June 24th, 2006
RemoveWGA … If You Really Don’t Want Your PC Phoning Microsoft
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Whether or not you believe Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage program is spyware or not, it does phone home … and if you feel, as many, that such activity is unnecessary once your OS has been verified as legal, there’s a way to get rid of it. A French firewall testing firm, Firewall Leak Tester, which specializes in firewall stress tests, has released RemoveWGA, which removes the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification Tool, the controversial part. The Validation Tool is still intact.
We Say: I’ve tried this on my system. First thing to note is the bitmap above; it now shows I’m free of the WGA Notification Tool. I also, after that point, tried going to the Windows Update site, where it asked to reinstall the software.
When you run RemoveWGA it adds a line to your registry which removes the Notification Tool upon your next boot. It needs to run the program on the next boot, so don’t try, as I did, running it from a removeable drive … and don’t change the filename either. Typically I rename .exe files to include the version so I can remember which version I have downloaded. In this case the autorun key looks for RemoveWGA, so that won’t work. If you want you can use a -silent command line option and have that run upon every boot; it will check and only pop-up a dialog if you are “infected.” 
You can download the utility here.
JohnnyL says:
I’ve got better things to do with my time that bother with this.You guys running out of worthwhile things to write about?
June 24th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Microsuck is dumb says:
JohnnyL you are an idiot. This is a great tool.
June 25th, 2006 at 2:16 am
Mike says:
Well if it doesnt allow you to get updates after using it, I would agree, it is worthless. If it DOES allow updates, then by all means all the paranoid people use it ..lol Do people think we actually have ANY privacy at all..lol..take the blue pill
Mike
Heck if you are that paranoid - dont install the WGA update and use Firefox to manually download all your updates
June 25th, 2006 at 2:42 am
John Corliss says:
If you have to reinstall WGA to get at updates, then you can do so then run the RemoveWGA tool again. However, one shouldn’t assume that Microsoft will take this lying down. They will probably mutate the WGA so that RemoveWGA doesn’t work.
On my system, TTBOMK WGA for some reason DOESN’T call home. I never see the WGA tray icon either. Might be that disabling some service or other is responsible for this behavior, since I’ve followed the now defunct Blackadder website advice in this regard.
June 25th, 2006 at 5:09 am
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
RemoveWGA… If You Really Don’t Want Your PC Phoning Microsoft
Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes: Whether or not you believe Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage program is spyware or not, it does phone home… and if you feel, as many, that such activity is unnecessary once your OS has been verified as legal…
June 26th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Rich Rose says:
As of 0730 today, the 27th, no links work.
Rich Rose
June 27th, 2006 at 3:36 am
Jesse says:
Tried opening http://www.firewallleaktester.com/removewga.htm with nothing but 404’s or no-action at all. I literaly closed all security, added site into trusted sites for WAN and internet explorer,etc.,to no avail.? is it being blocked or perhaps offer up an additional download or log on site.
jess
June 27th, 2006 at 5:49 am
Rich Rose says:
At 12:30, the 27th, the link worked and I got the download thru #7 comment.
Rich
June 27th, 2006 at 8:27 am
Larry says:
Using ZA I just deny giving WGA permission to run on my machine. So WGA is not suppose to “call home” only when i have to download updates..
June 27th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Barb says:
The firewallleaktester.com website has a blank “down for maintenance” index page, but also includes a working link for downloading removeWGA.
June 27th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
WGA News: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes: Responding to criticism of its new WGA Notifications program, Microsoft has made some changes to the software and released a new version. The updated software no longer checks in every time the PC boots. It has als…
June 28th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
EdR says:
Hey if you have a pirated version of XP all the talk and using RemoveWGA won’t work. The Author supposedly realized that his original ? 1.2 version really removed it, even on pirated copies and so he went back and changed it so that it would work only remove it on real copies and although it will remove it on pirated copies it comes right back after a shutdown - can we say “Microsoft pressure”??
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June 21st, 2007 at 5:25 am
shaner says:
Ive been removing this since the day Xp was released and during everyinstall there after.
You dont need a removal tool, you just need (google.com) to know what your doing and you can turn it off. LitePc.com offers a great windows stripping tool, take out everything from GUI to notepad.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
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September 2nd, 2007 at 4:35 am
WGA News: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly | Etixet says:
[…] Those of you who read my posts at RealTechNews know I wrote about both WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) and RemoveWGA recently. Responding to criticism of its new WGA Notifications program, Microsoft has made some changes to the software and released a new version. The updated software no longer checks in every time the PC boots. They have also given guidelines to remove the application, which had previously been uninstallable and let to development of such utilities as RemoveWGA. The new version of Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications program now no longer checks a server-side configuration of a user’s version of Windows every time the user logs on to see if it is a valid copy of Windows. Instead, it periodically checks to see if the user’s copy is genuine. […]
January 7th, 2008 at 5:26 am
WGA: No Kill Switch, But … Are Many Failures Bogus? | Etixet says:
[…] On the other hand, it still sounds like there are too many failures of this “utility” than I am comfortable with, and I am keeping my copy of RemoveWGA close at hand. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
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