KB 905474 ( WGA "Notification" ) Removal Tool

[bob3160]

is it worth it or not???

If your  computer is 100% legal, why bother?
Unless the calling home is something you can't live with.
I personally don't care about the occasional verification.

[drhayden1]

as for me just going to leave it alone and don't mess with it

[mauserme]

is it worth it or not???

Try the idea of restoring back to a better point as suggested by =YLAP=.

I wasn't able to restore all the way back to a pre-notification state, but I did get back to version 1 of the notification tool (the version that's easily removed by WGARemoval Tool).

Two odd things though:  

I got error messages that I could not restore to the dates I was trying, but the restore did work successfully (maybe part of Microsoft's anti-removal policy??)

The update still shows in Add or Remove Programs even though the removal tool says its gone and Windows Updates would like me to download it again.

[drhayden1]

Why Microsoft would want WGA to phone home


http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060702-7178.html

[.: Mac :.]

Well I think Microsoft is taking a good step toward combating software piracy, however I think they should have taken a little more time to perfect the technology before implementing it, especially on a software product as widely used as Windows.

[Lisandro]

Well I think Microsoft is taking a good step toward combating software piracy, however I think they should have taken a little more time to perfect the technology before implementing it, especially on a software product as widely used as Windows.

Do you want an antipiracy feature that cannot be bypassed... tell to Microsoft to follow http://www.spector.com/ 
Try to find a way to bypass and receive a gift from crackers 

[bob3160]

For those of you who don't want WGA on your system,
here's another way to get rid of it:
http://bob3160.googlepages.com/KillWGAwiththeBigFix.html

I personally still have WGA installed and active even though BigFix came installed
on this laptop as part of the Gateway pre-installed software.

[Lisandro]

After tons of complains, MS published this:
How to disable or uninstall the pilot version of Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

[mauserme]

After tons of complains, MS published this:
How to disable or uninstall the pilot version of Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

It appears to only work for the pilot versions (1.5.0527.0 through 1.5.0532.2).  Mine has 1.5.0540.0


Edit:  The web site actually only says it hasn't been tested and is not supported for the general release version of the WGA Notification Tool.

I got brave and tried it on version 1.5.0540.0 and it worked just fine.  It also removed WGA (KB892130) so I had to reinstall that, then hide the WGA Notification Tool (KB905474) to prevent future downloads.

Obviously there's no guarantee it will work this on all computers.

[bob3160]

I got brave and tried it on version 1.5.0540.0 and it worked just fine.

Did you try the suggestion I posted?
It suggests usage of the same MS Removal procedure and then
suggests using BigFix to prevent WGA from being re-installed on your system.

[mauserme]

No, I did this on a computer at work and chose to keep the Windows Updates plain and simple for now by reinstalling WGA (not WGA Notification, of course).

I'll try BigFix out at home and migrate it to work if it goes smoothly.

[drhayden1]

hi mauserme- just installed bigfix on my laptop and will see how it works for me,used it a while back when i had a emachine desktop and had no problem,haven't decided on whether to remove WGA or not.....computer is running fine as is 

[mauserme]

Hi Bob and drhayden,

I've also installed BigFix and set Automatic Updates to notify only as mentioned in the article Bob linked to.

Seems like a pretty solid concept but I'll reserve judgment for a while - after evaluating 406 Fixlet Messages it finds no issues on my computer.  I guess I'm too diligent about keeping things patched.

I'm not following the author's advice to disable it so its currently using 6092k ram running in the background (was 11,998k for some time after installation).  This seems like a better way to test the program.

The EULA contains, in part,  the following wording

"In addition, BigFix licenses third parties the technology necessary to examine elements of your computer using BFAST, which interaction can only be accomplished with your permission.  In addition, you have the ability, as part of the BFAST technology to review any and all information being sent by you to such third party licensee.  BigFix assumes no liability with regard to how such third party licensees employ BFAST, or use any information about your computer obtained through the use thereof."


I'm not 100% OK with that but trying it out anyway.

[bob3160]

BigFix came pr-installed on the Gateway Portable I'm currently using and seems to be used by
Gateway to keep this computer up-to-date.

[mauserme]

Do you like the program, Bob?