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Something wrong with WGA? RRS feed

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    In the last weeks I have seen in 3 different cases, that a short notice popped up on user PCs, that their version of Windows may not be genuine.
    Visiting the desk and checking the system properties or running the online WGA check did not show this message any more.

    Was two times happening on Windows 7 Enterprise Edition, activated with KMS server inhouse (and showing between 177 and 180 days remaining license period after checking with slmgr.vbs /dlv).
    The 3rd time was a Windows XP Professional user, who got this notification after updating Security Essentials. Also here no bad results after checking online, the system is absolutely fine.

    So what is wrong with the Microsoft WGA validation mechanics, that they start to scare users without obvious reason?

    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf

    Tuesday, July 13, 2010 9:33 AM

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    Hi Olaf,

      Thanks for reporting this strange behavior. 

      I haven't directly experienced this on any of my Windows 7 computers and since I haven't seen enought reports to form a hypothesis, I can't suggest any corrective actions.  However, from past versions of Windows it was found that some momentary non-genuine events were caused by low level errors occuring (usually during boot). This may or may not give an indication of some sort of issue with the OS.  I am not trying to alarm you, but to be on the safe side I do suggest keeping an eye on those computers for any other strange (not non-genuine related) behavior. 

      Again, this is just speculation that has no hard evidence (under Windows 7) to support it.

      If you end up learning more about this or observe any other behavior, that you think could be useful, don't hesitate to post again. (be sure to either create a new thread or unflag this thread as Answered, so the thread shows up on my radar)

    Thanks,

    Darin MS
    • Proposed as answer by Darin Smith MS Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:46 PM
    • Marked as answer by Olaf Engelke Tuesday, July 13, 2010 6:23 PM
    Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:43 PM

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    Olaf

    I have seen occasional instances of getting a notification also. They have always gone away after a restart. I don't have an answer just letting you know that I have seen some WGA weirdness also but if it does not reoccur there is not much we can do other than report the bug to MS.

    Carl

    Tuesday, July 13, 2010 1:24 PM
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    Hi Olaf,

      Thanks for reporting this strange behavior. 

      I haven't directly experienced this on any of my Windows 7 computers and since I haven't seen enought reports to form a hypothesis, I can't suggest any corrective actions.  However, from past versions of Windows it was found that some momentary non-genuine events were caused by low level errors occuring (usually during boot). This may or may not give an indication of some sort of issue with the OS.  I am not trying to alarm you, but to be on the safe side I do suggest keeping an eye on those computers for any other strange (not non-genuine related) behavior. 

      Again, this is just speculation that has no hard evidence (under Windows 7) to support it.

      If you end up learning more about this or observe any other behavior, that you think could be useful, don't hesitate to post again. (be sure to either create a new thread or unflag this thread as Answered, so the thread shows up on my radar)

    Thanks,

    Darin MS
    • Proposed as answer by Darin Smith MS Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:46 PM
    • Marked as answer by Olaf Engelke Tuesday, July 13, 2010 6:23 PM
    Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:43 PM
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    Hi Darin,

    thanks for your answer. While the first two PCs are based in my work, the 3rd was the office PC of my wife in a different company (therefore with a totally different configuration - as the fact shows, that Microsoft Security Essentials a few days after installing the update did bring up the message.

    I will continue to monitor and report this behavior, if I find out more details. (I am not sure, if all my users call the helpdesk, if this message comes up, so I cannot say anything about the real numbers of appearance.) On one day of this incident happening the KMS Server was just down for some maintenance, on the other all was normal in our network. On one PC the user is local administrator, on the other not.

    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf

     

    Tuesday, July 13, 2010 6:31 PM