"Windows Genuine Advantage" infects my computer - Help!

Factual Questions
1

I had a feeling this would happen eventually…

For a while I kept getting a message prompting me to install “Windows Genuine Advantage,” and each time I clicked cancel and went about my business (because I had heard bad stuff about WGA, mainly that it has a very high false positive rate – see Wiki article).

Well, somehow it finally managed to install itself – maybe after I installed the most recent round of Windows security updates.

So after rebooting today, I am suddenly informed by a huge pop-up that I “may be a victim of software counterfeiting - this copy of Windows did not pass genuine Windows validation.” Now I have a permanent message bubble on my desktop, and an icon in my tray.

My Windows is NOT pirated. It came with my Dell desktop that I purchased 3 years ago.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Now that this crap has infected my computer, it “communicates” with Microsoft daily (i.e. spyware) and prevents any future updates from installing.

So how do I get rid of this? I Googled, and there are many “fixes” out there, some involving editing the registry, but I don’t know where to start. So I come to you, knowledgeable Dopers.

Yes I could reinstall Windows, but frankly that is a HUGE inconvenience for me because (1) I have many many programs installed on my computer which will take FOREVER to replace and/or reinstall them all and (2) I am a web designer who works from home and I cannot afford to have my computer down, even for a day and (3) I don’t even know how to reinstall Windows, even if I could find the CD, since most of my possessions are currently in a storage unit.

Note to mods: Please note that since my Windows is NOT pirated, I am not asking how to do anything illegal, just trying to get an annoying piece of spyware off my machine.

Please help, I am freaking out!

2

Are you sure its valid? Have you ever had to reinstall it or take it to a computer shop that reinstalled it? Ive seen a lot of shops use dodgy volume licenses because the owner didnt have the proper disc.

The first thing I would do is to see if the license key matches the one of the side of your machine. You can use the magic jellybean to see your license:

3

HorseloverFat, I bought this computer directly from Dell about 3 years ago, so unless Dell installed a fake version of Windows at the factory, it’s “genuine.”

I will check the key at the site you gave, thanks!

4

So give Microsoft a call; I doubt it would take more time that you seem to have already spent. I don’t know about Vista or 7, but buying XP retail gives you 2 free calls to Microsoft Tech support. OEM versions technically should be routed through the manufacturer’s help desk, but I don’t recall anyone being turned away when I worked there.

Check the papers that came with the PC for a number.

5

HorseloverFat, well the number on the Windows sticker on my machine does not match the number that Keyfinder gave me… is that bad?

Also, my laptop – on which I am typing this now – I bought new (also directly from Dell) last December and it has never left my possession, and the Windows sticker number also does not match the number Keyfinder gave me, so that is telling me that this mis-match does not mean anything.

I bought both of these machines new, with operating systems installed, and there is no way I can imagine that the OS could be “counterfeit.” This is very frustrating. I am on deadline for two projects and I cannot handle any downtime or problems with my machine!

6

Yes, the machine in question has XP. I doubt that I will be able to find the papers that came with the machine, since most of my stuff is in a storage unit at the moment. I suppose I could find a number on their site?

I don’t have a good feeling about this - will I be on hold for hours, and be told that I have to buy a new OS? Ugh, this could not have happened at a worse time… :frowning:

7

There is a sticker on my machine that says “XP Home Edition - Dell” etc., will this help me?

8

If this happened just recently, a system restore should do the trick.

9

It is my experience that Dell uses the same product key for all of their machines, and it has nothing in common with the Microsoft product sticker they place onto the side of the cases. They use one key for Home and another for Professional.

There are subtly different versions of Windows XP installation CDs. Retail versions require retail type keys, OEM versions require OEM type keys, and Volume License versions require VL keys. Dell uses an even more special case of VLK; in the version of Windows XP installed on Dell PCs there is a check to see if the BIOS chip inside your computer is of Dell manufacture, and if it is, and the key is the ubiquitous EveryDellKey then XP is happy and doesn’t bother you with it’s activation wizard.

Before I knew how Dell’s XP keys worked, I would try to install XP from scratch (to get rid of all the trial versions of junk the machines came with) onto Dell hardware using the keys on the side of the case, or use an XP disc from another source and would run afoul of WGA and it’s predecessors. More than once I would fail activation and have to call the phone number supplied by Windows XP to speak to an agent who would give me an override code.

The XP Home key used by Dell begins with RCBF6. If this matches the key shown to you by Keyfinder, and no-one has ever re-installed Windows XP using a different version than the one initially supplied by Dell, then you are one of the unlucky false WGA victims.

10

Quite possibly your copy is 100% legit, and one of the updates screwed things up. To wit:
Right after I bought my computer last year, auto-update installed a bad nvidia driver that made microsoft think a whole lot of people’s copies of windows were not valid. The solution is to call customer service and have them walk you through giving you a new valid key. Totally a pain in the butt, but nothing else offered as a solution in this thread and on tech boards worked.

Fortunately, I’ve never had the error happen again (and learned to never allow it to install video drivers; people who installed the driver themselves skipped the problem back then)

11

Thanks for the advice so far, everyone. Looks like I will be calling Microsoft…

12

Just bumping to see if anyone else has any suggestions…

13

You need to contact Microsoft.

14

I have no advice, I’m afraid, but I will commiserate. I too was avoiding downloading WGA by doing all downloads manually. But on Wednesday, Microsoft took it off the list of updates. Also on Wednesday, there were about a dozen different security updates. I thought this odd, as I update every single day; I suspect they simply changed the name to something else so that we wouldn’t know which one to unclick.

Bastards.

15

Thank you Skald, I’m glad to know I am not the only one this has affected! ALthough that probably means I will have to wait a long time to talk to someone at Microsoft, as they’re probably getting an increase in calls!

16

It will not help nyctea, now, but it is very dangerous to do “Express” updates of MS. It may take a little more time, but doing the manual one gives you not only control over which you want, but clicking on each one tells you (supposedly) what it is and why it’s there.

I always make a restore point before doing any updates, just in case.

17

I too refuse to do express updates of Windows, and I gather from the OP that Nyctea does as well. But doing it manually would not have helped nyctea Microsoft CHANGED THE NAME OF THE UPDATE AND HID IT AMONG A DOZEN SIMILARLY NAMED UPDATES, all tagged as important security updates (rather than

I am quite certain of this. I check my updates manually every morning and, for the last month or so, was careful to unclick “Windows Genuine Advantage” because of my distrust for Microsoft. Wednesday, WGA was mysteriously gone, but all the others were there. A DOZEN. When my last update was THE PREVIOUS DAY.

I’ll bet money that this is what happened to Nyctea. To reiterate: Microsoft is peopled by bastards.

18

Tuesday was the monthly patch release.

19

Sure. But I update every day, and I do so manually because I don’t trust Microsoft in general and didn’t want WGA in particular. Thus every day start up Windows Update, look at the available updates, and uncheck WGA.

Except Wednesday WGA wasn’t on the list. I quadruple-checked to be sure. It wasn’t there, but there were a dozen patches, several of which had the exact same name.

Why wasn’t hard to guess: the bastards at Redmond changed the name of the update so that it seemed to be an ordinary patch, and put it with identically-named patches so that people wouldn’t be able to tell which was which.

20

You trust them enough to make the operating system which you evidently use; what is it about updates to said operating system requires a greater level of trust? That trust level would seem, to me, to be precisely equal.