WGA

Updated: 12/29/2017 by Computer Hope

Short for Windows Genuine Advantage, WGA is part of Microsoft's efforts to show its customers the benefits to owning a legitimate copy of Microsoft Windows. Namely, a genuine version needs to be installed on the user's machine before allowing that computer to download any updates from Microsoft.

Note

Older versions of Microsoft Windows (e.g., Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0) do not require any WGA for downloading and installing Windows updates.

Computer abbreviations, Operating system terms, Software piracy