Saturday, March 5, 2011

Removing WAT

This can refer to either removing WAT completely from your computer or simply disabling it.


The WAT Validation Task was introduced by Microsoft with kb971033 and added this task to the Windows Scheduler so that it would run every 90 days.
It was not clear whether there was a "validation" method before the introduction of kb971033 but it was still a requirement that you needed to activate your computer within 30 days of installing Windows 7.
This 30 day period could be viewed as an "evaluation period" and there are command-line commands that will allow you to reset this evaluation period a fixed number of times. Thus extending the 30 days to 60, 90 and beyond (if you re-installed Windows from scratch)

The validation task may also be introduced on your computer by SP1 even if kb971033 was not allowed to be installed and run on your Windows 7 computer.
The Daz loader seems to install certificates that are immune to the WAT Validation checks and as such the tasks do not need to be removed or disabled.

Curiously the WAT tasks that can be found in Windows Task Scheduler have a description "Microsoft Update KB971033".

The consolidation of all the updates into SP1 may still add this task with this description as it relates to when the task was first introduced.

If you have removed or disabled it prior to the application of kb976932 (aka SP1) it may well return and need to be addressed again. to say: "WAT update is unlikely to be separable nor uninstallable." is not relevant as it is easily identified and handled in anyway that you desire.

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