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From: Mark on 29 Oct 2009 15:46
I'm trying to determine for sure if I have managed to do away with
WGA.

1) Installed XP SP2

2) Accepted WGA in order to get SP3 directly from MS's update site.

3) Also got 50+ critical security updates, ONE OF WHICH was yet
another request to add WGA. I refused that one. Eventually I was able
to convince Automatic Update that I didn't want ANY more WGA update
nags.

Does that mean I no longer have WGA in my system?

It does not appear in the Install/Remove Programs list. The only
entity with "wga" in the name on the entire system drive is...

wgacustom.dll

It's 69kb and has a Mod Date of 2008

....which would SUGGEST that I'm WGA-free since I installed XP recently
and the 69kb size is well under the 1+mb size of the WGA update we get
harassed about periodically.

Also, I understand that when WGA used to phone home, it does so at
bootup, once every two weeks. I say "used to" because I've read in
some places that WGA no longer phones home at all; is that true?

Been running a test the last few days. I shut down the system at
night and unplug the LAN cable. Next morning, I reboot and wait for
everything to come back up, including Zone Alarm, then plug the cable
back in. So far, Zone Alarm has not flagged any activity that looks
like it's related to WGA. But a valid test would be to repeat that
for 2+ weeks.

Is there a sure-fire way of checking for the presence of WGA? And if
it's there, getting rid of it once and for good?

While I'm at it, another security question. Since installing Zone
Alarm, it's been turning away repeated hits from GoDaddy (makes me
feel like yelling at Danica Patrick to get another sponsor). Any idea
what that might be about?

Thanks,

--Mark
From: Jack on 29 Oct 2009 16:31
Mark wrote:
> I'm trying to determine for sure if I have managed to do away with
> WGA.
>
> 1) Installed XP SP2
>
> 2) Accepted WGA in order to get SP3 directly from MS's update site.
>
> 3) Also got 50+ critical security updates, ONE OF WHICH was yet
> another request to add WGA. I refused that one. Eventually I was able
> to convince Automatic Update that I didn't want ANY more WGA update
> nags.
>
> Does that mean I no longer have WGA in my system?
>
> It does not appear in the Install/Remove Programs list. The only
> entity with "wga" in the name on the entire system drive is...
>
> wgacustom.dll
>
> It's 69kb and has a Mod Date of 2008
>
> ...which would SUGGEST that I'm WGA-free since I installed XP recently
> and the 69kb size is well under the 1+mb size of the WGA update we get
> harassed about periodically.
>
> Also, I understand that when WGA used to phone home, it does so at
> bootup, once every two weeks. I say "used to" because I've read in
> some places that WGA no longer phones home at all; is that true?
>
> Been running a test the last few days. I shut down the system at
> night and unplug the LAN cable. Next morning, I reboot and wait for
> everything to come back up, including Zone Alarm, then plug the cable
> back in. So far, Zone Alarm has not flagged any activity that looks
> like it's related to WGA. But a valid test would be to repeat that
> for 2+ weeks.
>
> Is there a sure-fire way of checking for the presence of WGA? And if
> it's there, getting rid of it once and for good?
>
> While I'm at it, another security question. Since installing Zone
> Alarm, it's been turning away repeated hits from GoDaddy (makes me
> feel like yelling at Danica Patrick to get another sponsor). Any idea
> what that might be about?

But, can you tell me _why_ it was so important to get rid of it that someone
would do all that BS?


From: Raoul Watson on 30 Oct 2009 04:38
Mark wrote:
> I'm trying to determine for sure if I have managed to do away with
> WGA.
>
> 1) Installed XP SP2
>
> 2) Accepted WGA in order to get SP3 directly from MS's update site.
>
> 3) Also got 50+ critical security updates, ONE OF WHICH was yet
> another request to add WGA. I refused that one. Eventually I was able
> to convince Automatic Update that I didn't want ANY more WGA update
> nags.
>
> Does that mean I no longer have WGA in my system?
>
> It does not appear in the Install/Remove Programs list. The only
> entity with "wga" in the name on the entire system drive is...
>
> wgacustom.dll
>
> It's 69kb and has a Mod Date of 2008
>
> ...which would SUGGEST that I'm WGA-free since I installed XP recently
> and the 69kb size is well under the 1+mb size of the WGA update we get
> harassed about periodically.
>
> Also, I understand that when WGA used to phone home, it does so at
> bootup, once every two weeks. I say "used to" because I've read in
> some places that WGA no longer phones home at all; is that true?
>
> Been running a test the last few days. I shut down the system at
> night and unplug the LAN cable. Next morning, I reboot and wait for
> everything to come back up, including Zone Alarm, then plug the cable
> back in. So far, Zone Alarm has not flagged any activity that looks
> like it's related to WGA. But a valid test would be to repeat that
> for 2+ weeks.
>
> Is there a sure-fire way of checking for the presence of WGA? And if
> it's there, getting rid of it once and for good?
>
> While I'm at it, another security question. Since installing Zone
> Alarm, it's been turning away repeated hits from GoDaddy (makes me
> feel like yelling at Danica Patrick to get another sponsor). Any idea
> what that might be about?
>
> Thanks,
>
> --Mark

Well.. the next time you are denied access to a download from Microsoft,
at that time you can be assured that WGA is gone.
From: Mark on 30 Oct 2009 17:34
On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:38:51 -0400, Raoul Watson
<WatsonR(a)IntelligenCIA.com> wrote:

>Mark wrote:
>> I'm trying to determine for sure if I have managed to do away with
>> WGA.

*snip*

>>
>> --Mark
>
>Well.. the next time you are denied access to a download from Microsoft,
>at that time you can be assured that WGA is gone.

Problem is, MS seems to force a bit of a Catch-22 on us. If I try to
d/l Win Media Player 11 for instance, MS does not appear to check for
the presence of WGA -- they immediately route me to the WGA download
page.

At least that was the case the last time I tried it. Now this is
weird. I just now tried to d/l Media Player 11 again and it d/led the
exe file okay. WGA still doesn't show up in the programs list. Will
continue to see if Zone Alarm catches it trying to contact MS.

--Mark
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