Remove WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) Notifications effectively

How to Remove WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) Notifications effectively? I have found a program named RemoveWGA which can effectively remove the warning.

RemoveWGA will enable you to easily remove the Microsoft "Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications" tool, which is calling home and connect to MS servers every time you boot. Futures updates of this notification tool will (officialy) setup the connection rate to once every two weeks.

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.

Also, Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is different than Windows Genuine Advantage Validation. RemoveWGA only removes the notification part, phoning home, and does not touch the Validation part.



If you really want to Remove WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) Notifications forever, you are recommended to:

• Install Genuine Windows or
• Disable Automatic Update and
  Disable Security Center Warning.
  

The Da Vinci Code Digital Edition! Save Confidential file into Picture

After taking a closer look to an ordinary image files, I found out that the size of the file is so large, 10MB! The resolution of the image is 1024x768 and 24bit colors, taking about 500kb the most. Why the image so big? Let me open the Da Vinci Code now. In fact, there is a hidden file in the image itself.The creator compresses the file into zip or rar format and then save the compressed file into the image file through some special ways. The image file are viewed as a normal image file through most of the image viewing software. Moreover, digital camera nowadays can produce image files with very high resolution and the size of the image file is big too. This will make the hidden file in the image file hardly to be identified by others.

There is a small tool called Jpg+FileBinder 1.0 which can help us to save any file into a jpeg image file.

With this small tool, we can bind or merge any compressed files(WinRar, WinZip, 7Zip,etc) with an ordinary JPEG image file, making it look like any other JPEG image file but in actual fact contains all our secret files.

Other people will only see it as an ordinary JPEG image but when we open it with a compression tool like WInRar, WInZIp, 7Zip, etc; you'll see the secret files. Hide any file, be it a secret note, a secret picture, a secret song, or anything else you can think of. Sneaky!

IMPORTANT: Please take note that this tool will not encrypt or secure your files and other users can also access the files like you if they are aware of the method. It is advisable that you encrypt the compressed file before binding for enhanced security.

Turn off or disable Security Center Warning in Windows XP

How to Turn off or disable Security Center Warning in Windows XP?

1. Press Win+R or Click Start and then click Run.
2. Type services.msc and press Enter.
3. At the right pane, scroll down until you see Security Center. Right click it and click Stop.
4. Right click it again and click Properties.
5. Choose Disabled at Startup Type listbox.
6. Click OK button.
   

Turn automatic updating on or off

How to turn automatic updating on or off?

Vista or Windows 7

1. Press Win Key
2. Type Turn automatic updating on or off and press Enter.
3. Select Never check for updates (not recommended) under Important Updates listbox.
4. Press OK button.

Windows XP

1. Press Win+Break or right click My Computer and click Properties.
2. Click Automatic Updates tab.
3. Check Turn off Automatic Updates checkbox.
4. Press OK button.
5. You are recommended to Disable Security Center Warning too.
   

Strengthen the defense of your computer

How do you strengthen the defense of your computer? You should have instant Firewalls. "Firewall" will separate the internal network and the Internet. The firewall carries out some filtering when two networks communicate. It lets the data that you allow to enter your network, and also block the data that you disallow from your network. It can prevent malwares from changing, copying, or destroying your material. You must keep your firewall update to ensure it work perfectly.

Then, you should prevent virus from entering your computer. You should install the Anti-virus software and start the real-time monitoring process and keep the software and the virus definition file up-to-date by setting the update process in daily mode. You should scan your computer every week with latest updated anti-virus. You should scan your USB pen drive before you plug into your computer as it is one of the fastest ways a virus infecting and spreading in your computer and to other computers.

Finally, you should guard against Spyware. Spyware is a program that is installed without the user authorization. It can obtain the information and send to a third party. Spyware can automatically attach in software, executable image and break into the user computer. They are used to track the computer usage information, record the keyboard hits, or take a screen capture. To get rid from spyware, you should raise the security level of your browser, install software to guard against from spyware and verify with the official website about the software you would like to install. You may install Sandboxie to protect your computer from the attack of spywares.

How to patch without running WGA validation

How to patch without running WGA validation? Follow the following steps:

• Step 1: Install and activate XP. For XP SP2 only (not XP SP3), you must also download and install the patch described in KB article 898461, which updates the installer program and ensures that your system will receive future updates.
  
  
• Step 2: In either version of XP, click Start, Control Panel, Security Center, Automatic Updates. Choose Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them.
  
  
• Step 3: Whenever you see a yellow-shield icon in the notification area (previously known as the system tray), click the icon and then choose Custom install.
  
  
• Step 4: Scroll to the bottom of the patch window and uncheck Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474), as shown in Figure 1. (For more info, see Microsoft KB article 905474 to read the company's description of WGA Notification.)
  
  
  Figure 1. Uncheck KB905474 to prevent WGA from being installed on the system.
  
  
• Step 5: After you click Install, check Don't notify me about these updates again in the resulting dialog to prevent WGA from being included in future Windows updates (see Figure 2). Click OK.
  
  
  Figure 2. Check this option to avoid being offered WGA Notifications as part of future updates.
  

From this point forward, every time you update your system, review the patches being offered to you and deselect those you don't want before proceeding with the installation.

Read also:

• Remove Fake Antivirus
  
• Safe Browser - Free 100% Protection!
• Correct way of using Browser to surf internet
• Why use Firefox rather than IE?
• How to kill a process effectively?
• Prevent Pendrive Virus forever
• Don't disable UAC or your computer will be attacked by malwares!
• Remove WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) Notifications effectively

U.S. Military was Hacked!

Data on New U.S. Military Fighter Jet was hacked! The data of the U.S. military’s newest and most technologically advanced fighter aircraft, the F-35 Lightning II was stolen!

Hackers seek out to find vulnerable systems that they can gain access. In this case of hackers stealing data from the systems used by contractors of the Pentagon, it could be the situation where the operators may have not proven that they were using the proper level of computer security. Companies that contract with the Department of Defense now have to prove that they are implementing certain security measures even before they are authorized to work on a project. This policy was put into place last year because of the increase of cyber intrusions.

The U.S. government has not, and probably will not, go into detail about the recent breach. Many officials have assured those who speculate certain scenarios of this data breach that no classified information was compromised. In addition, the files compromised only focused on the design, performance statistics of the aircraft and a system used to conduct self-diagnostics during flight, which pretty much limits the possibility of sensitive data being stolen.

The U.S. military’s newest fighter aircraft is designed to become the aircraft used by all branches of service. Several international partners are assisting in the build of the new aircraft. It will be sold to U.S. allied countries which could raise the concern of security levels and practices of other countries involved.

As of now, offices have said that a number of safeguards have been implemented to protect the system that was hacked into. Hackers will not stop at anything until they are caught and put in jail.

Don't disable UAC or your computer will be attacked by malwares!

UAC or User Account Control is one of the very good features provided by Windows Vista and Windows 7. However, many people try to disable it as they think that UAC is useless!

Malwares attack computers by modifying the system files and registry so that it will be executed automatically every time the computer turn on. UAC will ask our permission before letting the malwares attack our computers. Malwares will never have the chance to attack our computer if we do not disable UAC and click "No / Cancel" button when the UAC ask our permission. Don't simply click "Yes / Continue" button if we don't really know what the program is!

Most people try to disable UAC as they feel angry to the UAC prompt asking them the permission to execute the program. However, when we disable UAC, no more UAC prompt to prevent malware from attacking our computer. Don't trust anti-virus that it can protect our computer from malwares as malwares always update faster than anti-virus! Anti-virus update its definition after new malwares are reported. However, the fact is that there are so many malwares which are undetectable by the best updated anti-virus (like kaspersky) as they grow very very very fast.

Thus, don't ever disable UAC or you will become one of the victim attacked by malwares!

Don't ever click "Yes / Continue" button (in UAC prompt) if you don't really know what the program is!

Click "No / Cancel" button (in UAC prompt) if you don't know the program is malware or not.

The best policy is:
Set the UAC settings to the highest level: