Have you ever kill a process or end a task from your task manager and then you get 30 seconds of countdown before it restarts or shutdowns by itself? When trying to manually remove a virus, the first thing to do is to end the process first before removing it from registry. That’s because some virus are persistent and whenever you remove the auto start entry, it’ll add it back again. Let’s say you are trying to end a task of a running virus from your Windows Task Manager. The next thing you get is a popup that says “This system is shutting down. Please save all your work in progress and log off. Any unsaved changes will be lost. This shutdown was initiated by ComputerName\User. Time before shutdown…”

Here is how to kill or end a process without getting “This system is shutting down” error popup.


In Windows, one process can potentially spawn or trigger another process to have a child process. If you’ve used Process Explorer before, you’ll know what I mean because it gives you a clear view on that.

To be able to kill the process without getting your system shut down, use the “End Process Tree” from Windows Task Manager instead of end process. However, if you’re trying to kill a virus process, most probably it has already disabled your Task Manager. When trying to launch Task Manager, you get the error “Task manager has been disabled by your administrator”.

Instead of trying to restore Task Manager from registry, you can download a very useful tool called Process Explorer by Sysinternals to do it. Simply right click on the process, and select Kill Process Tree. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut “Shift+Del”.

No more getting “This system is shutting down” error when trying to kill a virus process.

[ Download Sysinternals Process Explorer ]

Yes, I know you’ve read this in hundreds of websites and most of the methods to bypass, remove and disable Windows Genuine Notification are from Amit Agarwal Blogspot. This post is going to be different because I’ve discovered a much simpler way to do it! This method also passes Windows Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Site.

There are 3 types of notification messages that you might get if you’re using a pirated version of Microsoft Windows XP provided you’ve installed KB905474 update.
The following notification messages will appear on computers that are running a copy of Windows that has failed the Windows Genuine Advantage validation process:


1• Logon notification
When you log on to a non-genuine copy of Windows XP, you receive the following logon notification error message:
You may be a victim of software counterfeiting. This copy of Windows is not genuine and is not eligible to receive all updates and product support from Microsoft.
Click Get Genuine now to get more information and resolve this issue.

When you receive this message, you have the following two options:
• You can click Get Genuine to start the Get genuine Windows process.
• You can click Resolve Later. If you use this option, an icon will be available in the notification area that you can double-click to start the Get genuine Windows process.

2• Balloon notification
After you log on to a non-genuine copy of Windows XP, you receive a balloon notification message in the notification area that is specific to the validation failure. You can click the balloon notification or the notification area icon to open the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Failure Web page. This Web page gives you the specifics of the validation failure and the steps that you can take to make the operating system genuine.

3• Desktop banner text
If you use the Resolve Later option, the following banner text appears on the locked desktop:
This copy of Windows is not genuine.
You may be the victim of software counterfeiting

I’ve discovered a more easier way to bypass Windows Genuine Notification and at the same time, able to use Windows Update!
A little reminder that bypassing, removing or disabling Windows Genuine Notification is WRONG! This is for your educational purposes.

Follow the steps posted here and the Windows Genuine Notification nag will stop after a restart. You can also use Windows Automatic Updates and also will have no problem in downloading files from Microsoft site.
It only involves replacing ONE file. It’s that simple 😉

Few days ago Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.3 installer was found on their FTP but they have not announced it on their website yet.
Today, Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.3 is oficially released and it contains only 1 but very important security fix for denial of service vulnerability.

Title: Deleted object reference when designMode=”on”
Impact: Critical
Date: May 2, 2006
Reporter: Martijn Wargers, Nick Mott, splices
Affects: Firefox 1.5
Fixed in: Firefox 1.5.0.3

Description
Martijn Wargers and Nick Mott each described crashes that were discovered to ultimately stem from the same root cause: attempting to use a deleted controller context when designMode was turned on. This generally results in crashing the browser, but in theory references to deleted objects can be abused to run malicious code.
“splices” reported the same crash at the fan site MozillaZine and on Bugtraq, incorrectly describing it as a buffer overflow.
Older clients, including Firefox 1.0.x and the Mozilla Suite 1.7.x, are not affected.

Workaround
Temporarily disable JavaScript until you can upgrade to a fixed version. (Now you have a fixed version, so you don’t need to temporarily disable JavaScript.)

[ Download Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.3 ]

P/S: For your info, I’ve also found Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.4 on Mozilla’s FTP 😉

Some hotels only provides an Internet connection via wired LAN and only some parts of it has wifi connection. If you urgently need a wifi in your room for your smartphone to get online, one solution is to make use of a laptop that is running on Windows 7 and turn it into an access point or wifi hotspot so that your smartphone can connect to your laptop and get the Internet connection from there. It may sound difficult but in fact it is very easy as all you need to do is visit a website, fill up the form, click a button and perform a simple Internet Connection Sharing configuration. Other than that, the computer must have Java installed. If you haven’t noticed, I did not say anything about download or installing any third party software to do this.


First you need to make sure that the following requirements are met:
1. The computer gets the Internet connection from wired LAN
2. The computer has a wireless adapter
3. The computer is running Windows 7
4. The computer has Java installed

Follow the steps below to turn your computer into an access point or hotspot.

1. Open http://www.virtualaccesspoint.com/ page from your web browser and click on the Run button when asked if you want to run the application. Type in the SSID and the password key with a minimum length of 8 characters. Click the “Turn On Soft AP” button.

2. You will be prompted by UAC to run turnonvp.bat file. Click the Yes button. A command prompt window will appear automatically running a few commands. When it is done, you can press any key to close the cmd window.

An additional Wireless Network Connection 2 using the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter will be automatically created in Network Connections. The access point which you’ve just created is now visible and can be connected with the correct key. However one more step is required in order for the connected device to use the Internet connection.

3. Go to Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings. Right click on Local Area Connection and select Properties. Go to the Sharing tab and check “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection“. Then at the “Select a private network connection” drop down menu, select Wireless Network Connection 2 and click the OK button to close the Local Area Connection Properties window.

You can now use your smartphone or any device that has wifi connectivity to connect to the SSID which you’ve just created from your computer. To remove Wireless Network Connection 2 from Network Connections, go to Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Expand Network adapters > right click on Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter and select Uninstall. Creating a virtual access point can’t get any easier than this. It’s free and don’t require to download or install any third party software.

Visit VirtualAccessPoint.com

Fact: 98% of all personal computer problems are software related, this means that in almost all cases the computer technicians don’t need to physically “touch” your machine.

Starting from tomorrow onwards, I will be providing FREE computer live help to people who are having problems with their computers. Doesn’t matter if it is a virus or spyware problem, Windows error, missing system files, or even you don’t know how to burn a CD, I will try my best to fix them or guide you on how to do it. Actually this idea has been on my mind for a very long time (more than a year) but I’ve never got the time to start the ball rolling. I already have a forum with many helpful members but sometimes it is tough understanding the user’s computer problems as they are probably beginners and it is not easy to describe the problem.


I am not really comfortable in giving out my instant messenger contact to everyone because I know it’ll be flooded by newly added contacts, so this is how its going to work. You will need to go to the Live Support page. If I am online and available to provide live help, the button will show “Online“. Click on the button and you will be in queue if there is someone who came before you. If the button shows Offline, you don’t need to constantly refresh the page because the button will AUTOMATICALLY update if I changed my status to Online. Once your turn is up, we can chat without you installing any software. This is all done with the brilliant Live Help software which I’ve bought for US$119.95.

If I require to access your computer to fix the problem, you’ll need to download a small and simple TeamViewer QuickSupport, a tiny executable that just has to be started. Just tell me the ID and Password that you see and I will be connected to your computer.

During your remote repair session YOU will be able to observe all repairs LIVE by watching your screen while I try to solve your problem. Your computer mouse will actually move around on your computer screen right before your eyes. You can even watch and learn! Plus, YOU will be able to assume control at any time and no breach of security is possible. When I am finished, we will permanently remove your connection program and I will be unable to reconnect in future until you tell me your randomly generated password again. This entire process keeps you in complete control at all times, during and after the repair. In short, there is no way for me to reconnect to your computer WITHOUT your permission and you get to know whatever I do on your computer.

So spread the news, and get free live remote computer help from Raymond at this live support page.

I found a leak of the brand new QFE Patch for MSN Messenger.
The 2.33mb patch updates your MSN Messenger 7.5.0311 version to MSN Messenger 7.5.0319 and comes with the enhancements of improving the sign in process (80048820 error) more thoroughly, as well as the error reporting linked to it.

Something else that’s been fixed is a bug with emoticon shortcuts via the IME (Input Method Editor) in Korea.
On a commercial note, the conversation window text ads will show properly on Dynamic Backgrounds from Blue Mountain.
Finally, build 319 says goodbye to a bug in a DLL that would make MSN Messenger crash if you unplugged a USB device after running the Audio Video Tuning Wizard on that device.


Because this QFE Patch hasn’t been officially released yet and it is thus unsupported by Microsoft, I do not recommend updating until further notice. But if you’re unable to run your MSN Messenger for days and weeks already, you can try updating using the QFE Patch and see if it fixs your 80048820 sign in error.

Update 19 December 2005: A new full install MSN Messenger v7.5.0322 is out. Please download from this link. It should fix the MSN Messenger Error 80048820.

Rule number one for using a password is do not repeat using them. If your email got hacked, all your other online accounts will be compromised together because they all use the same password. This is easier said than done because setting a different and complicated password for each online account will only risk forgetting them and then have to go through the time wasting process of resetting it and again, setting a new password.

One way to solve it is to use a Password Manager software where you can set a really long password with a combination of words & letters and the best part is you don’t even have to remember it. All you need to do is to remember a single Master password and “rely” on the password manager to help you login to the other sites. Definitely sounds good but let us think of the real danger in using a password manager. What IF your master password gets stolen? Wouldn’t that be even more riskier because the hacker has a list of all the sites together with your login information? Today let’s take a look at KeePass, a very popular password manager because it is open source (free) and there are no backdoor secretly embedded to the software.



The Pros of KeePass

1. Portability
KeePass has two versions, the installer and portable. Obviously the good thing about the portable version is you can save it on a USB flash drive and carry with you your password wherever you go and able to login to password protected websites on any computer.

2. Free and Open Source
KeePass is open source, meaning anyone can download the source code and check if it is truly clean without secret backdoor. Open source also means that it is free. You don’t need to purchase a license or pay subscription fees.

3. Auto login with TCATO (two channel auto-type obfuscation)
Auto login is very important because it prevents you from using the physical keyboard in the first place to login which can be captured and logged by keyloggers. The TCATO auto login feature in KeePass is smart enough to confuse the keylogger by using the Windows clipboard to transfer parts of the auto-typed text into the target application. I’ve tested it and the keylogger only managed to capture keystrokes like [Back][Left][Left][Right][Right]. Unfortunately the TCATO feature must be manually enabled because it is disabled by default. You can do so by editing an Entry, go to Auto-Type tab and check on Two-channel auto-type obfuscation.

4. Works on all browsers without plugins
KeePass is an independent software and works without installing any plugins to the web browser.

The Cons of KeePass

1. No on-screen keyboard
In my opinion this is probably the most important missing feature on KeePass. When you run KeePass, it prompts you to enter the Master Password. That most important password CAN be captured by keylogger and now all the hacker need to do is to download the KeePass database file saved as Database.kdb (for v1) or NewDatabase.kdbx for v2 and above to obtain all your password. Do note that the OSK on-screen keyboard plugin for KeePass v1 uses the Windows on-screen keyboard which CAN be keylogged. Yes, the Windows On-Screen keyboard is useless and doesn’t outsmart keyloggers.

2. Unsecure Windows Clipboard Handling
It is stated that KeePass has protection against clipboard monitors but during testing the keylogger is able to log the clipboard when I double click on a field of the password list to copy its value to the Windows clipboard.

3. No online service
KeePass don’t come with an online service to sync your password or to even check what is your password. The password file is always kept locally on your side.

KeePass is great especially the TCATO technology. However until KeePass implements an on-screen keyboard to enter Master Key, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to use it. There is no point in making something easier but comes with a huge risk.

[ Visit KeePass Official Website ]

Here’s another freebie for everyo.. erm.. VNU readers. I know I’ve always been using the term EVERYONE but actually it is NOT meant for everyone. These freebie promotions that I’ve been promoting are coverdisc promotions for magazine readers. It is actually wrong for me to be providing these so-called “open secrets” where I am linking to the software directly as the provider did not give me approval to do that.

However, Chris Wiles from VNU is kind enough to compromise and allow me to continue promoting the promos as long as I fulfill some of the requirements. So here it is, full version VCOM Fix-It Utilities 7 Express which normally cost $30 but free if you get it from VNU.


Fix-It Utilities 7 Express optimizes the performance of your system, and our tools can find and prevent problems before they occur. In addition, you’ll get easy scheduled maintenance to keep your PC running in top shape.

This software is very similar to what System Mechanic does. It is an all-in-one software for computer beginners to maintain your computer in tip top condition. It has tools to clean and optimize your hard drive, optimize your registry files, check the status of your hard drive and be warned if it about to fail, keep track of your computer’s resources, and be warned when there is a problem, manage the programs that start when your computer starts up, recover deleted files, diagnose your hardware, gather information about your computer, synchronize your computer clock with an ultra-accurate atomic clock and many more!

If computers are a mystery to you, and you’d like to have Fix-It Utilities maintain and fix your computer without worrying about the details, the One-Click Solutions wizards are for you. These wizards can perform a complete check-up cleaning, and optimization all in one step!

Follow the steps below to get your free registration license key code for VCOM Fix-It Utilities 7 Express.

1. Visit this page, enter your Email address, first name, last name, country and the “Proceed and receive your serial codes” button.

2. The refreshed page will display the serial number. Note down the code.

3. Visit VNU promotion page, and click on the button that says “Free download“.

4. The setup file Fix-It-Utilities7Express.exe itself is 53.7MB. Run Fix-It-Utilities7Express.exe to install.

5. During the installation, you’ll be asked to enter Serial Number. Enter the code that you received earlier and it’ll turned into a fully licensed version.

If System Mechanic doesn’t work well for you, Fix-It Utilities would be a good alternative for you to maintain your computer. According to Chris from VNU, this promotion has been going on for nearly 3 weeks and it has received more than 6000 downloads!

Although this version of Fix-It Utilities is the EXPRESS edition, which often means some of the features have been removed, I think you should take a look at it yourself. It is just crammed with PC maintenance tools! If you’re not happy with it and would prefer to use the Professional version of Fix-It Utilities 8, you can upgrade it and save 50% on the normal price bringing it down to just £14.99. Just click Help and select Upgrade to Professional to claim the discounted price. Enjoy!

VIPRE Antivirus is originally from Sunbelt Software but On July 13, 2010, GFI Software has bought over the company. To me, the first thing that comes to my mind when you mention GFI is their server-based email security software called GFI MailSecurity which comes with 5 virus scanners (Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, BitDefender and AVG). Unfortunately I never got a chance to use or set it up since my work place is running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and GFI MailSecurity is only compatible with Windows. I believe many people especially Americans trust GFI Software because it is a USA company with USA tech support.

Anyway, back to the topic. If you visit the official VIPRE Antivirus website, the first thing you will notice is the banner that says “SPEED MATTERS Voted #1 By Users”. If you refer to my antivirus benchmark test on VIPRE Antivirus, the report shows that the speed and lightness is just at a acceptable moderate level. They have also recently joined the VB100 comparative testing and so far failing only 1 test because of 2 false positive and passed the other 3 tests. VIPRE Antivirus normally cost $29.95 for 1 year subscription on 1 computer but if you searched around, you would find that Amazon UK and HSN is selling LIFETIME license which is very rare!


Antivirus signature needs to be constantly updated which is why most if not all antivirus are on a subscription plan rather than just a one time payment. Surely there are some of you that are just fine using the free version of antivirus such as Avira AntiVir, Avast, AVG or Comodo, but there are also others that think that paid version will always have more advantage over the free ones. That is quite true because paid antivirus normally contains more features than the free one to provide extra security.

Vipre Antivirus Features:

– Antivirus and Antispyware
– Anti-Rootkit with FirstScan cleaning technology which is very effective in removal because it runs without loading the Windows operating system.
– Email Protection for email program that uses POP3 and SMTP
– Active Protection to protect against known and unknown malware threats by analyzing the software’s behavior
– System Tools such as Secure File Eraser, History Cleaner, and PC Explorer. The PC Explorer is a very useful module to easily identify specific application files and processes within different programs that may be suspicious.
– Free malware removal assistance from the support team
– Small footprint. Most antivirus setup installer is nearly at 100MB in size but VIPRE Antivirus is only at 15MB

I tried installing 2 different keyloggers that uses rootkit technology to hide itself and VIPRE Antivirus’ Active Protection immediately notifies me and stop the installation.

Here is a piece of good news. Jesmond Darmanin from GFI has generously offered 5 LIFETIME license to be given away at this blog and here is what you need to do to be eligible for the draw. Please subscribe to my newsletter, Digg, Like in Facebook, Share in Facebook, Tweet, Stumble, etc etc etc. spam spam spam. Nah I’m just joking. All you need to do is make sure you’re already a subscriber and then leave a comment. It is that simple. The winners will be announced tomorrow.

[ Visit VIPRE Antivirus ]

UPDATE: Winners has been randomly selected and they are jayschwalb, jbellante, GaleVette, mithiljani, and car_cubero.

I’ve added Alexa Traffic Ranking button on my site few months back. I know that Alexa’s traffic ranking is not accurate but its a good motivation to keep me going to get more visitors. Whenever the traffic ranking number drops, I work even harder to find and write good articles. Alexa ratings are based on a level from 1 to 4,000,000 and it goes beyond 4 million sometimes. The lower the rating on Alexa the better. So if a website has a ranking below 100,000 then the website should be getting a good number of daily visitors. 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 ratings are for new sites mostly, or sites with no traffic. While a rating of 1 will be the website with the most traffic, a spot currently occupies by Yahoo. The main flaw in Alexa is that it only measures visits from people with the Alexa toolbar installed and Alexa assumes that this group of surfers are representative for all Internet surfers.

Anyway, when I added the code from Alexa to my blog in order to track my traffic, a small picture will be displayed stating the Traffic Ranking and date it was updated. Below is the picture of how Alexa’s Traffic Ranking picture looks like.

If you click on that picture, it will bring you to Amazon.com with a small thumbnailed screenshot of your website together with your traffic details. I am quite surprised to find that the thumbnailed screenshot of my website shows Precondition Failed. I honestly have no idea what is the meaning of this Precondition Failed error so I waited for a few weeks waiting for Alexa to crawl to my site and get a new screenshot. Weeks has passed and still the same Precondition Failed screenshot.

To solve this problem…


I just disabled Bad Behavior plugin for WordPress, waited for the next Alexa Traffic Ranking update, and voila, I now have my thumbnailed screenshot of my website and no more Precondition Failed thumbnail picture. Not sure why Bad Behaviour anti-spam plugin for WordPress can cause this Precondition Failed problem but the other anti-spam plugin such as Spam Karma 2 doesn’t. Perhaps Bad Behaviour is pretty old anti-spam plugin and hopefully the upcoming new version 2 will be a much better updated anti-spam plugin.

Previously I’ve written about editing photos online and also resizing image or pictures online. Both of the websites is no match for this one which I am about to show you. It has all the basic functions of the powerful Photoshop and you can do it online without downloading and installing anything!



Wiredness is pretty amazing. You can either upload your photo or pull it from any website by entering the URL. It also has Flickr integration. You can resize, remove red eye, apply effects, insert text, zoom the image and many more! You have to check them out yourself!

The thing I really liked about Wiredness is the clean and simple interface yet powerful. No registration or logins required which will make even more people use this service. No doubt there are even more powerful online photo editor such as Picnik, but it requires registration. If I only need to resize my picture or insert a text as watermark, I wouldn’t want to go through all the trouble to register even though it’s free.

While researching on online photo editing websites, I’ve found many other powerful websites that can do the same. Smiley Cat blog has already done an extensive comparison of ten web-based image editing suites along with a very informative comparison table.

The editors in question are Cellsea, ImageAuthor, LookWow, NetImager, nexImage, Phixr, Picture2Life, PXN8, Snipshot (formerly Pixoh), and VicImager.

[ Visit Wiredness ]

Information that is stored on our disks can be much more valuable than the computer being used together with its software. Then again, to what extent is something regarded as valuable? How much money would you ask for your favorite music collection, which you have been collecting your entire life? Or your disk may contain important financial data or results of scientific research. There are many things that are unique and therefore one has to be certain about security

If you already know about the Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.0 Special Edition promotion that was offered by VNUnet earlier this year, it is time to upgrade to 8.5 because the 8.5 is fully compatible with Windows Vista and has many new features for your most usual tasks and scenarios. With Paragon Hard Disk Manager, you can easily create, format, delete, undelete, merge, backup, restore and copy your partition or hard disk.


Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition provides the user with the most reliable data protection for the hard disk – the ability to create archive duplications (i.e. backup images). By storing such an archive onto external media the user is able to restore the data at any time it is required. The program assists planning a schedule in case the user’s disk needs a backup on a regular basis. The operation will be performed automatically at the specified time.

The second crucial function of the program is the ability to modify the hard disk structure. One day you realize that your hard drive cannot meet your requirements any more. Either its capacity is insufficient and it is time to think about a little upgrade, or you are to carry out some partitioning operations. Whatever the problem is, it requires solution. Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 provides a wide-range functionality in the field of managing disk layout structures. The key features of the program are listed in the special chapter.

Setting up any operation is accomplished by using practical wizards. Each step of the wizard includes in-depth information in order to allow the user to make the right choice. Graphical representations of the data help the user to gain a better understanding.

To get your free genuine Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition product key and serial number, just follow the steps below.

1. Go to http://registration.paragon-software.com/hdm85/

2. Fill up the form with all the asterisk (*) as they are required fields and click the Submit button. Check the email address that you’ve entered in the form and you should get an email from eservice@paragon-software.com with the subject “The letter from Paragon Software”. If you don’t get it, please check your SPAM/JUNK folder. Note down the product key and serial number.

3. Head to VNUnet and click on the download button to start downloading hdm85_specialedition-20080117-1930-ea.exe.

4. After finished downloading, run hdm85_specialedition-20080117-1930-ea.exe to install. During setup you’ll be prompted to register the software by entering the product key and serial number.

You now have a fully licensed Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition! For your information, the free Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition offered by VNUnet is quite an old version. The version 8.5 was released on 20 April 2007 but it is definitely better than the version 8 because 8.5 fully supports Vista.

The latest version of Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2008 was released last year on 11 October 2007. Then on 22 February 2008, Paragon announced that it has 3 editions available for Hard Disk Manager 2008 that is Suite, Professional Edition and Server Edition. In the warez scene, there are already Paragon.Hard.Disk.Manager.2008.Pro-FOSI and also Paragon Hard Disk Manager v2008 Suite-CYGNUS. No sign of the server edition yet. It’d really be nice to have the latest version with all the new features and improvements but the free FREE Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition works as well…

Source: VNUnet

A newer version of unofficial MSN Messenger QFE patch is out to fix more bugs especially the 80048820 sign in problems in MSN Messenger v7.5.0311.

Rough Outline of Fixes in 7.5.0320
– a lot of people were experiencing sign in issues with v7.5.0311, we took some changes to fix that or to give better error messages to figure out whatwas going wrong. And there was another fix to get our error reporting correct.
– in Korea, if you were using an IME (Input Method Editor), you would type shortcut for your favorite emoticon and get an extra character. Now emoticons are key to any IM program and it didn’t make sense to not fix this (and we found a simple code fix).
– if you had a Dynamic Background from Blue Mountain, bought it and installed it, then the Text Ads which you should have been getting weren’t showing up.
– there is a DLL which is central to our Audio / Video features, we had to take a new version of that to fix a bug where Messenger would crash if you unplug a USB device after running the Audio Video Tuning Wizard on that device.


Instructions
1. You MUST have MSN Messenger 7.5.0311 installed (If you’ve 7.5.0316, 7.5.0319 or other versions installed, please Uninstall your MSN Messenger and then download the 7.5.0311 from MSN Messenger website)
2. Run the patch_msn_messenger.exe and you should end up with 7.5.0320.

Update 19 December 2005: A new full install MSN Messenger v7.5.0322 is out. Please download from this link. It should fix the MSN Messenger Error 80048820.

One of my very good friend called me up today telling me that he saw a news at a local newspaper saying that those with pirated copies of the Windows XP Professional operating system in their computers that are Internet-capable could find their screens going black and the icons vanishing as Microsoft Corp gets tough…

I immediately told my friend that it is impossible and might be a fake news because Microsoft wouldn’t go that far to make our screen go blackout as that is even worst than privacy invasion! Later I did a bit of googling and found that many people has started talking about it. Some people even mentioned that they’ve already encountered this problem and they had to do a hard reboot to recover from the “blackout”. The newspaper did mention that “To continue working, users will need to reset the machine’s desktop background. All will return to normal, but only for 60 minutes before another blackout occurs.”

At first I felt that this news is fake because I could only find Malaysian bloggers talking about it and of course they got this information from the local newspapers. So I decided to test and check it out myself to see if this “blackout and icon vanishing” penalty for pirated version of Windows XP Professional is true or not.


I plugged in my hard drive that I use for testing purposes, installed a clean Windows XP Professional with a genuine product key and also installed service pack 3 + all latest updates. Then I used Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder to change Windows Key to a pirate one (from eth0). Rebooted the computer and the logon interrupt message “You may be a victim of software counterfeiting. Click Resolve Now to get help with this problem.” window appears. I clicked Resolve Later and logged into Windows as normal. I waited for more than 60 minutes because I expect a screen blackout with all my icons go missing but nothing happened.

At first I thought that maybe I don’t have the latest WGA installed. I went to C:\Windows\System32 and found that LegitCheckControl.dll, WgaLogon.dll and WgaTray.exe files installed in my computer is version 1.8.31.0. From Microsoft Download site, the latest version of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is version 1.8.0031.0 which is actually the same as 1.8.31.0. To be sure, I download WindowsXP-KB905474-ENU-x86-Standalone.exe and installed on my computer. So I have the latest WGA and using a non-genuine XP Pro key that failed the genuine validation, why isn’t my screen blackout and icon vanishing?

I searched further and found an official Windows Genuine Advantage blog website. It did explain about the latest update to WGA notifications for Windows XP Professional and I now understood what does the local newspapers meant by “blackout”.

After installing this new version of WGA Notifications on a copy of Windows XP that fails the validation, most users will discover on their next logon that their desktop has changed to a plain black background from whatever was there previously.

You can of course go to Display Properties to set a new wallpaper or background color but every 60 minutes it will change back to the plain black background. This will continue to happen until that copy of Windows is genuine. Other than this, the user will see the addition of what Microsoft call the “persistent desktop notification” at the bottom right hand of the screen. It says “You may be a victim of software counterfeiting. This copy of Windows did not pass genuine Windows validation.”

The notification is, however, translucent and also can be clicked through and objects underneath it can be interacted with. The notification appears above any object on the desktop, but underneath open windows or applications.

That’s about it. No scary total blackout that you have to do a hard reboot or vanishing icons… This only I think Steven Patrick, the person who wrote about the article in TheStar newspaper did a very bad job in explaining the WGA updates.

Microsoft is no longer selling Windows XP, that means the user that is using the pirated version of Windows XP Professional will have no choice but to upgrade to Windows Vista. I believe this is another move from Microsoft to push users to upgrade from XP to Vista. For those that don’t want to upgrade to Vista and wants to continue using XP, you can wait for the famous Windows Genuine Advantage Validation v1.8.31.0 Cracked eth0. If you hate the blackout and the watermark, you can uninstall WGA by using RemoveWGA 1.2. The author of RemoveWGA can no longer host the file but then RemoveWGA can still be downloaded from Softpedia. Or easier, don’t install KB905474 from Windows Update.

Update: Alex Kochis, the director of Genuine Microsoft Windows emailed me to clarify that Microsoft will continue to offer Windows XP legalization products to customers who need them including after Windows XP is not longer available for pre-install on OEM systems or at retail.

[ Download RemoveWGA 1.2 from Softpedia ]