I have a totally honest system, and am running XP-SP2 Home edition. Last week I got a notice that microsoft had an update for me. I use automatic update notices, but do manual instals, so I at least have the illusion of retaining some degree of control over the MS beast. The one listed to install was the latest Windows Genuine Advantage update. Thinking that it would be easier to install it than suffer the constant reminders that "I have updates to install", I forged ahead.
Now, every time I boot up, Zone alarm gives a notice that WGA is trying to read and modify physical memory. I have entered "allow", and that let things go forward. Today, just for fun, I entered "deny", and things still seem fine.

I suppose I am just wondering if anyone else has had this happen, and what is going on with the new WGA that requires it to check my computer every time I turn it on? Seems a bit invasive, not that that is surprising, given the source.

Google WGA removal tool. I have 3 licensed copies of XP and I've removed it from all of them. Microsoft has acknowledged that WGA causes bad things to happen on properly licensed systems.

Don't you have to have the WGA in order to get the patches? That is the only real reason I bother with it.

WGA updates the LegitCheckControl.dll. The latest version is 1.5.530.0. I believe that's all I that I'm allowed to discuss here.

Thanks Broadjumper,
It is kind of sick that we cannot discuss something on a fully legitimate computer, with fully paid for software, doing something that concerns me, as if we are the criminals, but I do respect your discretion.

I do it out of respect for the mods and owners of this site. Discussing something like that in full could potentially cause legal issues and could cause problems for them from their hosting service. We don't want that to happen so I wanted to be very careful about what I said.

"Now, every time I boot up, Zone alarm gives a notice that WGA is trying to read and modify physical memory. "

So what exactly is the issue here? I would imagine a number of files M$ uses to start XP read and modify physical memory.

WGA is the biggest PIA software I have had forced unto me. The damn thing uninstalls whenever it wants and then demands I restart so I can simply get my updates. It goes into complete meltdown and decided my system is not legit and then remembers that it is (And yes I run legit windows xp install) I wish they would just dump it. Its such a worthless tool. Its already been cracked so its not useful to prevent piracy and regular users sufffer...oh wait that sounds like every copy protection software out there.

I've not had ONE issue with WGA for all my home PCs. I used to have Pro + 2 home. Now I have XP pro, 1 Home, 1 Vista.

Not one issue with WGA. Not saying you haven't, however that hasn't been my experience.

I usually have no issues with it however ever since I got Office 2007 its been acting weird. Like I said it had removed itself then said I needed to install it again I did rebooted still said I need to reinstall it again. Then it said my Windows was not valid and then it said it was valid I don't know. IMO they can think up a better way. Windows activation would be just fine if it wasn;t so easily cracked. now we need Windows Activation and WGA. And I am not just picking on MS here this is the problem with most Anti-piracy software it can be a huge hindrance for users who legitimately own the software while pirates actually can enjoy the life of being unshafted.