When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

e-Fuze Mobile » 80% Fail Microsoft WGA

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re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

Will — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:22:03 GMT

Sounds right to me.

Follow up: When a 'False Positive' isnt' a false positive

Windows Genuine Advantage — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:45:42 GMT

Since my post on Sunday, in which I talk about what&nbsp;a false positive is and what it isn't, I've...

re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

citib0y — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:40:26 GMT

I don't believe that " ... only a handful of actual false positives have been seen." This doesn't make any sense in context with another statement made: "About 1 in 5 of the 300 million PCs that have run WGA validation fail." This doesn't jive with the so-called "handful." WGA is just another bad idea from a bad company that produces bad software which is unreliable. Micro$oft is a self-serving monopy that got lucky. What goes up must come down ... eventually ... and with a bang!

re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

Ajax4Hire — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:39:33 GMT

...'so I'd like to take this opportunity to explain a bit about how WGA works'...

I'm still waiting for the "how WGA works" part.
It is the only reason I was interested in the article.

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re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

TNPoppa — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:45:21 GMT

I purchased a Compaq laptop for my son when he went in the Navy from Sam's. The unit was a display model. All the product cds came with the laptop. When I updated the laptop recently the WGA validation and notification tools were installed. When he rebooted, the notification said counterfeit. In discussions with microsoft I was informed to send all cds to them and they would verify authenticity. I was also told I would not get the cds back, regardless of their authenticity check. Bottom line...pay them $150. Bulls... You would think with all the money MS has they wouldn't try to steal another $150 when I've paid for it once. Their customer service is deplorable. No further assistance was offered unless I paid the rate. My son's laptop is out of warranty so neither Sam's nor Compaq will do anything either. Typical big business mentality. My way or no way and it really doesn't matter what I think.

re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

floordog — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 21:50:56 GMT

Please explain! I bought a VALID COPY OF WINXP from MICROSOFT. I used FEDEX. I installed the WINXP in ONE computer. Now, I get notices from Microsoft that I have a COUNTERFEIT WINXP.

What do I do? Every time I contact Microsoft they want MORE money. They are runnng out of excuses. This looks like a case of MAIL FRAUD! Due to changes in anti-terrorist legislation other carriers such as UPS and FEDEX are under FEDERAL jurisdiction.

How can YOUR PRODUCT BE COUNTERFEIT? It looks like you got caught in your own fraud! I need to make a short video for YOUTUBE, it will bring lots of laughs. You are accusing yourself of counterfeiting!

Lets see, maybe I can sue Microsoft for selling me a counterfeit product. When will you ever be responsible for your accusations. You guys are living in a fairy tale.

You sell products that work some of the time, but you take NO responsibility for your FAILURES.

I have an idea. Lets have a convention meeting in lets say Europe, about Microsoft Windows products. Everyone who shows up will receive a million dollars. Including you.

The only requirement is: You must fly to the convention in a jumbo jet (your choice) run entirely by any Windows product. All flight controls, navigation, engine controls, air conditioning, communication systems must be under the control of ONE WINDOWS computer!

You will NEVER GET on the plane! I would love to see all you Microsoft "shirts" at 40,000 feet trying to reboot and re-install Wndows! Who are you going to blame? Look in the mirror. Oh..I forgot no parachutes allowed.

What a panic, all of you screaming at each other blaming each other for a product that has never worked as advertised. Oh what a sight!

re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

futopia — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 08:32:44 GMT

Regarding the four scenarios - here's a couple more:

1) Any person who looks at your computer can see the "genuine windows" hollogram sticker with serial number and Dell service tag on your new Dell, visitors, technicians, colleagues etc. Before you know it, your serial that came preinstalled from Dell is posted on some "serialz" website or irc channel and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. or Perhap someone writes it down, and then installs it on several machines. Everything is fine and dandy until following a crash you have to re-install your operating system. You can't even use Dell's included CDs, as they fail a "restore" from a crashed HD, so you have to borrow a friend's installation CD -- but low and behold - your very own serial number has been compromised and you can't for your life get Windows to activate / validate as genuine. You bypass the active-x validation and talk to a guy on the phone - he verifies your license and gives you a code. Now things are good again, right ? Wrong ! You run windows / MS update a couple of times -- and now you are bombarded with warnings that you are a victim of piracy and that your copy of windows is not genuine..

and now even worse -- there are computer viruses out there that can easily sniff out your serial number and send it back to the programmer of the virus, or automatically post those on internet web-based databases/ lists.... you original s.n. has been compromised -- what will MS do to make you whole ?

I have an original Dell, with a service tag and a Win XP Home. Original, holographic sticker. Windows says its not genuine and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.

I have problems with .Net v. 2 installing but not removing .net 1.1 and problems installing Windows Installer 3 (incompatible version to SP2 2 ?? ) but can't seem to budge .net 2 as a consequence -- can't install or uninstall... yet windows update insists on wanting to install a security update to .net 1.1 sp 1...

drives me nuts. Meanwhile the "Key Changer" from MS crashes when I try to change the Win XP serial number to another one... one that I got with my now-defunct fujitsu laptop...

God help us all. Because God knows MS probably won't... they just make things more complicated and miserable, though I don't envy them for the task handed to them -- fighting software piracy is near impossible. It's just a degree of success, and the degree of collateral damage to genuine owners.

Sadly, this causes some PCs to run better and with less problems with hacked versions of XP and hacked windows update components... where the genuine systems that are succeptible to MS's own tantrums and untested software malfunctions to halt or crumble - case in point -- my Dell PC.

Fun: Microsofts Genuine Advantage Support « Linux and Open Source Blog

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Microsoft: Pirates Beware, Everyone Else Pray « All Things News

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re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

dandaman32 — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 00:24:43 GMT

That's why I switched to Linux on ALL my computers. I've never been more satisfied with my computers' performance and stability. Two years ago, before I had ever touched Linux, I was a Microsoft loyalist. As of this writing, I still own nearly $500 in Windows licenses - an XP Home upgrade, an XP Pro full [OEM], a Win2k Pro, Windows ME, Windows 98 first ed., and a handful of Windows 95 OEMs, plus three copies of WinNT 4 (WS, Server, AND Term. Server) I downloaded from an abandonware site, it didn't come with a product ID but I just punched in all zeros and it installed OK.

For example, on the laptop I shrunk my main NTFS partition and deleted the secondary one, and installed Ubuntu Linux 6.10. Now I have a Vista-like desktop running at a decent speed on an Intel i845 video chipset with 8MB of RAM, plus I have full standby and hibernate support, my wireless card works, and I can encrypt my entire hard disk, selected partitions, or even image files stored on the disk and mounted as virtual file systems. My desktop PC, which is an Athlon XP 2500+ with 1GB of RAM, and an nVidia GeForce FX5200 video card, runs the Vista 3D desktop at the SAME FRAMERATE. When the laptop had Windows on it, it took about 0.8 seconds to generate an Enano CMS page. After I installed Ubuntu, that time dropped to 0.25sec. Ubuntu also flawlessly recognized my CPU throttling feature, which didn't even show up every time I tried to access it from Windows. (and I also found out that my laptop routinely throttles things down by 50% when things get too toasty for comfort.) Folks, why pay $450 for Vista Ultimate when you can get the same functionality for free and without the licensing hassles?

Yep, I'm also behind the Why Not Vista site, http://whynotvista.no-ip.org (WiP at this time)

-dandaman32

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re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

BigE54 — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:48:52 GMT

How about another scenario, this one involving Office?

You have a brand new laptop from Dell, with Vista Ultimate on it. It comes pre-loaded with a trial version of Office 2003 Small Business Edition. You decide to be a good Microsoft customer, and without ever using or activating Office 2003, you download and activate Office 2007. Now, you want to get an add-in for Office 2007, and guess what? Lo and behold, WGA tells you that while Office 2007 is genuine, that copy of Office 2003 you never used or intend to use does not have a legitimate key and may be counterfeit. Of course it doesn't have a legitimate key, it was never really installed in the first place.

So, basically I have to do one of 2 things

1) Un-install Office 2003, which I am afraid will remove files that might damage Office 2007

2) Activate Office 2003, which again, might cause something to be overwritten that will cause problems for Office 2007

Both of these are unacceptable alternatives for what is an obvious error in WGA. It should be able to detect that the software was never fully installed in the first place.

re: When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive

alexkoc — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:13:49 GMT

BigE54, this type of issue is an excellent one ot post in our forums which are linked below.

Definitely this sounds like an issue to be investigated. I'll past this report along to our technical team.

Thanks for letting us know.

-Alex

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