Microsoft admits WGA failures “coming up more commonly now”

[jfdabiri]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=142

besides this issue, some virus programs, are identifying WGA setup as spyware and rootkit. I have also noticed that when you set your updates to anything other than automatic, after a while, it changes to automatic after last weeks's update with kb905474.
this really looks bad on microsoft. case in point: which i posted here, was that after over a year and half of using my xp, and having validated it several times (by downloading premium goodies), saturday, my pc displays this msg that "you may be a victim of software counterfeiting" and that "this copy of windows is not genuine", "cryptographic error in hashing" and "product id is bad and needs changed". ms forums on this problem ends up with a standard cut and paste answer from phil liu that offers a quick new product key change for irate customers. after calling microsoft and explaining my situation, i was given a product key change software without any questions.
somebody needs to do something about this, somehow.

 

[aroostook]

Yup. That's why whenever I'm prompted for installing updates, I select 'custom' and ALWAYS de-select WGA, making sure the 'don't prompt me on this update again' box is checked.

Haven't had any problems yet!! (knock-on-wood)

 

[jfdabiri]

i swear, i'm pretty sure that i did this same thing that you're describing. but, i left my pc with an admin account on overnight to download a large file (i'm using dial-up, i know, it's archaic). somehow, it had downloaded wga, changed my settings in windows update from custom to automatic, and tagged my os as non-genuine with the stupid messages that i described above. we need help bad. we're in big trouble with this monopoly. anyway, i quit using admin account, and i check my settings on windows update every time the pc boots up.