Windows WGA-Update

[angua]

Hi folks!

recently, Microsoft sent a tool named "Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)" through Windows update. You might want to watch out for this - it'll connect to a Microsoft server every time you log in to your computer, and will pop up an annoying message if it thinks that your Windows copy is stolen.
But even with a legal copy, the tool still starts with your Windows, eats up some memory and "phones home". If you're using a different firewall than the built-in Windows firewall, you might see the requests going out.

You can prevent the tool from being installed if you disagree the EULA coming up during the update. If you accepted already and you want to get rid of it, you can delete the respective registry key.

Open the registry editor by clicking on "start" -> "run", typing "regedit" and pressing enter.
Then go to the registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\WGALogon

and delete it. Be careful though, if you make a mistake modifying the registry, it can severely damage your Windows installation.

That's it for today.

[angua]

Ok, seems that even if you rejected the installation of the WGA tool and told Windows Update not to offer it again, it comes nevertheless with each update cycle. Not much you can do about it, I guess...