UPDATE: Looks like it’s working again…
Wuh oh. According to everyone, everywhere Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage server is down for the count. Both 32- and 64-bit versions of XP and Vista are affected and allegedly some Microsoft support personnel are telling irate consumers that the server could be down until Tuesday.
Okay, so don’t update anything for a couple days right? Yes, but if you do download updates or even add new hardware to your machine and you fail the WGA check, definitely don’t reboot your machine because you’ll apparently lose Aero functionality.
Oddly enough, I unknowingly updated my machine last night and restarted it but nothing bad happened. Since these reports started coming in last night, I must have just missed the server going down. Whew.
Any CG readers having any problems?
Windows Genuine Advantage suffers worldwide outage, problems galore [Ars Technica]
Not with this, but recently I called into Microsoft Support (the paid corporate kind) and their live assist application server was down as well.
It seems that when it rains, it pours at Microsoft. Good to know that it is back up again.
While the server is down, slip a Ubuntu live CD in your PC and take her for a spin around the block. All cylinders are firing now on Ubuntu. It rocks
I agree with Elranchero. When I heard about this nonsense with Windows and their ridiculous DRM I laughed. I haven’t been running Windows for a few months now, and am LOVING Ubuntu. HIGHLY recommend it if you’re sick of dealing with Microsoft.
I have also been using Ubuntu for almost a year now. I really cannot understand why people would pirate Windows, when Ubuntu is free. I’d gladly pay the $200 cost of Windows for Ubuntu if they both cost the same. Hell, I’d pay $200 to use Ubuntu even if Windows was free!
Echo the above comments… Have spent the last year or so migrating the 3 machines at home to ubuntu. First started toying around with an old P4 1500MHz (which became very slow with winXP) that I have now turned into a headless fileserver. Finally got so fed up with winblowz on my laptop that I put Ubuntu on that a couple of months ago and have never looked back. All this about WGA just makes me laugh…
windows is crap, im using linux for last 2 yrs no problem or conflict!!!!!
recently i innstalled windows vista ,it crashed immidiately ,i had to format 7 times!!!. all
this WGA stuff makes me pisss!!!!
My mom bought an XP based laptop, and even thought she was connected to the internet all the time, every-once-in-a-while Windows would pop-up a balloon saying that she might be a “victim”.
My mom always got uneasy at those accusations and asked me to come and fix the problem. I started to get really angry at M$ saying those things to my mom, so I fired their stupid software!
“old P4 1500MHz (which became very slow with winXP)”
xp runs firefox3 (50+tabs), etc fine on 700mhz celeron 512pc100 w/ av, pfw. something else was bad on your p4. maybe you’d installed symantec security suite? that’ll slow down a c2d w/ 4gb (albeit running vista)