Microsoft Genuine Advantage... DEFEATED

[lecter]

I don't get it, IE7 installs just fine with a 640-PID...

[Gurm]

Nah, most of us (I hope) have legal copies of XP anyway. I just object to the intrusive nature of the entire WGA initiative... and frankly I use a VLK to get around activation anyway, because I object to THAT.

[Nowhere]

I don't get it, IE7 installs just fine with a 640-PID...

Localized XP?

[Kurt]

Nah, most of us (I hope) have legal copies of XP anyway. I just object to the intrusive nature of the entire WGA initiative... and frankly I use a VLK to get around activation anyway, because I object to THAT.

Tell me about it...

I don't count the times I had to reactive XP and Office + project + visio because of some HW change.

I upgrade frequently soI have to reactive as much. Of course you can activate online only 2 times, the rest is a total waste of telephone time because my ID can never be recognized by the automatic Tel system so I need to do it a SECOND time -EVERY TIME- with a human rep.

That's a REAL MAJOR PITA! It takes about 15min everytime.

What's bugging me is that it's ALWAYS the SAME software, with the SAME OWNER. So, WTF?

I can understand if the owner were different or the key was not legit/had a problem (like some Win98 keys not being valid even though they were legit).

This is just nonsense.

[lecter]

Localized XP?

Nope, can't stand the silly translations...English version.

[Jammrock]

Tested the "diable the activex add-on" trick, and Windows Update worked without a hitch. IE bugged me about the site wanting to use an activex controller on the page, but didn't fuss and went about it's business.

[Gurm]

There's another trick. Go to Windows Update, and BEFORE you hit "custom" or "express", paste THIS into your browser's address window and hit "go" (or enter):

javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

Yeah, sad huh? Nice work, MS!

There's also an addon for IE that lets you run custom Javascripts (a la Greasemonkey for Firefox, or Opera's built in user JS) called Trixie, and I have the Trixie script somewhere... ahh yes, here you go:

// ==UserScript==
// @name WGA Workaround
// @namespace d09733c0-fe4c-11d9-8cd6-0800200c9a66
// @description Windows Genuine Advantage Workaround (IE)
// @include http*://*.microsoft.com/*
// ==/UserScript==

(function ()
{
var js = document.createElement("script");
js.setAttribute("language", "JavaScript");
js.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript");
js.text = 'document.cookie="WinGenCookie=validation=0";';
document.getElementsByTagName('head').item(0).appe ndChild(js);
window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all';
}
)();

OH AND ALSO if you want to install IE7 but can't because of WGA, this works:

1. Extract IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe with WinRAR.
2. Open update\iecustom.dll in a hex editor.
3. Navigate to hexadecimal offset 0x1034h(4148 decimal) and change 0F 95 to 0F 94.

Boy, MS sucks at this "security" thing, huh?

[Kurt]

Will it install on w2k as well with this trick?

[Jammrock]

Will it install on w2k as well with this trick?

No. Or at least it shouldn't. IE7 is for XP and above only.

[Nuno]

Once again Micro$oft makes life harder for the honest genuine XP owners, launching a "protection" that is annoying and time-consuming (like WPA), that was actually cracked on several ways on the first day. How pathetic.

When will they realize that the only way to minimize piracy (or "counterfeit" copies as they like to name it now) is to offer a good product at competitive prices?

[Gurm]

Will it install on w2k as well with this trick?

When I said before that I'd love to see you attempt it I wasn't really being sarcastic. I love it when people get shit working on systems it's not "supposed" to work on. I'm just not up to the challenge of doing so on MY systems any more.

[Delany]

I just tried the

There's another trick. Go to Windows Update, and BEFORE you hit "custom" or "express", paste THIS into your browser's address window and hit "go" (or enter):

javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

workaround on a PC i have that failed the WGA Test previously, and i can confirm that it does work...

Thankfully the PC that i use normally doesn't need these little tricks...

[UtwigMU]

So is WGA also mandatory on 2k3 server versions, I mean all of them?

If the workarround ceases to work, one could simply dedicate some PIII box and make it a WSUS server and patch local workstation from there .

[agallag]

No need to go all the way to WSUS (although it's great for managing 100's of machines). Just download the patches manually. It's only windowsupdate that's being blocked.

You can run Microsoft Baseline Security Analyser too, and it'll tell you which patches you need, and where to download them from. Simple.

[Kurt]

They've changed the process.

Now you run it and copy/paste a key in a box before going forward with it.

I wonder how long THAT will hold...