Forum Home
PC World Chat
Thread ID: 82445	2007-08-27 21:32:00	My bubbles burst ...	Lovelee (6586)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
585240	2007-08-27 21:32:00	Hello Guys :) Ive had my troubles with the bubble, not any more, I rang them yesterday after watching my email box for the last 5 days . 7 emails . Normally I get about 20 a day . Thats not 7 a day, its 7 for the 5 days . So I rang xtra, told them that I didnt want yahoo on my computer, that their decision was a good one, cos it might mean xtra becomes the dummy provider in NZ :) Now . . ive seen this . . . . Although copies of both Windows XP and Vista were being tagged as counterfeit during the 19 hours, users of the latter were especially incensed . The WGA antipiracy scheme for that operating system disables several features when it thinks the copy is bogus, among them the Aero graphical user interface and ReadyBoost . Early in the outage, several Microsoft customers posted what they said was the text of e-mail they had received from Microsoft support that suggested users sit tight for several days . "I'm sorry to inform you that the Windows Genuine server might be down for few days," the e-mail, attributed to Microsoft Technical Support, said . "I have escalate the issue to our Genuine team, kindly try to validate again on Tuesday 28 Aug 2007 . " . . . . complaints dated back to June 2006, when users discovered that the Windows XP version of WGA was "phoning home" to Microsoft every time the PC was booted . Those critics returned when Microsoft upped the ante with Vista by replacing the WGA messages that only nagged XP users suspected of running counterfeits with a new policy that used a reduced functionality mode (RFM) to cripple machines . In RFM, only Internet Explorer works, and then for just an hour at a time . page 3 . . Because RFM only allows a grace period of three days to those who previously activated Windows but are subsequently deemed pirates, any problems must be fixed quickly to prevent customers' PCs from going dark . Microsoft managed to beat the deadline . That, however, didn't mean much to some, who said this was it for their relationship with the vendor . please check the lot @ . computerworld . com/action/article . do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032798&source=rss_news10" target="_blank">www . computerworld . com In the last week, my screen has gone black, suddenly! Connected?	Lovelee (6586)
585241	2007-08-27 22:05:00	Like I care. I've never had that on my PC and never will. MS site says you can't uninstall it. Oh yes you can. But its one of several reasons I protect my PCs security in other ways, more effective too, than rely on MS.	pctek (84)
585242	2007-08-27 22:40:00	Ha . . that made me think . . :badpc: Where is the bubble? I hadnt thought about its removal . I dont see it anywhere! Where did I put it? :blush:	Lovelee (6586)
585243	2007-08-28 01:25:00	More ... WGA Outage Over, No Word On Cause By Ed Oswald, BetaNews August 27, 2007, 11:57 AM Microsoft said over the weekend that an issue with its Windows Genuine Advantage validation systems -- which were causing verified systems to fail and lose access to features -- had been fixed. "I'd encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to visit this site now; after successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure that genuine-only features are restored," Windows Vista product manager Nick White said. Microsoft claims only a "few" customers were affected and that the system had been restored to normal function. Due to the failure, some customers may have been locked out of features that are available to customers who have successfully validated their Windows systems. On Microsoft's support forums, Vista users reported losing the Aero user interface after any reboots, along with features reserved for customers of Vista Ultimate. According to the posts, it appears that the problems first appeared later Friday. The WGA system failure also highlights what could be a potential problem with the way Microsoft handles validations. Instead of the system alerting customers that the servers may be down, it appears to have instead assumed that the failure meant the system was no longer "genuine." Even worse, this was happening on systems that had been previously validated by WGA servers. Both Windows XP and Vista were affected, although it appears that Vista customers lost more due to WGA's tight integration with the OS. What's missing is any explanation as to why the outage happened, or what Microsoft is doing to prevent it from happening again. The company has so far only offered that the problem has been fixed. www.betanews.com	Lovelee (6586)
585244	2007-08-28 06:28:00	And as soon as you have re-validated and got a working system again, at the bare minimum make your firewall kill the WGA process whenever it starts, or like pctek suggests, uninstall the damn M$ spyware!!!	johcar (6283)
585245	2007-08-28 11:09:00	Not many virus writers have whacked so many computers quite so fast as WGA	R2x1 (4628)
585246	2007-08-28 11:15:00	That WGA thing had me stumped for a few days. None of the PCs I installed Windows on would activate and I couldn't find an explanation. It's not fun trying to explain to customers that yes, they DO have a legit version of Windows, it's just that the activation isn't working for ... uh .... actually I don't know :o Edit: Man I disagree with how MS is going about the WGA thing. Everything they say about the the whole "counterfeit" is really misleading and taking advantage of poor users.	george12 (7)
1