
Last year, Microsoft released a new update called Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474) to confirm if you are using a genuine copy of Windows. The update connects with Microsoft validation servers in the background and displays irritating desktop alerts and balloon messages on computers that fail the Windows Genuine Advantage validation process.
Initially, Microsoft released this update to a random set of users in a few countries but now they are pushing it across all desktop as a critical update via the Windows Updates program or from the Microsoft Updates website.
Unlike other Windows Updates, you cannot uninstall KB905474 update using the Add/Remove Programs module and the piracy notification messages continue to appear until the non-genuine copy of Windows has been validated as genuine.

And even if you manage to validate Windows using WGA notifications, Microsoft says that "your system may be revalidated periodically in order to take advantage of new information available from Microsoft that can help protect you against new forms of counterfeiting."
Find this article at: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/03/microsoft-pushes-wga-notifications-as.html
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org


Reader Comments
Even though you may be a victim of software counterfeiting :) you will still get your critical automatic updates. So other than the annoying pop ups, what does it prevent?
Written on 21/3/07 2:51 AM
The popup can be quite damaging, at least outside India, here in India, even the clients are using pirated windows :)
But there are ways to get around that, I am aware of several tools that automatically check and fix WGA repeatedly.
Written on 21/3/07 9:25 AM
If you do choose not to get this update then pay attention to the dialog box that pops up after u uncheck the WGA update
that box will let you remove wga from any future upgrade cycles so it doesnt make its way back hidden with other update files later
Written on 21/3/07 10:27 AM
it's about time they did it
Written on 21/3/07 5:51 PM
by the way, where did you get that screenshot from? I hope you are not running a pirated copy of windows yourself? I know you don't need to... but just curious....
Written on 22/3/07 11:52 AM
You can block this update offcourse, but something like WGA should not be tagged as critical.
Let's hope the EU fines them for this :)
Written on 26/4/07 6:44 PM