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How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

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 1 of 3:

Activating Windows

  1. images 1 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 1 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Make sure that you're connected to the Internet. In order to activate your copy of Windows, you'll need to be connected to the Internet so that Microsoft can validate your key.
  2. images 2 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 2 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Open Start
    images 3 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 3 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen. The Start menu will pop up.
  3. images 4 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 4 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Open Settings
    images 5 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 5 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    . Click the gear-shaped icon in the lower-left side of the Start menu.
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    Images 6 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click
    images 7 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 7 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Update & Security. This circular arrow-shaped icon is at the bottom of the Settings window.
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    Images 8 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click the Activation tab. You'll find it on the left side of the window.
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    Images 9 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click Change product key. It's a link in the middle of the Activation page. Doing so opens a new window.
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    Images 10 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Enter your Windows 10 product key. Type the activation key that came with your copy of Windows 10 into the text box.
    1. You can usually find the product key on the CD box if you bought a hard copy, or in a confirmation email from Microsoft if you bought a Windows 10 product key online.
    2. If you bought a key for Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, you can use that key to register Windows 10.[1]
  8. images 11 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 11 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click Next. It's in the lower-right corner of the window. This will prompt Microsoft to attempt to verify your copy of Windows.
  9. images 12 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 12 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Follow any on-screen instructions. If your copy of Windows is legitimate, you should receive a notification that it has been accepted, though you may need to enter additional information if prompted.
Method 2 of 3:

Removing the Activation Watermark from Windows 10

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    Images 13 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Make sure that you're on an administrator account. You'll need to be on an account that has administrator privileges in order to make changes to your computer's registry.
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    Images 14 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Open Start
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    Images 15 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
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    Images 16 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Type in regedit. This will search your computer for the Registry Editor command.
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    Images 17 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click regedit. It's a teal collection of blocks at the top of the Start window.
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    Images 18 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click Yes when prompted. Doing so will open the Registry Editor window.
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    Images 19 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Go to the "Activation" key. To do so:
    1. Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder by double-clicking it.
    2. Expand SOFTWARE
    3. Scroll down and expand Microsoft
    4. Scroll down and expand Windows NT
    5. Expand CurrentVersion
    6. Expand Software Protection Platform
    7. Click Activation
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    Images 20 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Right-click Manual. It's a blue-and-white icon on the right side of the window. A drop-down menu will appear.
    1. If your mouse doesn't have a right-click button, click the right side of the mouse, or use two fingers to click the mouse.
    2. If your computer uses a trackpad instead of a mouse, use two fingers to tap the trackpad or press the bottom-right side of the trackpad.
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    Images 21 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click Modify. It's at the top of the drop-down menu. A window will appear.
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    Images 22 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Change the value data. In the "Value data" text box, replace the "0" with a "1", then click OK.
    1. You may be prompted to confirm this choice. If so, click Yes or OK before proceeding.
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    Images 23 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Right-click NotificationDisabled. This item is also on the right side of the page.
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    Images 24 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click Modify.
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    Images 25 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Change the value data to 1. This will prevent the activation notification from appearing on your desktop.
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    Images 26 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Restart your computer. Click Start
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    Images 27 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    , click Power
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    Images 28 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    , and click Restart in the pop-up menu. Your computer will shut down and then turn itself back on.
  14. Repeat this process if the notification reappears. While removing the watermark notification will work temporarily, you may need to disable it again in the future.
Method 3 of 3:

Disabling Genuine Advantage in Windows 7

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    Images 29 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Open Start
    images 30 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Images 30 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
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    Images 31 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click the search bar. It's at the bottom of the Start window.
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    Images 32 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Type in task manager. This will search your computer for the Task Manager application.
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    Images 33 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Click Task Manager. It's at the top of the Start window.
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    Images 34 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Open the Run window. Press ⊞ Win+R at the same time to do so.
    1. If this doesn't work, re-open Start, type in run, and click Run.
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    Images 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.
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    Images 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.
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    Images 37 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Enable viewing for hidden files and file extensions. To do so:
    1. Click the View tab.
    2. Check the "Hidden items" box.
    3. Check the "File name extensions" box.
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    Images 38 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    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.
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    Images 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.
    1. The file should now read "WgaLogon.dll.bak" instead.
    2. You may be prompted to confirm this choice. If so, click Yes or OK.
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    Images 40 of How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
    Create an empty copy of the "WgaLogon.dll" file. To do so:
    1. Right click on a blank space in the system32 window.
    2. Select New
    3. Click Text Document
    4. Type in WgaLogon as the file's name.
    5. Replace the .txt with .dll
    6. Press ↵ Enter, then click Yes if prompted.
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    Images 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:
    1. system32 - You should see "WgaTray.exe" in the window if "wga" is still typed into the search bar.
    2. Task Manager - Click the Processes tab, scroll down until you find the "WgaTray.exe" option, and click it.
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    Images 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.
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    Images 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.
    1. You may have to repeat this process at some point, since Genuine Advantage notifications often return with critical updates.
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