Microsoft's WGA Gift Keeps Coming Back

If you are running Windows XP, did you notice the Automatic Updates offered you the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications application again a few weeks ago, despite your choosing not to download it and not be reminded every time it's available? (The WGA is the pesky application that Microsoft uses to check whether or not your Windows XP installation is pirated, and phones home via your Internet connection without your permission to keep checking if your Windows XP license is still not a pirated copy. But at least with Windows XP, one has a choice of whether or not the WGA application gets downloaded and installed. Vista users have WGA built into the operating system.)

According to David Lazar, director of Microsoft's Genuine Windows program, each time the WGA application is updated, it will be reoffered again for download, and there's no way to refuse it altogether by permanently removing it from the Windows Update list. This application gets updated every 90 to 120 days, so expect to be asked to download and install the WGA application again around June. And September. And December. And . . . forever.

And if you decide to allow it to install just to be rid of the annoyance of being reminded every three or four months to download and install the WGA, be aware that Microsoft has removed the ability to uninstall it from your PC by hacking the Windows Registry.