Workaround to Disable and Remove OGA Office Not Genuine Notifications (Uninstall KB949810)

After installing Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Notifications (KB949810) from Windows Update, OGA Validation will perform genuine test on installed Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010 software. If Office product is validated as not genuine, “This copy of Microsoft Office is not genuine” notification message will be displayed on notification area (system tray), at splash screen during Office program (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) startup, and at Office’s toolbar or ribbon with extra “Get Genuine Office” tab or element.

KB949810 OGA Notifications update is designed so that end-user cannot uninstall or removed the update using “Add and Remove Programs” or “Program and Features” in the Control Panel, in a bid to encourage end-users to buy genuine Microsoft products. But, if you’re a legit Office users, and the OGA validation has returned false-positive result, use the one of the following hacks to disable and remove Microsoft Office not genuine notification messages displayed by OGA Notifications.

Note: Hack below simply remove and disable OGA Notifications so that no notification message about Office not genuine is not displayed, and works on most versions of OGA Notifications. It doesn’t crack or patch OGA Validation component, OGACheckControl.dll, which does the validation process to determine if the Office product is genuine or not.

Hack 1: Disable OGAAddin.dll from Loading with Office Applications

OGAAddin.dll (and OGAVerify.exe) is a few files that been installed by OGA Notifications. OGAAddin.dll allowed OGA Notifications to install as an add-in to applications in Office productivity suites to display not genuine reminder message to illegitimate and illegal copy of Office. By stopping the OGAAddin load behavior and preventing OGAAddin.dll from loading, the Office Genuine Advantage Notifications message can be suppressed.

  1. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe).
  2. Press Ctrl-F to open search box, and search for OGAAddin.connect registry key.
  3. In the right pane, right click on Load Behavior and select Modify.
  4. Change the value data from 3 to 0.
  5. Repeat for each and every OGAAddin.connect found.

With this hack, Windows still treat OGA as installed, and will not prompt user to install again.

Hack 2: Disable and Remove OGAAddin from within Office Applications

  1. Run one of the Office app such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher and etc as administrator.

    Note: Open Windows Explorer, go to %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 (may be different depends on version of Office installed and x64 OS uses Program Files (x86) folder), and right click on Office app executable, e.g. winword.exe, excel.exe, powerpnt.exe and etc to run as administrator.

  2. Go to Options (at the bottom of menu triggered by Office button) -> Add-Ins.
  3. Select COM Add-ins under Manage drop menu list, and click Go.

    Disable and Remove OGA Addin Add-In

  4. Disable or remoev the OGAAdmin.
  5. Repeat above steps for each and every Office applications installed.

Hack 3: Delete and Remove (Uninstall) Office Genuine Advantage Notifications Components

Although Microsoft does not allow OGA Notifications to be uninstall, but that does not mean that individual file components of OGA Notifications cannot be deleted, removed or uninstalled manually.

To disable OGA Notifications and uninstall KB949810, close and exit from all Office applications (including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, Visio and etc.), and search for the following files in %SystemDrive%\Wndows\System32 folder and %SystemDrive%\Windows\SysWow64 folder (for 64-bit OS x64 only).

OGAVerify.exe
OGAAddin.dll

Delete the above files. It’s also possible rename the files so that system cannot find them.

Hack 4: Remove OGAAddin.connect Registry Key in System Registry

Pretty much similar to method 1 and 2, but it’s quicker and will complete remove trace of OGAAddin.connect from registry. Unlike hack 1, Windows Update may prompt you to install again.

  1. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe).
  2. Go to each and every of the following registry keys, and any other which contains OGAAddin.connect registry value sub-key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Powerpoint\Addins
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins

  3. Delete the OGAAddin.connect registry value.

Hack 5: Properly Uninstall KB949810 OGA Notification via OGANotifier.msi

Tip by AnonyMouse

Easy to uninstall. Just follow these steps:

  1. Go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\8998da55d52b36c0e98ba016ddd50de0\ folder.

    Note: The directory may be different, so if not found search for OGANotifier.cab.

  2. Extract OGANotifier.cab with WinRAR (or using the Expand command at command line) to get a file named OGANotifier.msi.
  3. Right click on OGANotifier.msi, and select Uninstall.
  4. Remember to block the update from been installed again in WU.

There is also an official Windows Installer method of uninstalling OGA, Belt-and-Braces approach submitted by one of the reader, shown below:

  1. Remove ‘Office/Windows Genuine Advantage’ from Office Programs:
    • Word / Excel / PowerPoint / Access

      Quick Access Toolbar – More Commands – Add Ins – Manage ‘Comm Add Ins’ – Go – Remove OGA Add In

    • Outlook / Visio

      Tools – Trust Centre – Add Ins – Manage ‘Comm Add Ins’ – Manage – Go – Remove OGA Add In

  2. Reboot into Windows ‘Safe Mode’
  3. Rename in \windows\system32 (by adding .bak to end of file)
    • LegitCheckControl.dll (create empty file)
    • OGAAddin.dll (create empty file)
    • OGACheckControl.dll (create empty file)
    • OGAExec.exe (create empty file)
    • WgaTray.exe (create empty file)
    • WgaLogon.dll (create empty file)
  4. Edit Registry (Navigate to WgaLogon folder)
    1. HKey Local Machine
    2. Software
    3. Microsoft
    4. Windows NT
    5. Current Version
    6. Winlogon
    7. Notify
    8. DELETE Wgalogon folder
  5. Disable OGALogon Task
    1. \Windows\tasks
    2. Select OGALogon and the ‘Properties’
    3. On Task Tab
    4. Disable as follows (Uncheck):
      • Run only if logged on
      • Enabled (Scheduled task runs at specified time)
    5. On Settings Tab
    6. Disable as follows (Check):

      Delete the task if it is not scheduled to run again

  6. Restart Windows Normally
  7. Block Programs in Firewall (Prevents running IF there is an automatic Update)
    • OGAExec.exe **create empty file (If not done in 3)
    • WgaTray.exe **create empty file (If not done in 3)

With any one of the hacks above, no more Office Genuine Advantage notification message will be displayed and showed on system, regardless of genuine status of the Office software, unless of course, end-user chooses to reinstall KB949810.


This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 1:19 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

98 Responses to “Workaround to Disable and Remove OGA Office Not Genuine Notifications (Uninstall KB949810)”

Pages: [4] 3 2 1 » Show All

  1. Dioxanne
    November 21st, 2009 05:34
    98

    I hope everyone here knows that MS watches and reads these workarounds – as I said before, the reason those hacks didn’t work for me is because they changed stuff in a later update I am sure.
    So MS, here’s the deal:
    If you change it again, I will buy a MAC, no longer support you by buying your software and just use Wordperfect instead (which I have anyway).

    As far as I am concerned, after that whole MS Millennium debacle (which just about gave me PTSD), MS should have given a FREE COPY OF XP to anyone that sent in a Millennium hologram CD!!!
    What a joke and they are doing the same thing with Vista = Win 7 but at least the manufactures will give you an upgrade coupon.
    Shame on you Microsoft.

  2. Dioxanne
    November 20th, 2009 07:08
    97

    I tried almost all of the above hacks and none worked – I think because MS changed something in the way OGA works, probably from a later update. I DID find another work around though and an even easier one:

    1. Look in Scheduled Tasks:
    - Start buttons / Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Scheduled Tasks

    2. Disable “OGALogon”:
    - Right click on OGALogon / Properties / Uncheck Enable Box

    3. AFTER you do that, follow instructions above for
    Hack #4:

    Quoted from above:
    Remove OGAAddin.connect Registry Key in System Registry

    Pretty much similar to method 1 and 2, but it’s quicker and will complete remove trace of OGAAddin.connect from registry. Unlike hack 1, Windows Update may prompt you to install again.

    1. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe).
    2. Go to each and every of the following registry keys, and any other which contains OGAAddin.connect registry value sub-key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Powerpoint\Addins
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins
    3. Delete the OGAAddin.connect registry value.

    BTW, I tried only doing Hack 4 WITHOUT disabling the OGALogon and at boot or Log on, the Registry values would reappear.
    I think because OGALogon “tells” your machine to check all values and make sure that the OGA is active.
    So far no prompt from MS update to reinstall because I think by disabling the scheduled task, it still thinks OGA is there and working.

    Hope that helps!

  3. hd912
    November 18th, 2009 02:25
    96

    Remove Office Genuine Advantage Reminder (hack 6?)

    It requires no file modification what so ever, only a small change to folder permissions.

    This version has been tested over Windows 7 Professional running Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 SP2

    Step 1:
    Go in C:\Users\your username\Office Genuine Advantage\Data\ and in the latter folder

    Set folder permissions to deny all for your username.
    [Of course, now you won't be able to store anything in this folder... that's quite sad.]

    Then, if you start any Office Product, the reminder won’t show.

    KISS

    Sorry for double posting… tags, tags, tags.

  4. hd912
    November 18th, 2009 02:22
    95

    Remove Office Genuine Advantage Reminder (hack 6?)

    It requires no file modification what so ever, only a small change to folder permissions.

    This version has been tested over Windows 7 Professional running Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 SP2

    Step 1:
    Go in C:\Users\\Office Genuine Advantage\Data\ and remove any file in the latter folder

    Set folder permissions to “deny all” on this folder for .
    [Of course, now you won't be able to store anything in this folder... that's quite sad.]

    Then, if you start any Office Product, the reminder won’t show.

    KISS

  5. Isambard
    November 17th, 2009 16:56
    94

    Hack three. No worries. Thanks folks.

  6. Matt Scheaffer
    November 17th, 2009 04:07
    93

    WowI can’t believe how much of this is wrong or severly outdated info. It’s people like you that ruin the internet with bad info. Asshole

  7. Watchers
    November 15th, 2009 23:04
    92

    Thanks a lot!!

    Hack 3 worked for me!!

  8. tamburlane
    November 15th, 2009 01:39
    91

    Vista/ Office 2007: method 2 worked well and easily (and would appear to be ‘allowed’ within the Microsoft world-view as well). Good range of options though!

  9. elelaj
    November 14th, 2009 12:09
    90

    Thanks a lot hack 3 woked fine for me in seconds no reboot needed either fine work!

  10. Lei
    November 12th, 2009 18:05
    89

    I AGREE! HACK 2 IS SO EASY TO DO! THANKS! :)

  11. mark
    November 11th, 2009 09:33
    88

    Hack 2 is gorgeous!

  12. Arun
    November 10th, 2009 14:12
    87

    Thanks a lot. Hack 2 is very simple and effective.

  13. Don
    November 10th, 2009 04:59
    86

    Thanks a lot! Hack 1 did good job for me….you guys are the best man…..

  14. JRWI
    November 10th, 2009 03:55
    85

    # 1 didnt work, but # 3 did work on xp & vista.
    Thank you

  15. Kevin
    November 10th, 2009 03:13
    84

    Thanks! Did #1 and #3. Tried to do #2 but I could not figure out how to disable the addons – did not see any button or propt to allow me do disable.

  16. KK
    November 7th, 2009 16:52
    83

    Very easy to uninstall in Vista. Open the command prompt or simply type cmd.exe on start, the command prompt opens, type in cd C:\ to switch, then copy and paste “MsiExec.exe/X{B2544A03-10D0-4E5E-BA69-0362FFC20D18}” (without the quotes “”), and click enter. To paste click the icon on command prompt, edit, paste. Nice. —- Do you want to uninstall bla bla bla, Yes ofcourse, OK. Enjoy!!!

  17. Meenge
    November 6th, 2009 14:01
    82

    Thanks a lot. Thta very useful for me.

  18. Nano
    November 6th, 2009 04:00
    81

    thank you that was briliant

  19. Charissa
    November 4th, 2009 20:34
    80

    Thank you so much, it was very interesting. I did hack 2. However for publisher and access I could not open these as administrator. Not sure what’s going on with these 2. I’ll try another hack on them. Thanks again

  20. Bullukka
    November 4th, 2009 08:36
    79

    The first work very well.

  21. Z
    November 2nd, 2009 03:35
    78

    Hack 3 worked for me atm, ill get bck to u if somting goes wrong but for now, TY

  22. pirulin
    November 1st, 2009 22:47
    77

    Hack 3 did the good job for me too.

    Thanks a lot!!
    –

  23. Grumman
    October 31st, 2009 23:48
    76

    Thanks a lot!!! Hack 3 did the good job for me… Awesome…

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