGA should NOT have been 'pushed' as
a Beta, and should NOT be 'pushed' as a Critical Update. IMHO, Critical
Updates should be limited to those with security implications for the user -
not revenue implications for MS.

They have also stated that come final EOL for XP, they will disable
Activation (and presumably WGA also).
Since XPSP3 is planned for the second half of next year, that isn't going to
be for a few years yet.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/servicepacks.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;lifecycle&LN=EN-US&x=20&y=10
(that's going to be a fun time - I believe that SP1 for Vista was planned
for about the same time?? This may have slipped back to early 2008, though.)
I would expect that WGA (and IE7) will be part of SP3 - so you can work out
for yourself the consequences in terms of support.
It may be this that the various web articles are referring to when talking
about WGA being a 'required download'??

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read on how to post messages to NG's

 

[Alias]

<chuckle>
I know, I know.... I totally agree that WGA should NOT have been
'pushed' as a Beta, and should NOT be 'pushed' as a Critical Update.
IMHO, Critical Updates should be limited to those with security
implications for the user - not revenue implications for MS.

They have also stated that come final EOL for XP, they will disable
Activation (and presumably WGA also).
Since XPSP3 is planned for the second half of next year, that isn't
going to be for a few years yet.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/servicepacks.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;lifecycle&LN=EN-US&x=20&y=10

(that's going to be a fun time - I believe that SP1 for Vista was
planned for about the same time?? This may have slipped back to early
2008, though.)
I would expect that WGA (and IE7) will be part of SP3 - so you can work
out for yourself the consequences in terms of support.
It may be this that the various web articles are referring to when
talking about WGA being a 'required download'??

If SP3 has WGA, I won't be installing it. I have no use for IE in any of
its flavors as I use Firefox. The only time I used to use IE was to go
to Windows update because you can't go there with Firefox. Once I
reinstall Windows to get rid of WGA completely, I will set AU to
"download but let me decide when and what to install" and never install
WGA again. I know my copy of Windows is genuine and I don't need spyware
on my machine to confirm it.

Alias

 

[Michael Jennings]

Once I reinstall Windows to get rid of WGA completely, I will set AU to
"download but let me decide when and what to install" and never install
WGA again. I know my copy of Windows is genuine and I don't need
spyware on my machine to confirm it.

In that case Search will reveal a bounty of WGA on your computer
waiting to be installed. If you don't want that, set AU not to download -
just to check and tell you when updates are available, or turn it off.

 

[Alias]

In that case Search will reveal a bounty of WGA on your computer
waiting to be installed. If you don't want that, set AU not to download -
just to check and tell you when updates are available, or turn it off.

Good tip, thanks.

Alias

 

[mm]

Last night, while working on something else, I stupidly authorized
Windows to install a "genuine advantage" update that it was bugging me
for permission to install. I'd have been more scrutinous of this
request, had I not been distracted on other things.

So when I flipped the computer on this morning, I got a warning that I
may be using counterfeit XP software, or something to that effect. It
bugged me every step of the login process about this, and I blew it off
with the "resolve later" option they finally gave me.

20 minutes later, the computer went into the royal blue screen with the
white type saying that something bad had happened to the computer.

I restarted the computer and used System Restore to restore to a point
before I installed the "genuine advantage" (what a laugh) update.

My question is, how do I now avoid this update going onto my computer,
or better yet, how do I essentially permanently decline the "right" to
have it automatically installed?

By way of background, my computer is one I bought from a friend, that I
have since upgraded with a new motherboard, CPU, second hard drive for
data, and new graphics card.

I have an XP CD that I got from him, and it *looks* genuine, but I have
no desire to tinker with an O/S that had otherwise been fine.

The computer is up to date in Windows' eyes. It has SP2 on it, and the
Windows Updates download at night and install in the background.

I am sure millions of users are waking up to this same nightmare I just
experienced, so I am sure solutions to this issue will soon be widely
propagating on the web.

And no, I'm not going to respond to the shakedown MS has on the "genuine
advantage" prompts, offering to make the problem go away if I pay them
money.