Windows Genuine Advantage...

[whitefort]

Two years ago I built a PC for one of my neighbours, complete with a copy of XP home.

I did the thing from scratch and bought everything myself, so I know for a fact that it was a 100% legit, shrink-wrapped, laser-stickered fresh-out-of-the-shop kosher copy of the software.

So far so good.

Last night he phoned me to ask about 'something odd popping up on the screen.' It turns out that after some recent Mickysoft update, his copy of Windows is being declared illegal and pirated. So now when he tries to log on, he gets these warning pop-ups and an annoying little timer thing that causes a delay for several seconds before he can log in.

I've heard of this happening before, and have always told people, 'Sorry, but whoever sold you the PC must have been cutting corners...' But this time it's ME, and I know I wasn't.

I've no idea what sort of hassles we'll have to got through with MS to get his copy declared legal again, but it led to an interesting discussion on why I no longer use Windows myself.

In this instance, I think the 'Windows Genuine Advantage' might turn out to be Ubuntu's Genuine Advantage - I'm hopeful that he might dump Windows and make the switch. The only app he really uses is MS Office, and it looks like I might be able to sell him on the idea of Ubuntu + OpenOffice.

But really...

Do I sound calm and collected? I'm not. I very rarely cuss, but it's been a struggle to keep an occasional expletive out of this post. I'm actually (ok, expletive deleted) furious. How do they get away with stuff like this?

I want to sue Microsoft for defamation of character or something!!! (not really, but it's a nice thought...)

[Lster]

I myself have had no problem with WGA - but I still dislike it using my internet connection to download updates for something I clearly don't want! Further, my friend has also had this annoying login timer after he installed service pack 2.

It sucks...

[insane_alien]

it could be a false positive, remember all those genuine versions that got flagged when WGA first came out?

[smoker]

ms would not admit it, but their wga is very flawed:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=142

you should, if you want to go through the drawn out procedure, be able to have wga list a series of nine (i think) sets of numbers, phone ms, enter all the numbers, then be asked several questions, and if all goes well, then they may decide you are 'innocent!',

if so, you will receive another lengthy set of numbers to input on your pc, and that should re-activate you windows as genuine - until the next time!

best of luck

[BigSilly]

This is pretty much exactly what happened to me about 18 months ago. We'd bought a new PC, which came with XP pre-installed. We didn't get a disc, but no-one does these days do they, so lord knows what we were supposed to do when it borked. Anyway, like you I left the PC connected to Automatic Updates, and after about ooh, six months of regular use, we were greeted with this screen declaring we were using an illegal copy of XP. It renders your PC practically useless with nagware, and actually locks you out completely after five days.

It was only a small local shop where we got the PC from, and they'd sold up by the time this happened. We had no receipt anymore either. Stupid I know, but we never could find it. So there was just no point contacting MS about it. They'd have just laughed. It was at this time my Linux mate was laughing at me, and I decided I had nothing to lose, and gave Mandriva 2006 Discovery a go, dual booting with XP.

I was incredibly impressed. I'd heard tales of reams of text and impossible commands, but it was nothing like that. Since then, we've used Freespire, SuSe, and now Ubuntu. Needless to say, Ubuntu is the very best Linux we've used, and it's where we're sticking.

So for us, WGA definitely led us on to Linux.

[Warpnow]

I've had to switch to Windows for a class...the WGA validates 100% fine on my 100% pirated windows xp pro. There are shitloads of ways to make the WGA validate from running it as a windows 2000 app, to registry edits, to just disabling the program. Google around and you'll see. I'm not sure which one mine uses as it was pre-crackd and pre-optimized (all the useless **** taken out) before I downloaded it.

[init1]

In other thread, someone was able to pass the WGA in Ubuntu, so I guess the system is really flawed. There are some things you will never be able to fix with you OS, be it Windows or Linux.

[Tundro Walker]

This is ridiculous, and is one of the reasons I dumped Windows. Not only did I have to "phone home" to activate my copy of XP, but I also had to do so if I d/l'ed any of MS' software (which included their VB IDE).

At some point, they need accept that a portion of their software will get pirated, and stop doing things to try to prevent it that ends up ******* off an exponentially larger portion of their legitimate customers. Apparently, they feel the cost/benefit ratio is still to their favor...they figure they can justify aggravating and losing several thousand, tens of thousands, etc customers in order to crack down on hundreds or maybe thousands of pirates. But each one of those unhappy customers knows ten other customers they'll complain to, and so on. Pretty soon, your "7 degrees of Kevin Bacon" will bite you in the butt!

[freshmeatz]

delete the hard drive and install ubuntu :P

ohh snap:popcorn:

[KiwiNZ]

I would suggest he call Microsoft. If you look around some of the Windows forums there has been a few posts concerning this popping up over the last few weeks . There would appear to be a bug in the system.

[Dr. C]

Two years ago I built a PC for one of my neighbours, complete with a copy of XP home.

I did the thing from scratch and bought everything myself, so I know for a fact that it was a 100% legit, shrink-wrapped, laser-stickered fresh-out-of-the-shop kosher copy of the software.

So far so good.

Last night he phoned me to ask about 'something odd popping up on the screen.' It turns out that after some recent Mickysoft update, his copy of Windows is being declared illegal and pirated. So now when he tries to log on, he gets these warning pop-ups and an annoying little timer thing that causes a delay for several seconds before he can log in.

I've heard of this happening before, and have always told people, 'Sorry, but whoever sold you the PC must have been cutting corners...' But this time it's ME, and I know I wasn't.

I've no idea what sort of hassles we'll have to got through with MS to get his copy declared legal again, but it led to an interesting discussion on why I no longer use Windows myself.

In this instance, I think the 'Windows Genuine Advantage' might turn out to be Ubuntu's Genuine Advantage - I'm hopeful that he might dump Windows and make the switch. The only app he really uses is MS Office, and it looks like I might be able to sell him on the idea of Ubuntu + OpenOffice.

But really...

Do I sound calm and collected? I'm not. I very rarely cuss, but it's been a struggle to keep an occasional expletive out of this post. I'm actually (ok, expletive deleted) furious. How do they get away with stuff like this?

I want to sue Microsoft for defamation of character or something!!! (not really, but it's a nice thought...)

Here is my suggestion:

1) Transfer any email data out of Outlook Express / Outlook in the Widows version of Thunderbird
2) Back up all data
3) Insert Ubuntu Feisty Fawn CD
4) Reboot computer
5) When prompted by the Ubuntu installation CD Select option 2 (Erase entire hard drive)
6) When Ubuntu installation is complete retore data to Ubuntu system


Important: Professional Legal advice is a must before doing this:
Optional
Sue Microsoft for defamation and the cost of your time to install Ubuntu to fix the problem they created.

[santy_kushwaha]

hahahahahahahah

u r having the same problem which i saw many of the people have they use genuine key but after thought it is said to be illegal it is bcoz genuine thing came out 2-3 months ago so many of then have registered so if someone who have same key as urs have registed thenits too bad

man call microsoft tries to explain then wait and see what happen