RSSWGA Outage Over, No Word On Cause
By Ed Oswald | Published August 27, 2007, 11:57 AM
Microsoft said over the weekend that an issue with its Windows Genuine Advantage validation systems -- which were causing verified systems to fail and lose access to features -- had been fixed.
"I'd encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to visit this site now; after successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure that genuine-only features are restored," Windows Vista product manager Nick White said.
Microsoft claims only a "few" customers were affected and that the system had been restored to normal function. Due to the failure, some customers may have been locked out of features that are available to customers who have successfully validated their Windows systems.
On Microsoft's support forums, Vista users reported losing the Aero user interface after any reboots, along with features reserved for customers of Vista Ultimate. According to the posts, it appears that the problems first appeared later Friday.
The WGA system failure also highlights what could be a potential problem with the way Microsoft handles validations. Instead of the system alerting customers that the servers may be down, it appears to have instead assumed that the failure meant the system was no longer "genuine."
Even worse, this was happening on systems that had been previously validated by WGA servers. Both Windows XP and Vista were affected, although it appears that Vista customers lost more due to WGA's tight integration with the OS.
What's missing is any explanation as to why the outage happened, or what Microsoft is doing to prevent it from happening again. The company has so far only offered that the problem has been fixed.
Its nicer on the green side of the fence...
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|I know why this happened!!!!
All of MS users decided to upgrade their copy of Skype and the WGA authentication servers hung while trying to reach Skype!
Yeah - that's the ticket!
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|LMAO that is so frigging funny. I had no problem updating my systems, I wonder why! Oh yeah, I have Linux. I always said this would happen, eat your heart Nostradamus there's a new profit in town. LOL My point has always been that WGA only affects the legit user, the non legit never gets a affected because they just don't mind jumping through hoops to crack software.
Imagine this was your car and over the weekend you couldn't drive it to the beach. But all the @ssholes with stolen cars were driving by your house and waving. ;-)LOL
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|If Chinese hackers ever find the addresses of those servers, they could shut down millions of computers with a DDOS attack. Microsoft has made all these PCs vulnerable, it's like having a self-destruct switch.
Ofcourse, those Chinese hackers will be using pirated copies of Windows, so they won't be affected.
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|I didn't notice anything of this, my XP, XP x64 and Vista x64 were allowed to update during the weekend. It was said to be a genuine Windows. Maybe i was just lucky ?!
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|the machines are taking over...
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|Can I just say. I TOLD YOU SO!!!!
It would happen eventually and it has actually happened before. MS is not the end all be all of security you know... and trusting your entire OS that WGA will always be working as it should for your dependence on a reliable OS is a BAD THING. If for some unknown reason MS was obliterated online and all the sudden Vista users out there would have all their OSes go to limited mode for functionality. OMG end of the world overnight wouldn't it? Doomsayer? Probably... As man I have to admit that I have to give you that... Its not a probable situation... But it is POSSIBLE. and that is not something to make light of...
Some day it will be Used to take down end users OSes either by MS themselves at the end of lifecycles to force people to get an upgrade, OR by someone with more nefarious reasons for doing so. Trust me IF MS could manually turn off the millions of Windows 2000 / XP OSes still out there they would overnight to hike up their diminishing Vista installations. This is not effecting their sales of course in there yes cause all those OEM machines are being sold with Vista on it right? sorry a unit sold is not unnecessarily a Unit installed... I know for a fact that there are millions of vista OEM machines that have XP on it now and even more businesses that install windows 2000 on them cause they are not ready to be forced into an expensive upgrade company wide. Biggest of these... the US Government...
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|This is really sad when something like this happens. We buy and pay for this software and then are told how we shall use it and what we can do with it. Seems they watch our every move. I would not mind taking WGA out of my computer, but am not sure how that is done and if I did, what problems would I be presented with? I run windows XP SP2. Get with it microsoft! Stop trying to control us as many of us are sick of it.
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|They are a company who wants to make money and they are protecting their interests, do I agree with it, no. Is it caused because people are consistently stealing the software, yes.
If there was a low theft of software no one would need to put restrictions on it.
If no one stole software, music, or video these restrictions would not need to be in place, is there ways around them, yes. The average user though won't bother with it. So it protects the interests of said company.
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|Program called RemoveWGA works fine on WinXP.
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|It works fine on XP x64 to.
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|Someone must have ran that program on Microsoft's servers?
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|Retail stores want to make money, too. And, they are all subject to significant losses from shoplifters. But, I ask myself this:
Suppose I shopped at a store and bought their products. Now, every time I went back to that store, on the way out, I would have to empty my pockets and dump my purchases on the floor, so they could be sure that I wasn't trying to steal something....How long would I continue to shop there?
Or, consider that you go to a store and buy something. After you make your purchase, the store sends someone to your home at random intervals to make sure you didn't steal something while you were there making a legitimate purchase. Then, they use the justification that shoplifters cost them a lot of money and they are only trying to protect their financial interests.
I'd take my money and shop elsewhere.
Kind of the same idea, in my mind. You purchase the software, then get regular inspections to make sure you aren't stealing something. Personally, I'll shop elsewhere.
I'm sure not everyone would agree, it's just a personal choice and decision to make.
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|"I'd encourage anyone who received a validation failure since Friday evening to visit this site now; after successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure that genuine-only features are restored," Windows Vista product manager Nick White said.
What do these idiots think? That we have all the time in the world to waste on their paranoia and primitive software blunders? My versions are legal. I have blocked my firewall and done away with that WGA idiocy after it slipped by under my radar.
Microsoft, start understanding our needs and stop fighting the consumers. Focus on your beloved hackers but stop bothering us. You're a prodigal waste of my time. I'm not updating to Vista, still running W2k and whatever XP update shipped with the last laptops we bought.
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|I'm suer Microsoft will spin it as "WGA outage = another good reason not to use the evil Linux"
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|I wonder if their servers didn't validate, and they weren't WGA, and then failed because of it... oh wouldn't that be ironic!
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|It would make me smile.
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|I ran Windowsupdate for XP last night, it fine. Probably only affect Vista.
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|i'm pondering vista purchase right now. not that i'm looking for a bling (from what i seen so far aero is GREATLY overrated) but sertain featrues of my HTPC, namly audio over HDMI, require vista to work.
when i read these kind of articles it makes me very reluctant about the upgrade. yes i know it impacted XP activations as well but thats what i'm conserned with in the first place - activation. i would be very pissed had i been trying to install Windows this weekend.
dunno, sometimes it seems that the best way is buying a licence and downloading and running pirated version instead. those are really nicley done and way less hastle to install...
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|Don't pay a dollar for Vista. If you end up with it because you buy a system, so be it. Until SP1 gets wide usage and is looked over for all its flaws, stick to XP.
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|This is nothing about Vista or XP...This is response to HACKERS, and USERS who use cracked vista
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|those peps you talking about weren't afected, how is it a responce to them?
EDIT: you mean encouragement?
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|well........................ You get what you pay for
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|Was this meant to be sarcastic?
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|Truly one more reason to not use Vista - I certainly hope that an outcry from users gets Microsoft to rethink this for '7'
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|"Truly one more reason to not use Vista"
FTFA:
Both Windows XP and Vista were affected
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