How to get rid of "Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Annoying Popup (For XP, Vista)

I bought desktop, a few years back, and it had Windows XP Pro installed. Last week an annoying nagging pop-up "saying my copy of XP" was illegitimate. So did some searching. In short, MS had blacklisted my serial number. This has happened to others that bought notebooks with XP installed as "genuine" with stickers on the machine, then some months later they black list the serial number.

I caution all to only do this if they have a genuine version and then had WGA problem and microsoft was no help. Other wise it is illegal. So proceed with this in mind. I have to state this caveat.

If this happens to you don't panic - you can get rid of it. but first read below excerpts from this article.

"Once the WGA Notification tool has checked your OS and has confirmed you had a legit copy, there is no decent point or reason to check it again and again every boot. Moreover, connecting to Microsoft brings security issue for corporate networks, and privacy issues for everyone. It is also unclear which information are transmitted (Microsoft published an official answer, but an individual study brought some questions). All of that, along the fact that Microsoft used deceptive ways to make you install this tool (it was told you it was an urgent security update, whereas it is a new installation giving you no extra security) makes me calling this tool a spyware. "

This sypware tool is uploaded to your computer disguised as a critical security update.

How to remove: for XP (see at end of post for Vista)

• Create a system restore point- just in case you make a mistake.
  

• Some recommend to do following from safe mode, but I did not and no problem.
• From Start-Run type regedit.exe and search for wgalogon folder and delete it.To search, go to Edit tab, then click find and then type wgalogon. It will find folder then Delete folder. Or search for folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
  Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify
• Delete the folder ‘WgaLogon’ and all its contents
• In your windows directory search for files wga* and delete them. Just go to start-> search->files and folders type wga* - delete all files found.
• Reboot computer - WGA is gone.
• Now to make sure you don't get it back, turn off windows automatic update from control panel. Better you manually get updates, and be sure this WGA one does not get selected to download. From time to time you can go to Automatic updates but select "notify me but do not download". The uncheck the "Windows Advantage Notification" and any others you do not want. I also uncheck updates for Windows XP security updates as not sure what these are and can live without it. Then I go and turn automatic updates off again or the update icon will keep nagging you.

For Vista see this link and read all comments. Some say do not upload SP1 as could make a problem.