Method One: Task Manager

1
Run as an administrator with no other user accounts running.

2
Launch Windows Task Manager (Processes). Leave it open.
3
Navigate to to C:\Windows\System32, and find WgaTray.exe.
4
Right-click on WgaTray.exe, and select Delete. Leave the deletion confirmation b
ox open.
5
Go back to Windows Task Manager and click Wgatray.exe.
6
Click End Process. When you are prompted for a
cess, align the End Process confirmation box
ion box, or at least have them close together.
both actions quickly
at least within 2 or 3

confirmation to terminate the pro

with the previous Delete File confirmat
Do this because you'll need to do
seconds.

7
Click Yes in both boxes, quickly. Click on Yes on the Task Manager prompt (to end
the process ) and then quickly press Yes on the deletion confirmation (to delete
the actual file). You ll need to repeat this if you miss it.
8
Launch the Registry Editor. Click Start, then Run, and enter regedit.
9
Browse to the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify
10
Delete the folder WgaLogon and all its contents.
11
Reboot Windows XP.
12
Check your work. As a precaution, after you have followed the above instructions
: Go to Control Panel > Security Center > Automatic Update Settings.

Select the third option,

m."

Notify me but don t automatically download or install the

Click OK.
The next time the Windows Updates icon appears in the system tray, click on the i
con and it will display a list of available updates. Windows won t automatically d
ownload and install them anymore.
If Windows Genuine Advantage Notification Tool is there, uncheck it and press ent
er to download everything else (if you want to). You can right-click to hide upda
tes that you don t want.
Select Don t notify me about these updates again , so that they will be ignored ever
y time updates are downloaded.
Just remember, from now on, make sure to check the list of downloads so that yo
u don t install any new versions of this tool .

Method Two: Command Delete

1
Try system restore first. If you have only just installed Windows Genuine Advant
age notifications, simply using the system restore function will remove the prog
ram. Then refuse to accept the WGA update next time Windows updates. Otherwise,
proceed as detailed below.
2
Open a Command Prompt window. Click on Start, then Run. Type CMD and press OK.
3
Change Directory into the System32 Folder. Type "cd \windows\system32" (without
quotation marks).
4
Open Notepad window. Type the following lines:
taskkill -IM wgatray.exe
del wgatray.exe
del wgalogon.old
5
Highlight and copy the three lines above to the Clipboard.
6
Paste the contents of the Clipboard to Command Prompt. This should kill the wgat
ray.exe process from the Taskbar and immediately delete both files wgatray.exe a
nd wgalogon.dll.

Method Three: Executing a Batch Script

1
Right-click on your desktop. Choose New, then Text Document. Enter the name as "
remove.bat" without the quotes.
A message should appear saying that you are changing a file type. Click Yes. If
the message does not appear, and the file icon is a picture of a piece of paper
, then you need to enable "show file extensions for known file types" in the Win
dows Explorer Tools ->Folder Options dialog.

2
Right-click on remove.bat and select Edit. Notepad will open.
3
Paste the following lines into Notepad, then save and exit:
taskkill -IM wgatray.exe
del wgatray.exe
del wgalogon.old
4
Double-click on the remove.bat icon. A command prompt window should briefly appe
ar, then close automatically.

Method Four: System Tools

1
Open System32 by either of the following methods: Click Start, then Run. Type "s
ystem32" (without quotes), and click OK.
Find system32 manually by clicking Start, My Computer, (C:) (or whatever your d
rive letter is), WINDOWS, then system32.

2
Hide extensions. In system32, go to Tools, then Folder options. Click on the tab
, View, and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" if it is not already.
3
Check to make sure the window that comes up has a full screen of various files.
The files are in alphabetical order, which makes it easier to locate the specifi
c file.

4
Find WgaLogon.dll. Rename it "WgaLogon.dll.bak" (without quotes).
5
Create an empty copy of WgaLogon.dll. Right click on a blank space in system32 a
nd select New, then Text Document.
Leave the text document empty and label it "WgaLogon.dll" (without quotes). Pre
ss Enter (on your keyboard).
You may get a warning from the above step that says, "If you change a file name
extension, the file may become unusable. Are you sure you want to change it?" C
lick Yes on this warning.

6
Be ready to complete the next two steps very quickly. Find WgaTray.exe in system
32 and delete it.
You will then have 5 seconds to find WgaTray.exe in the Task Manager.
Note that if you remove the files mentioned above while you are in Safe Mode, t
he next step is unnecessary.

7
Immediately open Task Manager. You can do this three different ways: Press Ctrl,
Shift, and Esc simultaneously.
Press Ctrl, Alt, and Delete simultaneously.
Right click the Taskbar and select Task Manager.

8
Click on the process tab and select WgaTray.exe. Click on End Process. Note that
if you take longer, do not panic! All that will happen is that WgaTray.exe will
keep reappearing in the processes list (i.e. you won't be able to delete it as
required). To remove the notifications after this, return to system32. You will
find two files:WgaLogon.dll.bak (the one you renamed) and an Application Extensi
on (0KB) called WgaLogon.dll. Delete the Application Extension, rename WgaLogon.
dll.bak to WgaLogon.dll and repeat the process at a greater speed, from deleting
WgaTray.exe from system32.

9
Restart your computer when finished. All the notification messages should be gon
e.

Method Five: Renaming

1
Open a Command window. Click on Start, then Run. Type CMD and click OK.
2
Open Notepad. Click Start, then Run, and type NOTEPAD. Click OK.
3
Type or copy the following lines into the Notepad window:
CD %systemroot%\system32
rename wgatray.exe wgatray.exe.bak
rename wgalogon.old wgalogon.old.bak
rename LegitCheckControl.dll LegitCheckControl.dll.bak
taskkill /F /T /IM wgatray.exe
del wgatray.exe.bak
del wgalogon.old.bak
del LegitCheckControl.old.bak
4
Leave a blank line. Make sure there is a blank line at the end of the text docum
ent, right after the last line of text.
5
Select all the text (Ctrl-A) and copy to the clipboard (Ctrl-C).
6
Paste the clipboard into the CMD window. Right click and select Paste, or Press
Ctrl-V. This should kill the wgatray.exe process and delete the files it uses.