Friday, July 21, 2006

BBQ planning / Disabling Windows "Genuine Advantage"

I got a message on MSN from Vivian this morning to ask if I was going to the barbecue tonight: I guess so! (sigh... the games had better not be totally stupid!) Jon also had left me a message, saying that he didn't have to be at the church early anymore. So I called him a little later: he has a bus pass, so he can justify using it to bus to church, even though it'll be as hot as heck outside! (heat wave already at 30°C) I told him that he'd better hope there are lots of drinks at the barbecue (there should be!), and that maybe we'd better step up from wonton noodles for Dad's birthday dinner tomorrow. (Mom says they don't care, but still...)

Forgot to tell him Mom's reaction to the six bottles of beer in the fridge last night when she was looking for Perrier water ("AIYA!!!")... there's always later, though! (we kinda have to plan for tomorrow) I told him that I'd be making plans with Eric, whom I don't see online yet... but things will work out, since they almost always seem to! Mom freaked out at our "last-minute planning" style, but it works for us, haha.


I have a feeling that I've restarted the computer more times than is healthy for it in the past hour or so. This time, it wasn't out of frustration with its slow nature. I kept getting these "Your copy of Windows is not genuine" pop-up notifications, which are REALLY ANNOYING! So then I asked Corey about it, who expressed surprise that I was just getting those things NOW since apparently the "Windows Genuine Advantage" thing's been out for a while. That's why he took advantage of his school's offering free copies of Windows XP before he left... uh, good for you... but that doesn't help me! :P

He Googled it for me since he didn't remember the full name of it, and linked me here: Disable Non Genuine Windows Warning Messages: WGA Workarounds remove WGATray.exe, which was handy. I had to do stuff with Windows Task Manager, Safe Mode ("... to GET to Safe Mode? Hit F8 a bunch of times.... think of it as the fate of your computer!"), and Windows Registry Editor (Run / Regedit), all of which required a restart. (the registry thing wouldn't have, but I had to ask Corey how to get to it again!)

Go over to System Internals and download Autoruns from the Security Utilities. Run the program, go to the winlogon tab, and uncheck the WgaLogon entry. No more boot screen or tray icons. Simple!

So now things work, and I'm talking to him about the Nine Inch Nails song Suck, which I saw as "Pigface version" on Corey's MSN name. He says that Pigface was a band Trent Reznor was in, and that it was a song he did with them first. Works for me! Speaking of beer, I think I'll have my last one now, haha. Yes, before I go to a church function... sue me. :P

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