It should also be noted that the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Tool is different from the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation tool. The former is only used to exchange data with a Microsoft server while the latter will perform the validation itself.

Remove WGA will only remove the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Tool if the tool is running on the computer system and only if the user selects so.

The Remove WGA software program scans the computer system and report its findings back to the user. It will tell the user if the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Tool is active on the computer system. To be precise it will check if wgalogon.dll is loaded into the winlogon.exe process.

Remove WGA will provide the means to remove the Microsoft WGA Notification Tool from the system which will essentially remove wgatray.exe and wgalogon.dll. A click on yes will remove the wga notification tool.

The tool is only available for download on various download portals.

The new WGA for Windows XP mimics the annoyances that Windows Vista users had to endure if their version of Windows Vista did not pass the WGA check. That system is also called nagging the user to death so that he reacts on the situation.

The black desktop will be introduced to systems that fail the WGA check which is a simple black desktop that was set in place by the system that removed the original wallpaper. The user is free to change back to his initial wallpaper but the system will revert back to the black desktop every 60 minutes.

The second annoyance is a persistent desktop notification in the lower right corner that displays the sentences “You may be a victim of software counterfeiting. This copy of Windows did not pass genuine Windows validation” and an image with the text “ask for genuine Microsoft software”.

The third and final way of nagging the user will be system tray notifications which will pop up regularly. There will also be a pre-logon message and a logon interrupt message.

Users who purchase Microsoft Windows have to activate and update it. Users who download it from P2P get it activated and with the latest updates installed. What’s wrong with this picture ? Oh yes, the first batch of users who actually paid for the product are having a less comfortable version.

They have to activate the system and will have to do it again if they change important hardware in the system. They have to use Windows Updates to update their system after the purchase as well.

Their reasoning is that they removed the WGA validation to ‘protect the entire Windows ecosystem’. We all know that Microsoft started to integrate Internet Explorer heavily into the system to dominate the thriving Netscape browser which turned out to be a successful marketing decision.

I personally think it is about market share and the hopes that Internet Explorer 7 is able to get most of the Internet Explorer 6 users to upgrade to it.

Microsoft enabled the Toolbar in Internet Explorer 7 by default which is in my opinion a good move. Many users got confused by the new looks of the browser.

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IE Blog
via PC Doctor

It was always known that there would be false positives and the new figures give us a clearer picture on the scale of the false positive rate. About 114 million systems failed the WGA check since the introduction of those checks and Microsoft admitted that 1% of those were false positives meaning that legit Windows systems failed the WGA check.

While under 1% does not seem that much it it does look much in absolute figures: 1% of 114 million checks means that 1.14 million systems failed the check although this should not have happened. I can’t figure out how the source comes to the conclusion that the absolute number would be 5 million false positives because you clearly have to use the failed checks for the figure and not the total amount of checks which is 500 million.

It is nevertheless a huge number and Microsoft should do everything to reduce it by optimizing the script that performs the checks.

Today we are going to take a look at a function of Vista that most people could live without: WGA. You do know that XP introduced WGA which stands for Windows Genuine Advantage. You can still run XP without problems even if the WGA check should fail. A nagscreen is the only thing that appears afterwards and it is no problem to disable it. Vista will introduce a new level. If the WGA check fails Vista will reduce the functionality.

Vista will only run in Reduced Function Mode and many features will not be available anymore:

By choosing Access your computer with reduced functionality, the default Web browser will be started and the user will be presented with an option to purchase a new product key. There is no start menu, no desktop icons, and the desktop background is changed to black. The Web browser will fully function and Internet connectivity will not be blocked. After one hour, the system will log the user out without warning. It will not shut down the machine, and the user can log back in. Note: This is different from the Windows XP RFM experience, which limits screen resolution, colors, sounds and other features.

A crippled system which should not be that of a problem if only pirated copies of Vista were affected. We all know that this will not be the case. We all read about legit copies of XP who failed WGA checks with no one being able to fix this problem. It is most likely that at least some legit copies of Vista will be affected by this phenomenon as well.

The new WGA could indeed do something good for the growth of free operating systems like Linux. The question that you have to ask yourself if you face such a situation: Do I want to buy Vista for hundreds of dollars or do I want to try a free operating system instead and save the money ? Some will buy Vista because they want to play the latest games but all the others, who are not that interested in games but working with their pc – will they buy Vista ? I doubt so.

A great opportunity for Linux.