There was a workaround for this some months ago. Microsoft originally released the WGA as an addon in IE...., but that could be disabled, allowing to update as before; you would only receive an error symbol in the status bar.

Then they came up with this latest one, and that seems to be a bit harder to crack.
There's a few 'Tech' forums out there discussing the workaround, and a few files are available, most of them with disclaimers attached, from what I have seen.

I'll wait a few months before I try any of these 'fixes', as the beta, gamma, and delta versions of them will likely be an improvement.

I have one machine (seldom used) which this applies to, so I'm not really worried about it neither.
The other computers have all passed the test famously already.

I doubt any OS will ever be totally 'hack-free'

B.