I have two HP PCs, both with XP licences, but I choose to run a "dodgy" copy of XP on them as I got fed up with reactivating them all the time - as I love nothing more than tinkering as swapping hardware every few days it was becoming a real pain.

From bits I've read, and my own take on disabling WGA: -

You can't delete the EXE and DLL files as they are in use. But you can rename them.

Start a DOS prompt CD \\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32 REN WGATRAY.EXE WGATRAY.XXX REN LEGITCHECKCONTROL.DLL LEGITCHECKCONTROL.XXX REN SPMSGS.DLL SPMSGS.XXX CD DLLCACHE REN WGATRAY.EXE WGATRAY.XXX REN LEGITCHECKCONTROL.DLL LEGITCHECKCONTROL.XXX REN SPMSGS.DLL SPMSGS.XXX (note that not all the files are necessarily in DLLCACHE too) Reboot the PC, and start a DOS prompt again CD \\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32 MD WGATRAY.EXE MD LEGITCHECKCONTROL.DLL MD SPMSGS.DLL

Creating the directories with the same names as the offending files will prevent them ever re-appearing. Neat trick. I have since been asked to download WGA updates, I now choose custom rather than automatic updates and then untick the update. Windows kindly asks me if I ever want to be bothered with that update again, which I politely decline.

Cheers John