How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

June 2023 · 3 minute read

This wikiHow teaches you how to remove the Windows validation notifications that you see when using an unregistered copy of Windows. The easiest (and most legal) way of doing this involves activating your copy of Windows from within...

Method 3 of 3:

Disabling Genuine Advantage in Windows 7

  • Picture 29 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Open Start Picture 30 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
  • Picture 31 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

    Click the search bar. It's at the bottom of the Start window.

  • Picture 32 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

    Type in task manager. This will search your computer for the Task Manager application.

  • Picture 33 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

    Click Task Manager. It's at the top of the Start window.

  • Picture 34 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Open the Run window. Press ⊞ Win+R at the same time to do so.
  • If this doesn't work, re-open Start, type in run, and click Run.
  • Picture 35 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

    Type in system32. System32 is a folder that contains many of your computer's sensitive files.

  • Picture 36 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

    Click OK. It's at the bottom of the Run window. This will open the system32 folder.

  • Picture 37 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Enable viewing for hidden files and file extensions. To do so:
  • Click the View tab.
  • Check the "Hidden items" box.
  • Check the "File name extensions" box.
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    Find the "WgaLogon.dll" file. The easiest way to do this is by typing wga into the search bar that's in the upper-right side of the window and then waiting for the "WgaLogon.dll" file to appear.

  • Picture 39 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Rename the "WgaLogon.dll" file. Right-click the file, click Rename, and type .bak at the end of the file name and extension, then press ↵ Enter.
  • The file should now read "WgaLogon.dll.bak" instead.
  • You may be prompted to confirm this choice. If so, click Yes or OK.
  • Picture 40 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Create an empty copy of the "WgaLogon.dll" file. To do so:
  • Right click on a blank space in the system32 window.
  • Select New
  • Click Text Document
  • Type in WgaLogon as the file's name.
  • Replace the .txt with .dll
  • Press ↵ Enter, then click Yes if prompted.
  • Picture 41 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Find the "WgaTray.exe" file in both system32 and Task Manager. Since you'll need to delete both entries within 5 seconds of each other, you'll want to find them now. To do so:
  • system32 - You should see "WgaTray.exe" in the window if "wga" is still typed into the search bar.
  • Task Manager - Click the Processes tab, scroll down until you find the "WgaTray.exe" option, and click it.
  • Picture 42 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

    Delete both "WgaTray.exe" files. Select the system32 "WgaTray.exe" file and press the Del key, then switch to Task Manager and click End process or End task in the lower-right corner of the window.

  • Picture 43 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Restart your computer when finished. Once your computer finishes rebooting, your Genuine Advantage notifications should be gone.
  • You may have to repeat this process at some point, since Genuine Advantage notifications often return with critical updates.
    • Micah Soto Micah Soto

    Update 04 March 2020

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