Previous
Microsoft To Push Out Revised Validation Tool
News The first screen of the new version gives an introduction to WGA Notifications in plain English, and explains the benefit and the possible consequences if the XP copy is pirated, he said. WGA Notifications, part of Microsoft's effort to combat...
[November 29, 2006, 8:21]
Microsoft Disables IE7 Validation Process
News Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is part of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative. Previously, to download Internet Explorer 7, users had to authenticate to WGA. Microsoft said that it had dropped the requirement for WGA for security reasons.
[October 8, 2007, 14:11]
Not All Unlicensed Windows Copies Are Used By People With Eye Patches
Talkback However, I had a friend that legitimately bought a PC from an independant store (and paid way over the odds for the shoddy hardware they gave her) and the version of windows wasn't valid and so she couldn't do windows updates because of WGA.
[December 5, 2007, 10:14]
Microsoft's Licensing Check Rounded Again
News WGA is a stepped-up effort by Microsoft to increase the number of Windows users that are actually paying Microsoft for its software. For the software maker, the news is not the first time people have attempted to outwit WGA.
[August 8, 2005, 9:35]
Counting The Cost Of Counterfeiting
Talkback As the the WGA programme, on some of the forums I've visited, people have been moaning that their genuine copies of Windows have started popping up messages - often because the PC has been returned to the manufacturer or warranty partner under...
[May 23, 2006, 10:14]
Windows Genuine Advantage Circumvented
News The company has been testing the WGA licence check on its Download Center and Windows Update Web sites for several months. WGA is a software tool that verifies whether a particular copy of the operating system is properly licensed.
[May 24, 2005, 9:05]
Counting The Cost Of Counterfeiting
News You launched the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) scheme in April that gives users access to more tools if they sign up to the service and register their copy of Windows, but blocks some downloads to customers who don't.
[May 22, 2006, 13:30]
Microsoft Offers WGA Workaround
Talkback Yet, Microsoft's workaround will not remove its latest spyware parading under the WGA misnomer. Let no spin prevaricator tell you otherwise: the Notification tool included in Microsoft's WGA to surreptitiously monitor user's computer operations is...
[July 9, 2006, 18:26]
Microsoft DRM Tool Locked Out Genuine Users
News Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is the mechanism that Microsoft uses to validate genuine copies of the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. Without WGA approval, users are unable to use many of the features of the operating systems.
[August 28, 2007, 17:32]
Windows 'piracy' Checks Rounded Again
News WGA requires users to verify that they have a legitimate copy of the operating system before they can download add-ons for Windows XP. Microsoft's efforts to curtail counterfeiting hit a snag when hackers discovered a new way to bypass its Windows...
[August 1, 2005, 12:40]
Microsoft's Genuine Advantage Hits Problems
News The problem is with Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Microsoft's licensing tool, which offers Windows users more secure software in return for their conformance with a vigorous Microsoft licensing strategy.
[October 5, 2006, 14:05]
Microsoft Admits Targeting Wine Users
News A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet UK it made sure the validation tool used by its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) programme identified Wine users, so that only users are running a genuine version of Windows could download updates and add-on tools.
[February 25, 2005, 11:30]
IE7 Will Be 'high-priority' Update
News Automatic Updates is a Windows feature typically used for security updates, but Microsoft has also used it to push its antipiracy tool WGA Notifications. Microsoft plans to automatically push Internet Explorer 7 to Windows XP users when the browser...
[July 27, 2006, 9:15]
Finally My Last Words On XP SP3, (yeah Right, You Hope So!)
Blog It will attempt to install an Active X object that turns out to be the WGA, the Windows Greatest Aggravation and it will decide whether or not your computer is legit. First test to be sure that your Windows XP Pro image has all the things you want...
[June 18, 2008, 19:43]
Wine Maker Relaxed Over Microsoft's 'blockade'
News Last month Microsoft said from the middle of 2005 customers will need to verify that their copies of Windows are genuine before downloading updates and add-on tools, through a programme, called Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA).
[February 23, 2005, 12:00]
Microsoft Antipiracy Tool 'acts Like Spyware'
News The first time that a user runs WGA Validation to check if their version of Windows is genuine, the information sent to Microsoft is the Windows XP product key, PC maker, operating system version, PC bios information and the user's local setting...
[June 8, 2006, 9:10]
Microsoft Offers WGA Workaround
News WGA Notifications displays alerts on systems running a pirated copy of Windows and includes a separate tool called WGA Validation that runs a piracy check. Microsoft has faced a lot of heat over WGA Notifications -- in particular, because it...
[June 28, 2006, 11:20]
Software Jihad
Blog They have had over 3 years now to perfect the WGA crap and it should be “weaponized” and targeted on the software pirates world-wide. His claim is that typical Chinese people can't afford the local retail prices for legitimate Windows XP Pro.
[November 2, 2008, 14:04]
What's Windows Genuine Advantage? Three Days Off Work.
Blog More precisely, MIcrosoft's WGA servers are down (link via BoingBoing), with the company saying "try again, we should fix them by Tuesday"; the result is that whenever a XP or Vista installation tries to make contact to confirm its legality, it...
[August 25, 2007, 18:59]
XP SP3 Is Sick Puppy 3, Stupid Patchwork 3, Stupendous Pain-in-the-A__ 3
Blog Comment When I finally decided to use the SP3 Windows Update service, I deliberately only allowed WGA and the Windows Installer to update their patches and then I tried using the SP2 ISO image I had gotten a while back (a week or so), no go.
[June 23, 2008, 9:50]
