Coincidence? WGA Failures Followed Windows Update 381
link: original article - section: windows
Is it coincidence that Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage failure started around the same time that Windows Update self-updated? Thanks to pacpis for this news.
Based on eWEEK Labs and Windows Secrets testing and posts on various forums, Windows Update self-updated on August 23 and 24, from version 7.0.6000.374 to 7.0.6000.381. On the evening of August 24, Windows Vista users started complaining of failed activations/validations. Microsoft would later say that about 12,000 systems failed to activate/validate. What Microsoft didn't say is which ones.
Are these two events related, or is it merely coincidental that around the same time Microsoft disseminated a new version of Windows Update, WGA started to invalidate thousands of Windows systems?
I don't have an answer because I don't have a means to test for it. My Windows PCs are set to automatically update, and none of them attempted to activate/validate on Aug. 24 or 25. But it may be that the WGA failure afflicted some Microsoft Watch readers' Windows installations; system logs could identify a relationship to Windows Update self-updating, if any.
One plausible scenario: Windows PCs running Windows Update Version 7.0.6000.374 (or earlier) failed to activate/validate against a WGA service updated for Version 7.0.6000.381. Microsoft had attributed the WGA failure to early release of a system update, which could fit this scenario. I haven't set up a new Vista PC recently, but if I rightly remember, activation is a process that occurs before updating.
