Genuine Advantage Validation

How To Uninstall Genuine Advantage Validation Tool
Genuine Advantage Validation Tool Windows 10

The Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has long been a major annoyance for a number of people. Although it’s designed as an anti piracy measure, all too often WGA causes problems for legitimate users telling them their copy of Windows XP isn’t legal and they should go and buy a full copy to make their system a “genuine” one. That’s all well and good, but you can’t even buy Windows XP any more even if you were using a pirated version and wanted to go legit!

The Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool is a system that was designed and created by Microsoft in order to implement online validation of their most recent operating systems. In one of the more recent operating systems, Windows 7, the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Validation Tool is renamed to Activation Technologies. It’s a little bit weird on why Microsoft needs to release an update for Windows Genuine Advantage validation to work, as WGA should have built into Windows Vista as part of the Software Protection Platform (SPP). May be the WGA validation on whether Windows is genuine or not needs a trigger in order to execute. The Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool is a system that was designed and created by Microsoft in order to implement online validation of their most recent operating systems. In one of the more recent operating systems, Windows 7, the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Validation Tool is renamed to Activation Technologies. There are two separate parts of Windows Genuine Advantage for Windows XP: WGA Validation and WGA Notifications. WGA Validation is the component that checks Windows to make sure it's a properly. Update: The patch no longer working. For complete listing of more ways to bypass the new WGA update, check it out here. As detailed in Bypass Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Check in Windows Update, Microsoft has made it harder for illegitimate, or for whatever reason, your copy of Microsoft Windows couldn’t be validated, users to retrieve updates via Microsoft Updates or Windows Update.

Although Windows XP is nothing more than an afterthought for Microsoft these days and they want it killed off ASAP, WGA is still very much alive and can still cause problems for users.

Also, there is Windows Genuine Advantage Validation and Windows Genuine Advantage Notification, these are 2 different things. Validation allows or stops you getting certain update patches and software like Window Media Player or Security Essentials. Notification is actually a voluntary patch you can opt out of, but once on, is the more intrusive because it affects the system while booting and on the desktop if the install is not deemed to be genuine.

The Notifications tool phones home every 2 weeks to validate Windows with several bits of information about your PC including the Windows product key, computer make, model and BIOS information, region and language settings, Windows version and product key, and also the hard drive serial number as well as a few other bits of data and information. This and the way it was pushed onto systems quietly in the early days has led many people to label WGA as borderline spyware. You can read more in the WGA privacy statement.

If the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications rightly or wrongly detects a not genuine Windows XP, You’ll get this on boot:

The Resolve Now button will take you to Microsoft where they try and sell you the latest Windows as XP isn’t available any more. The Resolve Later will allow you to boot, but all is not well on the desktop:

Three things happen to your desktop; firstly, the background goes black and although you can add your own wallpaper back in, it will be reset to black again every 60 minutes while the activation status is failed. You will also receive a persistent notification on the lower right of the desktop which will stay until validation is passed. The third thing is a system tray icon which when clicked will give you options to go online and find out why validation has failed and what to do about it.

Although Microsoft themselves state WGA Notifications cannot be removed once installed, this is of course, completely untrue. A little tool called RemoveWGA enables you to remove Microsoft WGA Notifications which is no bad thing whether your XP install is genuine or not. RemoveWGA is a tiny standalone executable of 14KB and is total simplicity to use. Just run it and you will be told whether the WGA Notifications tool is installed or not, and if so, do you want to remove it.

Click Yes and the files to be removed are marked for deletion and you will be asked to reboot. During restart a window will pop up informing you of the success in removing the WGA Notifications component and what has been removed to accomplish this.

Now when you get to the desktop, everything should be back to normal! The next time you manually download and install updates, make sure to uncheck the WGA Notifications Tool from the updates list and choose to hide it from being offered in future

Download RemoveWGA v1.2

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Jason1 year ago

Hello,
when I download the file Avast claims there is a virus attached, could it be that this is now no longer safe to use?

Thanks

Jason

According to AV software, tools like this have never been safe to use for the decades they have been around. When you use hacking and cracking tools (which this is) you have to accept they will produce false positives in security software.

How To Uninstall Genuine Advantage Validation Tool

Peter5 months ago

The question is Who should I trust ?
Should I trust all these Companies:
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Norton AntiVirus Plus,
F-Secure Antivirus SAFE, Kaspersky Anti-Virus,
Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security, Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, ESET NOD32 Antivirus, G-Data Antivirus, etc,
that say this program “RemoveWGA” is a virus/malware,
or should I trust someone on this blog, whom we do not know at all, that says “RemoveWGA” is only a benign tool that is here to help you out for nothing ?
If there is something I’ve learned in this world, that is we all have some sort of interest and no body give somethings for nothing !

You have to trust your knowledge, your common sense, and your own judgment. Don’t take our word for it, go and see what others say about this tool or any other program. For instance, the download link goes to Softpedia who also say the same as us about false positives. Or do you not trust what they say either?

This tool has been around since 2006 and I’ve yet to see anyone say this does anything besides what it is supposed to do. Is 14 years not enough time for someone to find out if it does anything malicious? Hacking and cracking tools produce false detections in security software, always have, and always will. If you don’t like and accept that fact, don’t play around with this type of software.

You talk as if we’re trying to sell you this tool or purposely encourage you to install malware for profit. If you truly believe “nobody gives something for nothing” then it’s best you avoid all websites, all app stores, all freeware, and all open source software.

Mohan3 years ago

Thanks …
work great ….

Brilliant solution, thanks a lot!

Jadu5 years ago

The WGA has gone. Many many thanks to u. Really this method is very easy and helpful. Before i try so many ideas but no one could solve my problems. It solve my problem now. So this is the best among all others.

The WGA is gone, many thanks. But the background is still black. Can I change that to blue?
Thanx

HAL9000 Admin6 years ago