Microsoft is continuing a process that started five years ago with product activation. The new Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program is becoming the curse of honest users who have paid a lot of money for its software. The WGA check is one more thing to get on your nerves. While product activation only required you to register after a fresh installation, WGA now also demands the installation of an ActiveX confirmation module.

You can use freeware utility Remove WGA to get round this. It stops the version of Windows from being checked during every start-up and also stops the notifications from appearing in the Windows Systray. Note, however, that it doesn't remove the validation part of the process, so your Windows installation will still be checked for authenticity when you download or install Microsoft programs and updates.



Just as Microsoft wants to get a report from the user with the activation and authentication processes, the sending of crash reports also harvests data. This is because even if you kill a crashed application with the Task Manager, Windows will suggest that you send a crash log to Microsoft.

As if a crash weren't bad enough already, Windows' desire to phone home demands that you make more mouse clicks. You can do away with this by opening the Control Panel's system module and clicking on the Advanced tab's Error Reporting button, then selecting Disable Error Reporting and choosing if you wish to be informed of critical errors.