Saturday, June 24, 2006

removeWGA released

Guillaume Kaddouch, a French developer, has released a tool to remove controversial Microsoft call home spyware/ipware installed on windows based computers. I have long ago blocked it using my Zonealarm firewall. But not all who knows how to do it. So may be this is for someone who needs the protection from the benevolent software giant. I have a legit copy of windows and other software from Microsoft. I do not mind M$ checking if my computer software is legit, once! As it did previously. But calling home everyday or every boot is a no no.
So click on the headline or here to get the tool.
I will write another article as how to block using the Zonealarm. But now to information on this removeWGA tool.
RemoveWGA is a response to MicrosoftÂ’s revelation earlier this month that the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification program frequently contacts Microsoft,
"That, along the fact that Microsoft used deceptive ways to make you install this tool ...Makess me call [WGA Notification] spyware, Once the WGA Notification tool has checked your OS and has confirmed you had a legit copy, there is no decent point or reason to check it again and again every boot," according to Kaddouch.
Another feature of removeWGA can also be set to run a periodic check in the background, notifying the user if it finds WGA Notification has been silently installed.
WGA will be embedded within Windows Vista and may be Kaddouch should get a beta 2 of Microsoft Vista and help out users.
Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is different than Windows Genuine Advantage Validation. RemoveWGA only remove the notification part, phoning home, and does not touch the Validation part.
There is an excellent article/ blog post on ZDNET covering all aspects of the WGA block, removal and autorun disable method.