Genuine Advantage

[Terry Hanushek]

Over the past year I have tended to put the M$ Genuine Advantage 'upgrade' in the same category as spyware and virii. During this time I have managed to side step installing on my Dell 8150 with WinXP Home. About a month ago some of its vulnerabilities (imagine M$ software will holes :eek: ) were fixed and it appears that I must now install it to continue to receive updates. I also noticed that some other M$ software, specifically Antispyware, will not upgrade without GA.

What has been your experience? Is it transparent, a PIA or malware? I imagine that it is capturing my license number (which is valid) and perhaps other hardware information similar to product activation. Does it seek any personal information and, if so, can these queries be avoid.

Thanks for your insights.

Terry

[PeteF]

WinXP Home. About a month ago some of its vulnerabilities (imagine M$ software will holes :eek: ) were fixed and it appears that I must now install it to continue to receive updates. I also noticed that some other M$ software, specifically Antispyware, will not upgrade without GA.


Yes, I noticed the same thing, in the past month they have a new version
of the Genuine Advantage Validation Tool. This new version does not allow
you to disable it in IE as you could previously by going to.. Tools -> Manage
Add-ons -> Settings Where the options to Enable or Disable are now
grayed out for the Genuine Advantage Validation Tool.

Bottom line... You can't manually get any Windows Updates unless
the new Genuine Advantage Validation Tool is installed.

However, I'm not sure if the same is true for Automatic Updates.
In the past I've seen it where Automaitc Updates seem to be
operating, but when I go to do the updates manually, it has me
installing the Genuine Advantage Validation Tool and going through
the validation process.

---pete---

[dbarrow]

You can elect not to download and install it ... update number ends in 5474, if you do your updates manually. If you have auto-update on, it will install itself.
There is no uninstall for it.
It has already been circumvented.