RemoveWAT does that intentionally. WAT is blocked as a temporary safety measure before so a newer version can fix it.
But still, if you have a SLIC 2.1 BIOS, the right cert, and use a OEM key - there no need to use RemoveWat? You don't need to use a loader, you can manualy install the cert and the key and then activate.
0x80072EFD stands for ERROR_INTERNET_CANNOT_CONNECT It may just be a temporary problem, keep trying again at the microsoft site. Rest of the report seems to be fine. Only the online validation seems to be a problem. You can try this, take ownership of the following files: npWatWeb.dll WatWeb.dll located in C:\Windows\system32\Wat\ Then run the following commands as Administrator: Code: icacls C:\Windows\system32\Wat\npWatWeb.dll /grant *S-1-1-0:F icacls C:\Windows\system32\Wat\WatWeb.dll /grant *S-1-1-0:F
Did exactly as you said. Took ownership. Ran the commands as administrator. Tried again (using Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox). Didn't work. Was a restart necessary before I tried to re-validate?
Your report says you are activated and genuine, but the site says otherwise. I believe you do not have any watermark or Black desktop wallpaper. You can clear you internet cache and retry. But i would advise you to try again tomorrow. It must be some temporary problem with the MS servers.
Yup. I don't have any watermark or black desktop wallpaper. And ok. I'll try clearing my cache or try again tomorrow. If the MGADiag.exe report says I'm genuine, then it's fine.Thanks a lot! P.S. - Earlier, I used to try and test different methods of activating Windows (which includes different sorts of Loaders, BIOS emulation, RemoveWAT, etc.) on my laptop and the things got messed up after the KB971033 update installed itself. I was flagged as non genuine and the watermark appeared on my desktop with the black wallpaper. I removed the update, removed the loader, RemoveWAT, or whatever I was using (I don't remember now what I was using at that time) and just installed the proper certificate and key for my Dell Laptop. But it, surprisingly, did not work. The Windows remained un-activated, let alone be flagged as genuine. I had to re-install the certificate and the key and rearm my Windows and then I got activated. After this I installed RemoveWAT and later uninstalled it, as I told you above. I hope this problem (if I can call it one) is not, in any way, related to this incident.
Oh yes! Where did this come from? I never noticed! I have this entry in my hosts file (except for other entries, which I had manually put) -
Maybe you ran AntiWat v0.4. Only known hack according to my knowledge that adds that entry to the HOSTS file.