First, if you already have the WGA Notification tool installed and need to remove it click here.

Important: The following instructions assume you have Automatic Updates enabled ( “Automatically Download and Install” ).

If you are using “Download but don’t install” or “Notify me before download and install”, you should still refer to these instructions when you are prompted to install new updates.

If you have Automatic Updates turned off these instructions will not be necessary. (we don’t recommend turning it off)

Check your Automatic Updates setting. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates

How to AVOID INSTALLING the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification” tool:

Microsoft has recently released an update called the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification” tool.

We have determined that the update should not be installed.

You should be aware of the update and know how to avoid installing it.

First we recommend using the link below to prevent Windows from installing updates silently when you shutdown your computer:

Critical !! : First click here to configure Windows to not display the “Install updates and shut down” option. (this will help prevent updates from installing silently)

Then continue below…

Occasionally, Microsoft will prompt you to install an update. You may see a “yellow shield” icon in the lower right corner of your screen.

Note: Don’t confuse this icon with the “Symantec Antivirus” icon which looks like or

You may, however, also find that you never see the Automatic Updates “yellow shield”. (updates can simply install silently without prompting you)

(setting Automatic Updates to “Notify before download and install” would prevent this.)

Critical: We recommend using the instructions in this link (mentioned above) to help prevent this. If you choose not to implement this change, please make sure to refer to the section at the bottom of this document to familiarize yourself with how the update installs silently when you shutdown your computer. (apparently Microsoft is removing the opt-out capability) Permanently switching Automatic Updates to “Notify me before download” will also eliminate this possibility.

Next…

If the “yellow shield” is not currently showing on your screen, you should force Automatic Updates to run:

If there are any updates to apply you will see the “yellow shield” appear. Then you can “hide” the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification, from future installs.

To force “Automatic Updates” to run:

Click Start -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates ( * make note of you current Automatic Updates setting so you can set it back later)

Select “Turn off” then click OK

Click Start -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates

Select “Notify me but don’t automatically download or install” then click OK. (this allows us to control the update installations temporarily)

Wait a few minutes. If there is an update ready, you will see the “yellow shield” as shown above.

Important: if the shield does not eventually appear after forcing Automatic Updates to run:

Restore your Automatic Update settings:

Click Start -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates

Select “Automatic (recommended)” (or whatever you had originally) then click OK. (to restore your original automatic updates setting)

Then follow the instructions below, if the “yellow shield” ever appears in the future.

When you see the Automatic Updates “yellow shield”, begin by double clicking on it:

Note: The following screens may appear differently to you depending on what procedure was used to start this process. In any case, always deselect the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification” update if it is listed, then make sure to hide it from future installs. (see below)

Next, you will see the following screen: (select Custom Install)

Click Next.

You will see a list of updates ready to be installed.

(This is where we need to avoid installing the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification” update.)

Look through the list for an update titled “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification”

If you find it:

Uncheck its checkbox.

(If there are other updates, you can leave them checked, to have them installed.)

Then click “Close”

(Note: if there are multiple updates other than the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification”

update you will click on the “Install” or “Download” button (instead of “close”) to install the other updates.)

After deselecting the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification” you will be prompted to

prevent it from coming back up in the future.

To “hide” the update, make sure to check the “Don’t notify me….” checkbox and click “OK”

(This allows us to prevent the update from popping back up. But, really it is just hiding

it for the immediate future until the next version of the update comes out.

So you may have to go through this more than once.)

Automatic Updates should now close or minimize to install other updates.

Important: make sure to restore your Automatic Updates setting back to Automatic (if you changed them in the above steps)

Click Start -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates

Select “Automatic (recommended)” or whatever you had originally then click OK. (to restore your automatic updates setting)

Hopefully these instructions will help prevent the installation of the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification Tool”.

Also, we recommend that you do not run “Windows Update”. (If you are not familiar with “Windows Update”, you can continue to ignore it.)

(Refer to http://www.ongsol.com/support if you require the latest versions of Windows Media Player and/or the Microsoft DotNet Platforms.)

If you do run “Windows Update” manually, the same basic procedures apply

Never install the “Windows Genuine Advantage Notification” update. (always hide it)

Tip: To reduce the annoying pop-up messages from Automatic Updates:

Click Start -> Control Panel -> Security Center -> Change the way Security Center Alerts Me. (make sure Automatic Updates is NOT selected)

Silent Installation: Shutting Down the PC (when the Notifications update is queued to install) can result in the Notifications update being installed without your knowledge or approval:

Recommended: Click here to configure Windows to not display the “Install updates and shut down” option.

(Note: the following scenario can occur without Automatic Updates ever prompting with the “yellow shield”.)

(Of course setting Automatic Updates to “notify before install” would eliminate this problem.)

The installation occurs when you decide to shutdown the computer.

You will see the following box with the “Install updates and shut down” option selected.

In this case, there is at least 1 update ready to be installed. (although we don’t know which ones)

Do not click on “OK”. If the Notifications update is queued to install, the update will install with no "Accept" or “Decline” option being given to the end user and upon rebooting the PC, the notify update is installed and running.... and annoyingly prompting you about your “counterfeit” copy of Windows.

If you see the above options when shutting down your PC, cancel the shutdown.

Then follow these instructions (from the top of this page) to check for and attempt to “hide” the notifications update if it is found.

Note that the installation can occur without Automatic Updates ever prompting with the “yellow shield”. (this effectively eliminates the ability to opt-out.)

Important: The same procedures apply if your shutdown box looks like the following:

If you click on the "Turn off" button to shutdown the computer (with the Notifications update queued to install) , the update will install as mentioned above.

If you see the above options when “turning off” your PC, cancel the shutdown.

Then follow these instructions (from the top of this page) to check for and attempt to “hide” the notifications update if it is found.

That’s it for now.