Markotics

My sister sent me this nice mp3 player made by microsoft, it's name was Zune. If you were wondering what a zune player looked like, it's big (bigger than iPod 30gb - due to it's bigger screen). I was very unfamiliar with this new kind of gadget and I have no idea how to work on it, so I decided to google it. During my research, I found out that this device was supposed to take on the very famous iPod by Apple. A kind of device supposed to take a bite out of apple's share in the gadget and music industry.

Also during my pervent search, Zune was released for almost a while now, meaning that it would probably was easy to use or sync or something but I was wrong. Not only does the device depend on frequent updates on the microsoft network, you also need it's sync software to be updated also on the microsoft network, which means you cannot probably use a non-updated device on an updated sync software or vice versa. After knowing this information, I immediately said to myself -"what the f*ck?" but I was so determined to use the device even if it takes me a couple of weeks knowing how to work it.

Windows Genuine Advantage

As we all know (Windows users alike) that windows products nowadays are all required to pass the WGA test, where windows downloads and installs a small update which tells the microsoft network if your computer is using a genuine windows software.

Why did I talk about WGA and how it's related to this post? As I mentioned earlier, Even if you have an installer CD of your zune device, you cannot easily use the zune software on your zune. In order to use your device, you need to update your zune software - which will in turn update your zune device therefore sync it.

Searching how to bypass the WGA stuff is really hard to search in the net. Especially when there's not much information is available. I am posting this information for those zune users like me and are having problems in using their zunes. This workaround solves the problems of hanging zunes, sync problems with zunes, and updating your zune device software, so it's better to read this post.

Simply follow the steps I have listed below. If the following steps did not work for you, just leave me a comment and I will be willing to help.

1. Download and install the latest zune software. Do not download from the Zune website - I just downloaded from this site and believe me the file is not as complete as it may seem, so you may just have to download on this link. The link goes directly to the windows download center so I know it's really legit and safe. The file would be ZunePackage31.exe so you would know you're downloading the right stuff.

2. Install Winrar on your PC.
3. Open Winrar and open the downloaded file (ZunePackage31.exe)
4. Unrar the whole package in a temporary folder.
5. Open the temporary folder where you unzipped the package and open the x86\packages folder.
4. Run dotnetfx.exe.
5. Run wmfdist11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe.
6. Run windowsxp-kb915865-v11-x86-enu.exe.
7. Run zune-x86.msi.

That's it! Try running the Zune program and sync your zune with it.

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