RE: XP "genuine advantage" Big Brother nightmares

"xp ?" wrote:

> Last night, while working on something else, I stupidly authorized
> Windows to install a "genuine advantage" update that it was bugging me
> for permission to install. I'd have been more scrutinous of this
> request, had I not been distracted on other things.
>
> So when I flipped the computer on this morning, I got a warning that I
> may be using counterfeit XP software, or something to that effect. It
> bugged me every step of the login process about this, and I blew it off
> with the "resolve later" option they finally gave me.
>
> 20 minutes later, the computer went into the royal blue screen with the
> white type saying that something bad had happened to the computer.
>
> I restarted the computer and used System Restore to restore to a point
> before I installed the "genuine advantage" (what a laugh) update.
>
> My question is, how do I now avoid this update going onto my computer,
> or better yet, how do I essentially permanently decline the "right" to
> have it automatically installed?
>
> By way of background, my computer is one I bought from a friend, that I
> have since upgraded with a new motherboard, CPU, second hard drive for
> data, and new graphics card.
>
> I have an XP CD that I got from him, and it *looks* genuine, but I have
> no desire to tinker with an O/S that had otherwise been fine.
>
> The computer is up to date in Windows' eyes. It has SP2 on it, and the
> Windows Updates download at night and install in the background.
>
> I am sure millions of users are waking up to this same nightmare I just
> experienced, so I am sure solutions to this issue will soon be widely
> propagating on the web.
>
> And no, I'm not going to respond to the shakedown MS has on the "genuine
> advantage" prompts, offering to make the problem go away if I pay them
> money.
>