About WGA, WGA Notifiction and WGA Patcher Windows Genuine Advantage Validation - WGA Patcher v 1.5.708.0 Download Internet Explorer 8 - IE8 Beta 2 Direct Download Link Without WGA New WGA Tool on it's way Microsoft WGA Becomes Nagware WGA, OGA -When do we get UGA? Microsoft defends WGA WGA to be baked into Vista Microsoft's WGA changes today WGA Update Goes Phishing WGA and OGA Servers Down WGA Patcher Permanent Kit! Microsoft WGA phones home? Uninstall WGA Notifications Manually Microsoft WGA servers are fixed, but.. Original Internet Explorer 7 without WGA! Microsoft WGA Update Anti-hack Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Not Spyware! 2 Year Old Pirated Keys Defeats WGA Paradox Vista activator + WGA crack Paradox activate + WGA for 32bit Vista Forget about the WGA! 20+ Windows Vista Microsoft Pledge: No More WGA Funny Business Microsoft Releases WGA Bypass Tool to OEMs Bypass WGA checks while installing .msi filesMicrosoft has released a new Internet Explorer 7. The new version is IE 7 RC1. Also called Release Candidate 1.
microsoft - comments - 27.10.2006
Microsoft responds to "WGA Phones home" issue, on the MSDN blog. Microsoft clarifies WGA Notifications "phone home"
windows - comments - 9.3.2007
Microsofts anti-piracy effort may be annoying to some Windows users, but it has notched a big win catching the bad guys. WGA notches win for Microsoft in piracy bust
microsoft - comments - 25.7.2007
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. Coincidence? WGA Failures Followed Windows Update 381
windows - comments - 24.9.2007
Microsoft has adapted the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification tool to the third and last service pack for Windows XP. WGA Antipiracy Mechanism Adapted to XP SP3
download - comments - 26.8.2008
Microsoft is providing end users with the instructions necessary to disable or remove altogether the WGA Notifications anti-piracy mechanism from Windows XP. Microsoft: Disable or Remove the Pilot of WGA Notifications
windows - comments - 1.9.2008Microsoft Adds Firefox Support
to WGA
Firefox users may still be out
of the luck when it comes to
Windows Update, but they can
now download files from
Microsoft that require Windows
Genuine Advantage validation
thanks to a new plug-in. WGA
checks to make sure the
Windows license is legit and
is now a requirement on the
Microsoft Download Center...
betanews.com - 17.11.2005Microsoft clarifies WGA 'phoning home'
A post has
been made to the Windows
Genuine Advantage team blog,
explaining why the latest WGA
Notifications package sends
install telemetry when
installed or canceled.
Article continues
at source...
jcxp.net - 13.03.2007Microsoft Pledge: No More WGA Funny Business
Microsoft has been painstakingly reviewing the operations and procedures behind its Windows Genuine Advantage license validation tool, with a view to
ironing out glitches that have cause problems for legitimate Windows users. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is designed to combat piracy by installing
software on users' PC that periodically checks to see if their version of Windows is authentic before allowing them to download updates.
In a Tuesday Weblog entry, Alex Kochis, senior product manager in the Windows Genuine Advantage group, said the WGA team has been studying its WGA
operations and processes and will handle future WGA issues more efficiently than it has in the past. WGA has been a source of much frustration for
users since it was launched in 2005, and recent incidents have fanned the flames of WGA loathing among Microsoft's customers and partners.
The WGA team has changed the way it rolls out updates to the back-end servers and has also been shoring up the infrastructure on which WGA is
based. In addition to revamping its monitoring of WGA servers, Microsoft is also implementing 24x7 customer support and phone based technical support
to its North American customers, Kochis wrote.
neowin.net - 22.11.2007Even with Vista SP1, Hackers Still Crack WGA
The fact that Microsoft has relaxed its antipiracy mechanism built into Windows Vista concomitantly with the release of Service Pack 1 failed
to stop hackers from providing a crack for the latest version of Windows Genuine Advantage Validation. Various reports point out that Genuine
Advantage Validation and Notifications versions 1.7.69.1 (1.7.0069.1) and 1.7.69.2 released in March 2008, following the March 18 availability of
Windows Vista SP1 through Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center, have been cracked.
The workaround is designed to be integrated
with pirated copies of Windows XP and Windows Vista in order to render useless the WGA Validation mechanism. According to the reports, applying the
WGA crack will permit users of counterfeit versions of Windows to access and download items from Windows Update, Microsoft Download Center and
Microsoft Update. The pirated operating systems with the cracked WGA will pass all validations on Microsoft's websites and offer anything from
updates to applications that are restricted to users of genuine operating systems only.
neowin.net - 02.04.2008Microsoft Responds to WGA
Concerns
Microsoft late Friday publicly
responded to widespread
reports that a recent change
to its Windows Genuine
Advantage program caused the
software to contact Microsoft
servers on a daily basis. The
company says it will soon
release an update to make WGA
only call home every 14 days...
betanews.com - 10.06.2006Microsoft finally earns a passing grade (barely) for WGA
Microsoft launched its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy program in early summer 2006. Its first year was, to put it charitably, a disaster.
An epic fail. A big fat F on the years report card.
A certain amount of error is inevitable in any activation and registration
system, but those numbers were clearly too high when WGA first rolled out. In an interview last week, Microsoft WGA director Alex Kochis tacitly
acknowledged that fact, pointing out that weve made major strides in the accuracy of the program in the past two years.
winbeta.org - 05.09.2008New Version Of WGA Soon.
A source close to Microsoft
told german Windows enthusiast
site WinFuture about plans to
introduce a new version of the
windows genuine check.
According to the source the
activation of Windows XP is
going to be required to get
access to ALL downloads listed
in Microsofts Download Center.
Additionally a message will
pop up every time the system
boots, if Windows has not been
activated yet. The message
will remind the user of
activating Windows and start
the validation process via
WGA.
Source: WinFuture.de
(German)..
jcxp.net - 20.04.2006The real reason(s) behind Microsofts move to exorcise WGA from IE7
A day after Microsoft rolled out a refresh of Internet Explorer (IE) 7 that no longer requires Windows Genuine Validation (WGA) checks, industry
watchers are speculating as to why the company did so.
The IE team, for its part, will say nothing more than what it posted on
October 4 to the IE Team Blog: Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, were updating the
IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users
In other words: Microsoft was worried that
pirates might not be protected by all the security goodness the company has added to IE, so it decided to remove piracy checks from the IE 7
download process.
Not surprisingly, there are other theories as to why Microsoft removed WGA from the browser...
winbeta.org - 05.10.2007Windows Genuine Advantage: Learning and Improving
WGA Team: While some time has passed since the WGA temporary service outage we had back in August, I wanted to share some more about what we've
learned since then and the steps we've been taking to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
First off, we've been
taking another hard look at our operations and the tools and processes we use to run the validation service for WGA, and we've made some changes
including to how we roll out updates to the back-end servers (it was a specific upgrade to our system that analyzes product keys that caused the issue
in August) and we've been adding to and improving the tools used to make sure our infrastructure is solid. As part of that, we've revamped the
monitoring that is used to track what's happening within our server infrastructure so that we can identify potential problems faster - ideally before
any customer gets impacted. But also as part of that, we've been making changes in how we can help our customers when an issue does arise that
impacts them.
winbeta.org - 22.11.2007XP Pro to receive WGA similar to Vista SP1
Remember how everyone was excited about how Vista SP1 received a WGA update to not block you from your computer?
Well, the same is coming
to Windows XP. (Professional only, though. Who would want to pirate XP Home?)
From the WGA Blog:
With this update to
WGA Notifications in Windows XP, we've implemented a couple of related features that draw on the notifications experience we designed for Windows
Vista SP1. After installing this version of WGA Notifications on a copy of Windows XP that fails the validation, most users will discover on their
next logon that their desktop has changed to a plain black background from whatever was there previously (see below).
The desktop
background can be reset to anything else in the usual ways, but every 60 minutes it will change back to the plain black background. This will continue
to happen until that copy of Windows is genuine.
Also, the user will see the addition of what we call the "persistent desktop
notification." This notification is similar to a watermark but works a bit differently. The image (see below) appears over the system tray and is
non-interactive in the sense that you can't click on it or do anything to it.
As with previous releases, if a copy of Windows fails
validation, notifications will appear above the system tray regularly - and we will continue to have the pre-logon message, the logon interrupt
message and the messages that appear from the system tray.
jcxp.net - 27.08.2008Internet Explorer 7 update: Now WGA-free
Microsoft has issued an updated Internet Explorer (IE) 7 release that no longer requires Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation in order to
download.
Program Manager Steve Reynolds announced the news on October 4 on Microsoft’s IE Team blog:“Because
Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, were updating the IE7 installation experience to make it
available as broadly as possible to all Windows users. With todays ‘Installation and Availability Update,’ Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows
Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users.”
WGA is the anti-piracy mechanism Microsoft uses to check
whether users are running “genuine” Windows before allowing them to download certain product updates, fixes, white papers and other
related information.
winbeta.org - 04.10.2007Microsoft WGA phones home?
Analysts over at the German
web site Heise Online have uncovered a curious behavior with the
latest Windows Genuine
Advantage (WGA) update. The
update is intended to patch
the latest hole that hackers
have used to work around the
WGA utility, which checks to
see if the users' copy of
Windows is genuine or pirated.
According to tests conducted
with an Ethernet sniffer
program, if the user clicks
the close button to cancel the
installation of this WGA
update, Windows sends some
information back to Microsoft
over the wires.
This information
includes version numbers of
both Windows and WGA, the
language of the operating
system, some registry
information, and a cookie.
Some hackers are worried that
Microsoft is going to use this
information to identify
potential pirates, but
Microsoft claims that the data
is only used to try and
diagnose failures with the WGA
utility itself. The outgoing
data can be blocked, if
desired, by personal firewall
software or hardware router.
jcxp.net - 13.03.2007Microsoft Denies Kill Switch
Earlier this week there were
reports flying about that
Microsoft was actually using
the WGA as a means to shut off
pirates or anyone who doesn?t
comply with the update. The
people at Redmond now have
made a statement to dispel
those rumors.
Microsoft Corp. today denied
speculation that it plans to
cripple copies of Windows XP
for users who refuse to
install its controversial
antipiracy tool, Windows
Genuine Advantage (WGA).
All the WGA has
netted Microsoft at this point
is bad press and even a
lawsuit or two.
jcxp.net - 02.07.2006Microsoft Remains Silent on AutoPatcher
Yesterday morning an Internet Investigator representing Microsoft called me at home requesting that Neowin cease all activity with AutoPatcher, a
program headed by Antonis Kaladis and endorsed by Neowin for little under 4 years. Antonis received a standard take down request email through his
AutoPatcher.com email address. We complied by pulling the forums on Neowin and the download page at AutoPatcher.com.
The news was quickly
picked up by the likes of CNET, Slashdot and others but as of this posting we are yet to receive any sort of clear explanation as to why this decision
was made 3 years after the program had been widely adopted by Neowin members, computer magazines and the industries system admins who use the program
to speed up the installing of corporate machines.
A Microsoft Featured Communities representative as well as the Internet Investigator
handling the case has pledged to look into the situation to find out exactly what prompted this sudden move. The only short explanation offered was
the possibility of delivering malicious files with the package, something the AutoPatcher team has never done.
Updates which require WGA
(Windows Genuine Advantage) validation are included, and can be installed (since the WGA validation only takes place on the machine that downloads
them, not the one that is installing them) which theoretically bypasses the validation check users would normally have to go through if updating
through Windows Update. Antonis had asked when WGA became common if this would affect the AutoPatcher project and the concept of administrative
updates and a Microsoft representative said "No", arguing that the purpose behind WGA was mostly educational. The WGA tool itself (the one offered
by Windows Update as a critical update) is included in AutoPacher, though not marked for installation by default.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 30.08.2007Microsoft sued over WGA spyware allegations in China
Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage woes aren't likely to end any time soon. Soon after a global WGA failure caused by human error comes word that
a privacy suit has been brought against the company in China over alleged WGA behavior. This joins similar suits in the US that have described WGA as
"spyware."
Lu Feng, a student at Beijing University, is asking for compensation and a reversal of practices from the Redmond giant,
saying that WGA's analytical methods are akin to snooping technologies. According to scattered reports, some of which are contradictory, Lu Feng
first installed WGA on his Windows XP computer before realizing what it was. Feng believes that Microsoft failed to provide him with proper notice of
WGA's capabilities or how it would affect his use of his computer.
Feng's complaint asserts that WGA monitors his computer usage closely
enough to constitute a privacy violation. Microsoft has long insisted that WGA does not invade privacy and only monitors what is necessary to prevent
unauthorized modifications to anti-piracy tools in Windows.
neowin.net - 17.09.2007Microsoft removes another one of WGA's fangs
This morning Microsoft announced another noteworthy change to its flagship Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program - an update to be rolled out later
this month to all Vista users that will display a WGA warning dialog box when it detects either of two common Vista activation cracks. In the same
announcement, they also for the first time showed screen shots of how WGA changes debuting in SP1 will take some of the bite out of a longstanding
Windows product activation rule as well.
Now-departed Microsoft marketing chief Michael Sievert announced last December that Service Pack 1
would drop Vista’s “reduced functionality mode” (the notorious “kill switch”) in favor of a series of notifications and
nag screens. WGA senior product manager Alex Kochis posted the details of today’s changes, with screen shots, on Microsoft’s Windows
Genuine Advantage blog today.
Read
full story.....
neowin.net - 22.02.2008WGA and OGA Servers Down
According to Ars Technica, the servers responsible for activating new installs of Windows and Office are currently down due to an unspecified reason.
The issue became apparent after several users attempted to activate Office 2003 with no avail, even as early as this morning, and a Microsoft
representative confirmed that the servers were offline. Fortunately, this seems to be simply a case of prolonged downtime, rather than an actual
activation error, as was this case in August of last year, when the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software acidentally labelled legitimate installs
as pirated versions. Users affected by this issue can still take advantage of the built-in 30-day grace period until the servers are brought back
up.
neowin.net - 19.07.2008Microsoft is to Push Out AntiPiracy Tool
Microsoft will soon start
pushing out a new version of
its controversial Windows
Genuine Advantage
Notifications antipiracy tool
to Windows XP users.
The updated WGA
Notifications package includes
additional changes in response
to continued criticism
Microsoft has faced over the
software, the company said
Tuesday. Microsoft in June
also updated the tool after
critics likened it to spyware
because it checked in with
Microsoft after each Windows
restart.
In the
latest update, Microsoft has
changed the installation
procedure of the tool so it's
clearer to people what it
does, said David Lazar,
director of the Windows
Genuine program at Microsoft.
In the original version, WGA
Notifications displayed only a
wordy user license, which
people don't typically read.
"We received a
lot of feedback that people
wanted more information when
the package came down through
Automatic Updates and was
offered to them," Lazar said.
The first screen of the new
version gives an introduction
to WGA Notifications in plain
English, explains the benefit
and the possible consequences
if the XP copy is pirated, he
said.
WGA
Notifications, part of
Microsoft's effort to combat
software piracy, displays
alerts on systems running
illegitimately acquired copies
of Windows. Users get the tool
the same way they receive
security updates, via
Automatic Updates or Windows
Update. Microsoft plans to
push out a new version about
every three to four months,
Lazar said.
"It
is necessary because we
continue to discover new,
compromised product keys,"
Lazar said. "We want to
update our notifications and
validation tool from time to
time to also check for those
compromised keys."
jcxp.net - 29.11.2006Addressing WGA validation issues
From what I personally noticed while reading about the WGA issue around the web, it was much more than just a "very few customers were affected".
Perhaps Microsoft should rethink their validation strategy after this near-disaster?
Earlier today (25 August) we began
receiving reports of Windows Vista customers running genuine systems but experiencing failures when attempting a Windows Genuine Advantage validation.
This situation has since been resolved and validations are now being processed successfully.
We've since learned that very
few customers were affected. Sr. Product Manager Alex Kochis and a team of engineers have been working on the issue and has blogged about it to keep customers
up-to-date. Customers who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating. I'd encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to visit this site now; after
successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure that genuine-only features are restored.
Alex will be
updating his blog with information as more information comes to light.
winbeta.org - 26.08.2007Microsoft Releases WGA Bypass Tool to OEMs
With the introduction of
Windows Genuine Advantage
(WGA), a computer must be
validated as genuine prior to
receiving security patches
from Windows Update. Windows
must first be activated for
the validation tool to run,
however most system builders
do not activate computers on
behalf of the end user. This
poses a problem for system
builders who want to sell
systems pre-patched with
updates but not enable
automatic updates.
The System
Builder Bypass tool
(sbbypass.exe) will allow
system builders to download
and install critical updates
on new PCs without the
requirement to activate or
validate. Download the System
Builder Bypass tool. Need to
be member of OEM system
builder site.
The
System Builder Bypass tool is
to be used to assist system
builders with building a new
PC, and thus requires sysprep
to be running in factory mode.
An internet connection is
required to download critical
updates.
neowin.net - 18.10.2006