How to bypass the new Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) check
Microsoft's latest update to its built-in antipiracy checks for Windows XP has spurred someone to post a method for bypassing the system on a popular technology blog.
A posting titled "How To Disable The Annoying Genuine Message Crap" on the Digg blog details a work-around for a new feature in Microsoft's automatic Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) that sends a pop-up to users to notify them if they are working on a pirated or counterfeit copy of Windows. (http://digg.com/technology/How_To_Disable_The_Annoying_Genuine_Message_Crap) Previously, the program only alerted a user during updates to Windows.
According to the posting, the way to dismantle the notification is to run Task Manager in Windows and kill a file called WgaTray.exe. Then, a user should go to the System32 folder and find WgaTray.exe and wgalogon.dll. Once those files are identified, they should be renamed to WgaTray1.exe and wgalogon1.dll and then the user should perform a restart, according to the posting.
Microsoft launched the WGA program in July 2005 as a way to identify if users are running a genuine copy of Windows.L33tdawg: Honestly if MS was really serious about putting a stop to piracy, the best way would be to not bother with these kiddy notifications but go for the jugular! Instead of having cute little pop-up windows, just have 1 big warning and either a 5-day grace period or a maximum of 5 boot-ups to allow users to 'go genuine' or their precious hard drive gets formatted and it's bye-bye data. If MS was to go down this or a similar route; I think they'll begin to see some results. Till then, they'll be playing catch up with the script kiddies who will keep finding ways around these sort of checks.
