Details of what to look for in MGA report

tns1 · 26 Jun 2016

I have occasionally purchased used pcs in the past and never really thought to look past the "genuine" icon or whatever the validation tool says. I'll bet this is what most rely on. I had reason to clean install recently and it involved 150+ updates. Are you really saying there is no way in all those updates for it to perform the same inspections that the MGA utility does?

If the MGA report is the definitive test, can someone share the checklist you use to interpret that?

Teach a man to fish already.

torchwood · 27 Jun 2016

Hi Tns.
All that the Mgadiag tool does is collate information.
Mainly from the software service protection folder.

The service.exe generated by this file is called everytime you login(1) or update(2) and is interactve with both.
This .exe performs the Genuine test(1) as such, the results of this check are then passed across to the WindowsUpdate log(2) and the System details log(1) .

Thats just a short brief synopsis, but carries the basic operations performed.

The checklist in its own right is massive, because of the the different permutations, we know a fair bit about it, but by no means everything.

Roy

tns1 · 27 Jun 2016

torchwood said:

Hi Tns.
All that the Mgadiag tool does is collate information.
Mainly from the software service protection folder.

The service.exe generated by this file is called everytime you login(1) or update(2) and is interactve with both.
This .exe performs the Genuine test(1) as such, the results of this check are then passed across to the WindowsUpdate log(2) and the System details log(1) .

Thats just a short brief synopsis, but carries the basic operations performed.

The checklist in its own right is massive, because of the the different permutations, we know a fair bit about it, but by no means everything.

Roy

So if you are getting all the updates you have been subjected to the genuine test many times over. According to some posts it can spot dozens of activation hacks, and is possibly improved as time goes on. The inference in this thread is that it really takes manual inspection of the MGA report to determine the 'genuiness', yet every detail in the report is already available for the automated genuine test to look at.

No doubt there are systems that are not running windows legitimately, but it also seems like MS could very easily detect and flag these but has simply chosen not to. The message seems to be "don't ask, don't tell", or that the permutations of sales and licensing are too complicated to enforce.

I guess my point is that if you have not blocked any of the updates that do the genuine tests, and you run robust anti-virus/malware, haven't you already shown the install is as clean and legit as MS cares for it to be? To go further seems to be inventing trouble where there is none.

All the same, I'll run the test on one of the systems I bought used and post it here.

torchwood · 29 Jun 2016

Hi TNS,
Computers checking computers, someone has to write the code and as i said the permutations are massive.

Roy

UsernameIssues · 30 Jun 2016

tns1,
Some users would not install updates if MS started flagging non-genuine system via various updates. MS would rather not have infected bots disrupting the Internet for those that do have genuine installs. Also, false positives would generate more bad PR (or lawsuits) than it is worth.

torchwood,
There was an app written by a forum member that did a good job of analyzing MGA reports. I never saw it get it wrong. but my testing was limited to a few dozen reports.

torchwood · 30 Jun 2016

KB971033 is the secondary Genuine tester, it also performs other tasks including registration.
If any user refuses to install this update you can near enough guarentee that the install is counterfiet.

@ UNI,
would love to get a copy of that, pretty sure its not one of Noel's

Roy

UsernameIssues · 30 Jun 2016

Sadly, I don't recall who wrote it. Noel might know.

derekimo · 30 Jun 2016

torchwood said:

@ UNI,
would love to get a copy of that, pretty sure its not one of Noel's

Roy

UsernameIssues said:

Sadly, I don't recall who wrote it. Noel might know.

That would be tom982,

The OEM_SLP Key

UsernameIssues · 30 Jun 2016

derekimo said:

torchwood said:

@ UNI,
would love to get a copy of that, pretty sure its not one of Noel's

Roy

UsernameIssues said:

Sadly, I don't recall who wrote it. Noel might know.

That would be tom982,

The OEM_SLP Key

Thanks.

derekimo · 30 Jun 2016

UsernameIssues said:

derekimo said:

torchwood said:

@ UNI,
would love to get a copy of that, pretty sure its not one of Noel's

Roy

UsernameIssues said:

Sadly, I don't recall who wrote it. Noel might know.

That would be tom982,

The OEM_SLP Key

Thanks.

You're welcome.