Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Kill Switch Experience
I just received this comment on the site from an old post I listed about the changes to the Windows Genuine Advantage program. This reader has had an exceptionally frustrating experience with the WGA kill switch. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
WGA kill switch is a racketeers’s dream.
I could care less if Msft takes this incident seriously or not, as a set of CA lawyers likely will in class action suits against Msft. But, FYI - this is being posted all over…
The WGA kill switch did kick in when I scheduled a chkdsk to run on next reboot. Msft is LYING about a kill switch not kicking in. The keyboard and desktop were LOCKED - so I couldn’t log into any account (passwords). There was NO prior notification and I have witnesses. Those WGA screens came up AFTER the keyboard was locked. Computer came up only in SAFE MODE. Corporate customer. When I clicked on RESOLVE now, it went to a go.microsoft site THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.
And that’s where Msft will pay - hopefully in a “currency” that will hurt VISTA.
Computer was purchased 2 years ago from a reseller. As were many, many others.
Took this WGA-killed computer to Best Buy at 8pm. Best Buy looked at the hologram sticker and said the computer was Msft genuine. Someone else said the Bay Area reseller who sold the computer had been in the papers as having VL issues; another tech said the reseller had been burned by Msft; and yet another said the reseller was clean, and that was also “in the papers”.
All however acknowledged OUR company had been screwed by Microsoft’s WGA, they offered their “911 service”, meaning, 24 hour turnaround - would have cost $900 dollars. They tried to figure out a way to lower the cost to us. However, all our biz programs would have to be reloaded. SOL for 3 days at least.
I am taking this time out to start a Linux conversion business for biz applications and use this incident as the quintessential WGA horror story that Vista won’t survive.
My opinion? This WGA business is corporate thievery, as the Msft WGA “knowledge base” process can make any claim whatsoever, with ZERO TRACEABILITY and RECOURSE. It is likely a disreputable pre-VISTA marketing practice. What else can CUSTOMERS expect of a company that can buy it’s way out of anti-Racketeering laws. Lets see, if Enron lawyers can purchase a decriminalization of KEN LAY, why can’t BILL GATES - IMO a higher echelon racketeer than KEN LAY or CARLOS MARCELLO (Mafia) - get away with CORPORATE TERRORISM.
Anna
PS I posted this on Microsoft, and everywhere else I can.
If you’ve experienced this or similar challenges with WGA, please let me know.
Tags: Best-Buy, kill-switch, piracy, protection, WGA, Windows-Genuine-AdvantageRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Bill Gates, Business Users, Corporate News, New Products, Security, Speculation, Windows OS's
5 opinions for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Kill Switch Experience
cfJeff
Aug 31, 2006 at 8:34 am
moved to Mac this year after reinstalling windows and not able to get my MS Office to work. I think the problem is I bought from re-seller with windows ME and Office and then upgraded to XP. When I did the reinstall, I just went straight to XP and my Office wouldn’t reinstall.
Once you go MAC, you won’t go back.
Allen
Aug 31, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Interesting…the Microsoft forum is gone. Corporate censorship?
Jason
Aug 31, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I’m not sure how that can really be considered censorship. Would it be censorship if a company took down an actual bulletin board that people posted crap on all the time? Would it be censorship if I decided to disable my landline phone because I didn’t want to talk to telemarketers? Would it be censorship if a billboard company took down a billboard because nobody was using it?
D Rak
Dec 30, 2006 at 9:14 pm
This email response to “Vicky” at MS summarizes my experience with their kill switch.
Dear Vicky,
You don’t seem to understand. When I boot up, the only screen that comes up
is a microsoft message that says “my copy of windows XP Professional is not
genuine” and I “may be a victim of counterfeiting”. I’m not, but I wish I
was because perhaps then I could have avoided all this hassle. That screen
is frozen. The mouse does not work, Ctrl-alt-del does not work, nothing.
From there I have to do a hard shut down. When I reboot, I used to be able
to get to safe mode easily, and some of the functions worked in that mode.
But the machine, a six month old custom desktop, has become progressively
less responsive to the point where I can only even get to safe mode
sporadically and nothing comes up on the desktop. I bought a brand new
retail copy of Windows XP Pro ($300.00) to replace the legitimate OEM copy I
bought at Fry’s and attempted to bite the bullet and do a clean install,
wiping out my hard drive. This was after numerous (failed) attempts at a
parallel installation. I have run CKDSK, I have run repair. However, ‘C’
drive is no longer even recognized. In safe mode, when I can get into it,
and I attempt to do a fresh install, only one drive destination is
recognized and it has some 480gB free space. This has to be the 500 gB D
drive.
I should explain. C drive consists of 2 10,000 rpm Western Digital Raptor
150 gB drives in raid ‘0′, D drive is a 500 gig internal 7200 rpm drive. The
processor is a dual Athlon 64 bit at 4800+. there is a single optical drive,
and the graphics are two nVidia GT 7600OC SLI linked cards.
This all started when I attempted to refuse the inappropriately named MS
“Genuine Advantage” “security” update. I have had problems in the past with
MS updates destroying hundreds of dollars worth of software installed and
working prior to the update( exaample: ‘Go Back’). Somehow MS GA got through
to my system, shortly after I purchased two anti spyware programs (now also
lost for good). One was “counter spy” and the other was “stop-zilla”.
Perhaps one or the other of these programs was a “trusted partner” of MS and
let in what appears to be an official MS viral “kill swittch”. Perhaps
there was a software conflict, since the new MS download is in fact spyware.
This machine on which I am sending you this message runs “The Shield”
antivirus. It also has a Shield Firewall which unless disabled automatically
closes internet access. Since I completed the imposed MS update, I don’t
have to worry about manually closing this firewall, it has been been
permanently disabled, presumably so that “ET” here can “phone home”. In
addition, my Nuance Paperport 10 ( legitimate, if you were wondering, since
MS sees “pirates” everywhere) no longer functions, thus locking me out of my
main business software which cost altogether (includeng Omnipage Pro 15,
Omniform pro 5, PDF maker 4.0) around $800.00
In short, the desktop acts like the victim of a very malicious virus, which
it appears has destroyed my hard drive. I am going to have to take it to a
computer technician, at a cost of hundreds of dollars, and quite possibly
replace the c drives at a cost of several hundred more. You know, I must
have missed the clause in the adhesion contract (EULA) that accompanies MS
software that says MS will trash my machine if I refuse any dictates. Is it
“install this update or your hardware gets it?” Copyright protection, it
seems, has been taken to a new level. I wonder if, under the Patriot Act,
this qualifies as terrorism?
I have spent thus far about 20 hours on this, including 2+ hours with Gina
and 2+ hours with Jason, on two separate occasions. Both are very nice, you
can be proud of them. But they are fresh out of ideas and so am I. I would
love to follow your “work around” protocol, unfortunately I cannot get to
START. All I get now is the MS “genuine advantage” screen, whether in safe
mode or not, with the mouse in the exact center of the screen and totally
unresponsive. My $4000.00 dollar machine has been destroyed.
Any suggestions?
Yay
May 9, 2008 at 3:39 am
This is why I proudly pirate everything Microsuck puts out. Except for the one time they burned me several years back.
HAR HAR HAR, A pirates life for me. HAR HAR HAR, A pirates life for me. Sing it with me maties!
HAR HAR HAR, A pirates life for me.
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