Remove Office Genuine Advantage Notifications (KB949810)? full story:

Recently Microsoft released an office update KB949810 know as OGA (Office Genuine Advantage) which once installed on your PC will refuse to uninstall. If you review your updates history, you will find "Office Genuine Advantage Notifications (KB949810) en-us"  under Office 2003 or Office 2007 becuase your Automatic Updates were turned on. This update does not show under "Control Panel", "Add Remove Programs" list even if you have tick "Show Updates" checkbox.
 
According to the Microsoft Director of Genuine Software Initiative this OGA  validation process was designed catch the users of non-genuine Office products. Users will receive a pop-up dialog box alerting them their Microsoft Office software is not genuine. The customer will receive this dialog box the first time they open an Office application every day, and again 2 hours later for next month. Users can also receive information on how to learn more about the issue if they click more info link. Eventually Microsoft wants illegal users to acquire genuine copy of Microsoft Office. After receiving these dialog box notifications for 30 days, Office applications will be marked with a visual reminder that the copy of Office is NOT GENUINE. Both the dialog box and/or the visual reminder will disappear once the customer gets genuine Office and/or uninstalls the non-genuine Office products. None of the visual cues presented will impair a customer from accessing their data or preparing documents.
 
While non-genuine Microsoft products will face problems, it has caused many issues for official license users of the product. Microsoft says that this was a "voluntary Microsoft update" but you have no control to uninstall once it is installed. Fine print reads:
 
“There will be no personal data collected or shared with Microsoft as customers implement the OGA notifications update. These notifications are designed to help alert customers who have acquired and are using non-genuine Office. Once notified, customers can take action to reduce the risk of running counterfeit software by getting genuine Office through the online purchase programs or by going to a local authorized Microsoft reseller.”
 
 
With rampant software piracy occurring non-genuine Microsoft counterfeit Office products are distibuted worldwide and invisible OGA cop is out there to control them. While the intention is positive, paid fully licensed customers are facing massive problems. Many System Administratiors have cast their opinion on forums "My suggestion is to decline that update (KB949810) and not install it anywhere"
 
 Several ways to overcome your problems:
 
Corporate and Business System Administrators as a "WSUS Admin" block updates - not distribute them! using WSUS distribution control feature.
 
Try to Download and install the appropriate language version for your system:
 
English:
Italian:
Turkish:
 
 
In case you have get false alert you can avoid being nagged by following these steps:
 
 
Go into the application’s Options of Microsoft Office product (i.e. click the Office Button in upper left corner and select "Excel Options" or "Word Option" depends on which Office application you are running)
Select "Advanced" from the navigation pane on the left.
Find the "Show add-in user interface errors" checkbox and unselect it.
 
Another alternative is to RESTORE to last well known good working restore point before Feb,10th 2009.
 
Revert back to previous state, If you have a full backup you can restore from your good copy of the backup and remember to decline that update (KB949810) and not install it anywhere again in future because its optional "voluntary Microsoft update".
 
In worst case, to stop the error alert messages, delete file named "OGAAddin.dll", but I wouldn’t suggest you do that.
 
Other option on Windows desktop, "Open the Task Manager, locate that process, stop it and I delete it, it’s the file C:/Windows/System32/WGATray.exe" , but again I wouldn’t suggest you to do that if you have genuine Office.
 
I have not tried this nor suggested or documented by Microsoft:
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Run this DOS command at C:\>
MsiExec.exe /uninstall {B148AB4B-C8FA-474B-B981-F2943C5B5BCD}
You will be prompted if you are sure you want to unistall. Click ‘Yes’
This will unistall the OGA notifier 1.7.0105.35.0 described on this blog.
Works for vista and XP.
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Best way is to follow this simple troubleshooting procedure suggest by Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Specialist:
 
1. Download and run the MGA Diagnostic Tool: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012
 
2. After running the MGA Diagnostic Tool, click on the "Windows" tab and then click on "Copy".  
 
3. Next, visit the following website and create a post in the "WGA Validation Problems" forum and paste the results of the WGA Diagnostic Data in a detailed post. http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine/default.aspx?SiteID=25
 
4. A WGA troubleshooting specialist will analyze the data and recommend an appropriate solution.
 
Finally fastest, easiest way is to uninstall current version of Office and Get Genuine Office Trial from Microsoft Today. For instant download click on image below, it’s trail from Microsoft Online Store.

Microsoft Store

Hint: You can get highly discounted Office products from Amazon.com 

 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 for under $80

Those who do not want to spend any money or are low on budget can use following alternatives to Microsoft Office:

Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. with many New Features.

Take tour of Google Docs or Watch Video from Youtube Click Here. Only disadvantage of Google Docs is you need to be online to retrive/update your files.

The other big rival of Microsoft, Sun Microsystem has developed StarOffice and OpenOffice. OpenOffice.org 2 does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to. You can download Open Office from serveral site. Click here for fast complete download of Open Office free software instantly.  

Please bookmark this site and make sure to visit next week as I will answer your questions and also post further updates with new resource links to make your life easier. 

Kindly let us know your views and how you feel by commenting here and don’t forget to send this blog link to your friends who might be facing similar problem.

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