Disable Non Genuine Windows Warning Messages: WGA remove WGATray.exe WGALOGIN.DLL rescind Execute permissions, Workarounds
In this month's bundle of Patches for Windows XP there is an update to the Windows Genuine Advantage software. Windows Genuine AdvantageWGA ensures that you have a certified or valid XP licence. A number of people with legitimate licences have had problems with this new Genuine Advantage software. The result is that they get nag screens on start-up and also once they have logged in despite having a valide licence. The advice they get from the sbucontracted support from Microsoft includes "Reinstall Windows", eaier said than done if you do not have a CD (Dell and other charge extra for this) or you have lots of other software installed.
It is best if when the Windows update is run you select expert options and uncheck the option to install the new genuine advantage software. However if you have installed and it is giving you problem these are the step to remove the nag screens. Please do not use these tips unless you do have a valid licence. Contact Microsoft to check the status of your licence if you are not sure.
There a couple of ways of turning these nag screens off. There are 2 steps
1) Remove the Pre Logon nag screen, but removing execute permission on the DLL that generates it.
2) Remove the program and registry settings to run the system tray nag screen that appears after you log on.
These are the steps in more details:
1) First backup your system to ensure you can get back to the system in its current configuration.
2) Open the process list in task manager: ALT+CTRL+
3) Click Start, Search, Files and Folder enter WGATRAY.EXE as the file you want to delete. Find the file and delete it. Empty the recycle bin. If you have system restore on it may restore the file, turn off system restore in Control Panel, System if required.
4) Check that the WGATRAY.EXE program is deleted and not running, just to make sure you have removed it successfully!
5) Run Regedit (Start, Run, Regedit)
6) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinlogonNotify. Delete all references to WGATRAY.EXE. Be careful only to remove the sections for WGATRAY.EXE
After this you will still see the nag screen before you logon. Even if you have auto login set up the nag screen will appear. This is because the Windows Login process is calling the WGALogin DLL. This DLL also start up the WGATRAY.EXE when boot. To stop this remove execute permission to the WGALOGIN.DLL file. With execute permission denied; the nag software will not start.
Before you can rescind execute permission you need to turn off Simple File Sharing. To turn Simple File Sharing on or off in Windows XP Professional, follow these steps:
1) Double-click My Computer on the desktop.
2) On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3) Click the View tab, and then select the Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended) check box to turn on Simple File Sharing. (Clear this check box to turn off this feature.)
Now we can rescind execute permission: Right click the file WGALOGIN.DLL in your Windows System32 folder in Windows Explorer and open the Security Tab. Press “Advanced”, clear the Inherit checkbox, Click the “Copy” button, then Press OK. Select each listed user/group and remove the "Traverse & Execute" permission for the use/group. Finally Press OK to apply the permission changes and close the file properties dialog.
Restart the machine.
You can now turn "Use simple file sharing" back on, and system restore if required.
The text message for the file permission varies in different versions of Windows even for the same language. There are various release of Windows, Home, Professional, and several release of each all slightly different: Your milage may vary!