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.