How to disable WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage)

Sometimes you can have a perfectly legitimate copy of Windows on your computer and WGA thinks you do not. If you run into this situation this is how you can disable WGA. This technique can also be applied to malware.

The CACLS command is used for displaying or modifying Access Control Lists. The /d denies access to the user following the option.

1. Click on the START button.
2. Go to Run...
3. Type cmd in the box then hit Enter on the keyboard.
4. At the command prompt type in cd C:\Windows\system32 then hit Enter.
5. Type in cacls wgatray.exe /d everyone then hit Enter. Answer Y.
6. Type cacls wgalogon.dll /d everyone then hit Enter. Answer Y when prompted.
7. Type cacls legitcheckcontrol.dll /d everyone and hit Enter. Answer Y when prompted.
8. Reboot the computer.

If using Windows Vista, replace cacls with icacls.