How to dump Windows' piracy 'spyware'

Letters Readers' writes

Microsoft targets Windows pirates with pop-ups

Man, I couldn't believe it was Microsoft who finally got my system infested with spyware! An unkillable process? Popup windows? A prompt you have to click at logon? My GOD!!! But it's ok. You CAN get rid of it:

There are 2 parts to this spyware popup: WGAtray.exe and wgalogon.dll. Killing the WGAtray.exe process causes it to reappear in 1 second. With it present, WGAlogon cannot be deleted. And you can't delete it while it's running. Seem impossible? Nah.

First, you need to have an Explorer window open and pointing to the C:windowssystem32 folder, where the spyware resides (interestingly, doing a hard drive search for "wgatray" turns up nothing- clever spyware, this is!). And you have to have Task Manager open, right beside the Explorer window. This is tricky, and must be done fast- you kill the process in Task Manager, and before the spyware can reopen itself, you must delete WGAtray.exe in the Explorer window. You only have a split second, but it is possible. Once the spyware .exe is gone, you must reboot your computer.

Yes, now you will see the spyware's nag screen. No problem, it's the last time. When you DO finally get to the desktop, do a search "for WGAlogon.dll" You will find 2 copies, one in system32 and one in the dllcache folder. Without the WGAtray spyware to protect them (did you notice it was gone? YAY!), you can rename and then delete both these spyware .dll's. Your system may hang when you reboot it the first time, but when it is brought back up, THE SPYWARE IS ALL GONE.

Whew. Man, I may have to stop using Windows Update. It installs spyware!

I'm afraid of these malware writers coming after me for defeating their product, so I can't provide my real email. But feel free to share this malware removal process with the world.

-Kevin

Microsoft piracy pop-up is persistent

From the Knowledge Base website:

"How to uninstall Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications You can use Add or Remove Programs to view Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications, but you cannot use Add or Remove Programs to remove the notifications."

So... an unwanted programme that can not be uninstalled normally? Isn't this considered Spyware? From Microsoft?

My head as just exploded.

Jouki

Microsoft targets Windows pirates with pop-ups

The annoying pop-up (WgaTray.exe) can easily be removed in following steps:

1. run > regedit, search and delete all references to WgaTray.exe

2. start in safemode and remove the infection by deleting the file WgaTray.exe in c:WindowsSystem32, placed there by the second greediest Corporatin in the World (Intel honlds the enviable no1 spot). (B. Gates III is best known for spying on his customers.)

3. restart your computer and enjoy your fredom, dear rebel

> 4. start using linux or mac

By the way, does anyone really know what spyware MS included with its' inferior "products" ?

Regards, Peter
Finland

Destroy Internet Explorer campaign gets tooled up

Is it just me or does this make no sense at all?

1. It has nothing to do with the elimination of adware and spyware. Most people use IE, so most ad/spyware targets IE. If everybody suddenly switches to firefox, they'll target firefox.

2. Microsoft is not a bad corporation. Google is not a benign corporation. There are no good corporations and bad corporations, there are just corporations and other corporations, all engaged in the admirable quest for money and more money. How did anybody get the idea that Google (or, god forbid, Apple) looks out for the consumer? The mind boggles.

Thanks.

z

Microsoft targets Windows pirates with pop-ups

"The initiative extends to Office, which gets its own Genuine Advantage programme (OGA) that, said the Vole, will operate almost identically to Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)."

Excellent !

That should mean its by-passed within 24 hours too :)

Fred



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