Good question. I certainly would advise against it unless you absolutely needed to. In fact this is good general advice to be honest and nothing to do with WGA: "Don't install stuff just because you can. Install it because you need or want it."As an update to this spyware discussion, it's interesting to note that Microsoft are now being sued over this issue. How much bad press and fed up customers are they prepared to endure?
You could say that once caught twice shy. I'm willing to bet that this new version does what it claims to do. Be sure and read the claims very carefully.
That is for you to decide. Anyone who blindly tells you "Yes" or "No" is either naive or has an agenda. ANY computer company can only be trusted for as long as their needs aims and goals co-inside with your needs, aims and goals. Is WGA part of YOUR needs, aims and goals? Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Symantec, Red Hat, or anyone else you want to name are in the game to make their shareholders or owners money, not to make you or I happy. Deal with it. If you're about to write in because I've just "flamed" your pet company / OS then be warned that I'll just serve you up a large warming cup of "get over yourself".Any feelings of happiness, or any usefulness you experience from their products is entirely related to getting you to pony up cash for a legit copy of the latest version.
Some people have had problems. Some people have had no problems. Some people have had problems that they've wrongly blamed on WGA. Some people have had problems caused by WGA which they've blamed on someone else.
Some purchase illegitimate software in good faith (e.g. they're being given stolen, pirated, whatever goods without knowing it). These people are likely to adamantly claim it was purchased legally. Some people are being told their software is pirated when it isn't (I've personally experienced this). These people are ALSO likely to adamantly claim it was purchased legally. See the problem? You read a random sample of the complaints here and then see if you'd like to bet... oooh I dunno your house deeds or whatever... that you can tell which is which? Didn't think so! I wouldn't take the bet either.
Microsoft are obviously entitled to do what they feel they need to do to protect their investments. You're entitled to vote with your cash and install Linux or buy a Mac and convert to OS X if you feel strongly that Microsoft have pushed you too far this time.The only thing I am sure of is that Microsoft have cost themselves a lot of goodwill with both those people who are innocent victims, and lots of people who are not victims at all, by pursuing this so aggressively. I personally wouldn't have said it was worth it but there you go. Apple seem to do OK by not worrying about this kind of thing and simply pricing their products at a level which is much friendlier to home users with multiple computers.
Right now, if you are buying a new home computer and have no requirements that force you to use Windows, I strongly urge you to vote with your wallet, say "NO" to WGA and buy an Apple Mac. Can I put it any clearer than that?
Microsoft have provided a knowledgebase article on how to remove the parts of WGA that they claim are removable. You can find it here.There are third party solutions that also claim to tame WGA but I will not link to them because I haven't tested them and can't vouch for them. I'm sure your preferred search engine will be able to help.If you want to control what WGA does without removing it, then you may be able to configure your firewall to "trap" traffic from WGA and alert you.
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