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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Ever since Microsoft slapped Windows Genuine Update Notification on my Windows XP Professional install, it now starts up with this wonderful crash message every time. It appears that Microsoft has added an extra component to its software checker, to insure you are not running an illegal copy of Windows, in which it also phones home to Redmond, Washington, and notifies Microsoft all is well…or not. Thing is, though, there is no need for this to happen daily. It has also raised privacy concerns by many as well as to what is being sent to Microsoft, which denies any information other than product validation is being sent.
Debate the phone home aspect all you want, I don’t really care about that at this point; what drives me nuts is that Microsoft punishes me, a paying customer, with buggy software. I can not un-install (or even re-install.) Until now.
Thank the security gods of Firewall Leak Tester, a personal firewall company, for it’s lovely tool, RemoveWGA. It will remove both the validation tool and the notifier (phone home component). One quick download, execution of the program, and a few clicks and the spyware is gone! And don’t worry about your system not running, it will. You’ll probably be prompted to download and install it again if you visit Windows Update, but that’s okay, you can keep this excellent tool around just in case. 
It seems that Firewall Leak Tester’s site is down, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for the tool for downloading. Softpedia has two links for download that SvenOnTech was able to successfully use. We do suggest you read the Google cached version of the authors web site for any disclaimers, however.
Us? We’re just happy that Redmond no longer knows about us on a daily basis.
Now all this leads to the larger question: why is Microsoft putting spyware on your system and Apple doesn’t? I’ll strike the obvious right off the bat. Yes, Microsoft has a much larger install base and thus has a tremendous problem with counterfeit software. Granted. However, even with Apple’s rising popularity, Apple doesn’t add any type of software to its installs. In fact, it encouraged users with its Family Pack that allows five family members to install OS X on their Macs for only $70 more than the price of a single user license. (Microsoft quickly followed suit with a similar plan that was more costly.)
You know, it’s hard to trust a company that adds spyware to its operating system to report what the customer is doing. Kinda makes you wonder what Bill Gates meant in his infamous memo, Trustworthy Computing. I can’t speak for Apple, but I just feel that it wouldn’t do this if it were in the same situation. Apple is too clever for that. I figure a better anti-piracy scheme would be developed.
Anyway, here we are with Microsoft and it’s Big Brother program that crashes and causes more problems than it’s worth. Maybe it’ll be just one more reason to cause Windows users to come to the Mac. And if they’re still feeling a little home sick and want to phone home to Redmond daily, they can still do a little Boot Camp to keep the ties there. No worries, mate.
June 27th, 2006 at 9:58
This point shows again that Apple is a hardware company while Microsoft is not (except for Xbox).
Apple’s goal is to get you to buy a Mac – so it ensures via some scheme that you can only run OS X on a Mac which only Apple sells.
What about upgrades? Eventually upgrading OS X causes a need to buy a new Mac. So Apple is covered.
June 27th, 2006 at 10:49
Apple’s OS requirements are not as great as Microsoft’s. I have OS X 10.4 running on a very old Mac with little fuss. Trying to perform the same with Windows XP on a similarily dated PC wouldn’t even happen. I’ve tried, I’ve seen, I’ve removed, I’ve installed Windows98 instead.
Look at Windows Vista requirements. They are amazing and would indicate Dell, HP, and Gateway are in nirvana that sales will increase for hardware because of the requirements of Vista. Yet today, Vista runs fine on a Mac mini. Apple hardware. Mmm, go figure.
June 27th, 2006 at 11:29
Mark makes a good point. If you will, Apple’s “copy protection scheme” for Mac OS X is to use the Mac as a “dongle”. You have to have a Mac if you want Mac OS X.
That said, one of the interesting things about Apple versus Microsoft is the level of “trust.” Mac users trust Apple. Windows users don’t trust Microsoft.
I remember Windows XP had a automatic software update in the beta versions. People screamed about how Microsoft was going to be searching your hard drive and finding all your illegal software and how horrible this was. So Microsoft turned it off by default. What happened? Nobody updated their software. When viruses hit, nobody knew where to get the patches. Then everybody screamed, “Why didn’t Microsoft turn this on by default?!” Poor Microsoft–They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Apple has Software Update for Mac OS X. It will update your Apple software. Nobody makes a peep about it. Mac users think it’s a wonderful feature.
June 27th, 2006 at 12:03
I sincerely fail to see anything wrong with “all-in-one” solutions, such as Apple offering both hardware and software. The computer industry has been there before, guys, with every manufacturer under the sun having their own proprietary hardware and OS. Amiga, Commodore, Apple, Atari, Coleco, Sinclair, IBM, you name it. While that situation was untenable, I’m not inclined to think that a three-way split (Linux/Apple/Windows) will last forever, either. In any case, if Microsoft’s customers don’t know where to go to get virus/OS updates, well, whose fault is that, really?
June 28th, 2006 at 5:04
Product Activation was bad enough, Genuine Advantage checking it hardly makes much difference.
What however is really, REALLY, R_E_A_L_L_Y annoying is that fact that every single week another COMPULSORY update to Genuine Advantage is issued and it REQUIRES you to restart your machine each time!!! [It is compulsory in that you cannot get any other non critical updates until you do install it.]
Why on earth should such a supposedly small incidental piece of software require a restart. Remember one of the major supposed advantages of Windows 2000 and then XP was the reduction in the number of restarts needed.
July 3rd, 2006 at 4:41
What about upgrades? Eventually upgrading OS X causes a need to buy a new Mac. So Apple is covered.
You mean my 6 year old Mac has to be replaced cause its too old to run OS X?? Well YOU get to tell it it can’t do what its doing.
And how many PCs had to be replaced to run XP?