Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications - Installation Wizard

Many users have asked us about this, and perhaps it's happened to you... Have you turned on your computer recently to find a pop-up from Microsoft on your screen for Windows Genuine Advange Notifications - Installation Wizard?

We advise all clients to be VERY cautious when they see something they don't recognize on their system. This recent deployment by Microsoft is unfortunate, because the window that pops up looks just like all the bogus AntiVirus 2009 and other malware threats that have circulated around recently. Many users have been alarmed by it.

The Window Genuine Advantage program is Microsoft's Anti-Piracy program. The sofware detects if you have a legal license, and will warn you if you don't. If your software is not legal, then you won't be eligible for automatic updates (except for Critical updates). The problem is that if you are an honest customer, you've already paid and this is a real nuisance. If your system is set to get Automatic Updates with Automatic Installation, then this would have been automatically installed. Typically, we recommend selectively installing updates to avoid things like this.

Microsoft is getting some angry feedback from customers, so I would hope they'd change this in the future.

An Easy Way to Send Photos to Non-Techies

As much as I love technology, I haven't been able to get my parents to fully embrace the digital age. A while back, I was talking to my parents about some pictures I had emailed them.... I was disappointed to hear that they hadn't seen them yet! My parents just aren't on their computer all the time. Then my mom complained that the pictures are hard to print and they never come out right.... too big, no ink...

I figured I could go back to the old-fashioned way of mailing pictures of the grandkids, but that doesn't have the immediate gratification effect (for me, anyway). I searched on line and found a really great solution. At www.walgreens.com, you can upload digital photos and submit them for 1 hour processing to be picked up anywhere (over 6,000 locations). For a stack of pictures, you may expect to pay just a few dollars. The prints are excellent, and my parents actually enjoy the trip out to get the photos. It doesn't cost any more than printing them locally (because its all electronic anyway!). Now I just upload the photos, order prints to be picked up in Florida, and then my Dad gets them in an hour!