Microsoft's antipiracy tool phones home daily

I prefer that antipiracy phone call above the activation of Windows at home.
I hate this activation at home because I need an internet connection to do this.

 

i wonder what will happen if i tell kerio to block it? i'm gonna find out

 

Not happy about it. , but not surprised either

 

Block WGA from phoning home with the NTFS file system...
Found this on dslreports;

I haven't tried this out myself because i don't have this spyware installed on my computers.

Lamehand

 

Does this break anything?

 

As far as i can see this doesn't break anything, it just changes the permission set to those two files.
You can always undo this when needed for windows update.

Lamehand

Edit; when in doubt, see this link from dslrreports;
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15963038~mode=flat

 

@tristantzara does this program allow one to choose language (english for me) on install? As the program looks to be in German.

 

They would better stop using it all together, it serves no purpose what so ever.
The ones who have a pirated version of XP on their machine won't have this installed anyway, and the honest user will only be bothered by this in an unneeded manner.

Lamehand

 

I second that. I paid for winXPproSP2. I can live with a long serial number, but that's it and nothing more than that.
M$ just wants more money as usual. MicroBank is a better name for M$.

 

You might wonder what's the real reason behind this phoning home thing.
You, me and many others use a legit version of this OS, when it was bought it was activated with a key. this information must still be known/stored by microsoft.
If you or I, or anybody for that matter, wanted to use a pirated version back then we could have done so very easily and we would have dropped of their radar so to speak.
They must have come to the same conclusion as we did, after all they're not stupid.

So what's the point in checking this now?, even if it's only once every two weeks.
Is it to check all those dat-files on the system?, some sort of data-collection?
It must have some purpose.

Lamehand

 

Questions from a paranoid MS Windows OS user:

(1) Do you think that anti-piracy is all that MS is monitoring?
(2) Do you think that MS is monitoring what security products, office suites, etc. we use?
(3) And, if they are, do you think they would consider using such information to devise tactics to sustain or further increase their market share?

I have my firewall application control set to log and provide alerts when verclsid.exe, another recently-introduced MS executable, is "kicked off". This executable seems to "kick off" at odd times. Very recently, it "kicked off" when I started up Javacool Software's FileChecker which I installed and set up in the last couple of days.

This may be over-the-top thinking and behavior on my part.

My recollection is that Ubuntu does a similar thing when you download and install a *.deb package. However, linux distros typically provide a wide array of application packages along with the OS (for free). Also, Ubuntu is open about this and you can turn it off if you want. I choose to leave it turned on as it may assist Ubuntu with improving services to users of which I am one.

 

It does not really bother me, but can this behavior also be blocked by ZA Pro? I´ve noticed that the legitcheckcontrol.dll (WGA) file has "access" in the "component control" area. What if I set this to ask? There does not seem to be an option to block it.

 

ZA-pro must be able to block it, because if it can't it isn't a firewall and should be replaced by a more capable application immediately.
Suppose one day you get something nasty on your computer wich behaves in the same manner as this WGA thing and ZA can't block it, what then?

But seriously the firewall can block it, i've read that on several forums, or you could change the name of that wgadll into wgadll.old.

Lamehand

 

Bktll, i've changed the name of that verclsid.exe aswell so that it doesn't execute anymore, i found it a very bothersome piece of crap and it's in his own little prison cell right now.

Lamehand

 

Lamehand,

Thanks for the note. I may ultimately follow your lead with verclsid.exe. It is good to know it doesn't break anything when renamed. But for the time being, I want to continue to monitor it and look for behavior patterns.

I plan to leave WGA alone. If it gets too bad, I will probably just ditch MS Windows OS altogether. I have FC5 on my desktop (dual booting with Win XP Pro) and am upgrading FC4 to FC5 on my laptop as I post this message.

bktII

 

More questions about this validation tool than real answers.
I found this link, its explaining what is happening in more detail.
And the conclusion is that you defenitely don't want this on your computer.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060608002958907

Lamehand
(of to get some vallium, coffee won't do in this case)

 

I m tired of Microsoft's punitive policy towards the legal customers.First i "exceeded the maximum number of activations via internet",so i "had to phone them from now on for every new installation".I use images now,but i still have to format soon cause i changed 2 hardware pieces and want new,clean image.Now this tool.The other tool that was checking only once,wasn't enough i guess.I haven't and will never install this second one.It simply made me repeat my efforts to pass to Linux and will repeat them again as soon as i have more time to read the endless "how to " of Linux

 

I`m in the same boat as you. Legal XP and need to call now to have it reactivated. Do you know how hard that is on a person that`s deaf? It`s a pain in the A$$ is what it is.

 

Hello,
I have installed this crap - because I'm an idiot with 6 licences. And I'm phoning MS daily and making their customer service mumble and stutter. I am telling them of market shares, sending them emails with links to cnet, zdnet and slashdot pages posting about their wga, keep informing them of my Linux progress, and keep telling them about my intention not to buy Vista and even turn in the XP licences out of protest. I also promised them blogs, maybe an interview for tv or newspapers somewhere. So far, they are being polite, investigating the issue.
I don't know how much my efforts contributed, but I started seeing stories about wga phoning home after I called and complained that it does.
I also urge every legal Windows user to call their customers service in their countries and complain - about the moral side of their stupid little tricks.
Maybe this will work, maybe it won't, it just gives me satisfaction to be rude to someone.
Mrk

P.S. I can uninstall this crap with 100% success.