Category: Geeks r Us
Hi again all,
a few days ago, well a week ago, i got the updates are ready for your computer thingie. It wants me to install windows genuine advantage, which i understand checks your computer to make sure your copy of windows is legal, but i'm rather scared and hesitant to install it. it says if you have a problem with it it can't be removed. It says installing it is optional, but if you don't install it, you may not be able to install future updates or upgrade to newer versions of programs like windows media player 10 etc. I sometimes listen to a local computer talk show on an am station here, and the woman who is one of th ehosts said she installed xp on 2 machines and it woulodn't validate. How many of you have installed it and have either not had any problems afterwards, or how many have installed it and had problems, and how many have chosen not to install it on their computers? Tjhanks much,
wonderwoman
I did and I have had no problems. I hear it checks your pc constantly to see if you have a good coppy of windows.
Troy
thanks, i guess in a way, i'm not sure i can trust microsoft, what if its a racket, and its set up to show you don't have a legal copy of windows even though you know it shoulod be legal?
wonderwoman
I hesitated doing this as well but gave in and so far no problems. I have wondered about the machine checking and also what really gets transmitted back but well, what's a person to do. So far machine is running well without problems so I would say just go for it.
thanks, guess i'll do it tomorrow, putting it off as long as i feel i can. it doesn't bother me constantly, but it does come up once when i first turn the computer on ande it just sits there in my system tray.
wonderwoman
Basicly, if your copy of windows is legal than its fine but if its not then it lodes up a microsoft page everytime you start your computer.
It does phone home, but i am not sure what it gives microsoft.
The reason that the womans xp copies were showing up as illegals was probly because the teanagers in the computer shops used the keys on the xp cd keys and then put them back on the shelf; making there copy of xp legal as they were the first to use it.
Aparantly it can be a pain to get of though, i was trying to do it for a friend:
1: End the prosess and deleet the wgatray.exe.
2: Don't try to deleet the dll file.
3: Restart.
Only to find that 10 minutes later the computer had restarted and wga was installed again. There is a program on the web to do this, as technicly this falls under the catergy of spyware.
BEN.
Sounds rather pointless to me to install it unless you have doubts about your windows being legal.
Sounds to me like it's a way of invading your privacy since you don't know what information it's snding back.
There's a reason I'm using windows 2000 instead of xp now.
Speaking of 2000 the local company that makes the computers at our work place are being sued by microsoft because they been putting illegal coppies of windows2000 on our machines. I think it's funny because the computers we have at work that were made by this company arn't worth a crap anyways and I don't like the company.
Troy
well the only problem iks, according to what it says, if you don't install it, you may not be able to install regular updates. with my old computer, i never installed updates, 1, because windows 95 and then 98 were outdated, and the troublemakimng hackers were concdentrating on xp and leaving 98 alone, 2, i was scared i'd have some sort of problems aftwards, and 3, i was told the updates took a lot of hard drive space and i only had a 2.37 gb hard drive at the time. it automatically updates when they come out, and since i have xp now, i'd been afraid not to run updates, and so far i've had no problem after installing them.
wonderwoman
yeah win 2k is great, there are still a few desktops that i have that use it; although i think its been abandened by microsoft hasn't it?
BEN.
I think win 2000 is still supported.
Troy
Well, I've had those messages too, but as I've had loads of headaches with this particular PC, I haven't wanted to install Windows XP service pack 2 or Windows Genuine Advantage. I've been getting the same pop-up as Wonderwoman and it says I have to install XP service pack 2 by October 2006
Well, I've had those messages too, but as I've had loads of headaches with this particular PC, I haven't wanted to install Windows XP service pack 2 or Windows Genuine Advantage. I've been getting the same pop-up as Wonderwoman and it says I have to install XP service pack 2 by October 2006
Well, I've had those messages too, but as I've had loads of headaches with this particular PC, I haven't wanted to install Windows XP service pack 2 or Windows Genuine Advantage. I've been getting the same pop-up as Wonderwoman and it says I have to install XP service pack 2 by October 2006
Damn! Sorry guys. PC just froze in forms mode so I didn't know whether the post had been sent, and it just posted about three times! Oops!
Man, windows is so wicked! get a mac....