I am getting a pop up saying My copy of windows is not genuine. What should I do?

Answer 1

This is a long response, but I think it could be useful.


Given the extremely small number of technical failures of WGA why else might someone think that their system was falsely identified as running counterfeit Windows? If they aren't actual 'false positives' what are they? It turns out there are a number of scenarios that could result in a WGA validation failure that a user might be surprised by or even deny including the following few scenarios:

Scenario 1: the PC user was sold counterfeit but it looks genuine to them so their first reaction is shock followed by disbelief and frustration (occasionally people seem to contact us right at this point!) but in truth these people are victims and the product is really a counterfeit made to look like genuine. When people are ripped of this way we offer to replace their product with a genuine copy if they fill out a counterfeit report and send it and the counterfeit into us. So far we've provided hundreds of free copies of Windows to users who've been ripped by high-quality counterfeit, and we plan to continue this offer.

Scenario 2: the PC user really doesn't know that they did something wrong, such as install the same copy and key to more than one PC at the same time. If a customer such as this bought their copy at a reputable outlet, a national chain or received Windows pre-installed on a PC from a major manufacturer they might believe that what they have is 'genuine' but they don't realize that they're violating the license in a way that results in a WGA failure. The solution to this is really educational, there are some requirements as to how Windows can be installed, these are of course spelled out in the EULA and for many are common knowledge.

Scenario 3: a friend or acquaintance offers to 'fix' or repair your system or offers a 'free upgrade' by installing their copy of Windows on your machine. as in the scenario above, if you didn't now that wasn't allowed under the license you have for Windows you might be surprised when WGA fails. The challenge in scenario 3 and 4 is that there is no way to tell the difference from someone unknowingly pirating the software, with good intent or not, and someone who does this for a living to rip off consumers and/or Microsoft.

Scenario 4: you take your PC to get a new video card or hard drive or to be worked on for some other reason at a repair shop, in the process of the upgrade a new [improper] copy of Windows is installed. Sometimes this happens because those doing the work will take shortcuts to install a copy of Windows that is laying around or is convenient. Often times this is done with a key and a copy of Windows that's handy for the repair person but is really the wrong version or edition or installation for your system. WGA detects some of these miss-matches and will fail systems that are installed with versions of Windows that aren't licensed properly. For customers who find themselves in this situation there's a number of solutions available none of which require that they purchase a new copy of Windows.

For all of these scenarios when validation fails the WGA website will offer a detailed explanation and an opportunity to print that detailed explanation in the form of a report explaining why a system failed. The owner of the PC can take this report to the place that sold them the their PC or performed the latest install of Windows to get help. While in the examples above the owner of the PC may not intend to do anything wrong and intentions are often innocent, these are in fact forms of software piracy.

Answer 2

The most correct way to fix this is to follow the prompts on screen and buy a licensed copy.
If you cannot afford to do this, however, and are being driven mad, check when the windows update for this was installed. You can verify this by going into the add/remove programs window and checking when the authentication (sp?) update was installed. Then do a system restore to a date before that. Do this while you are not connected to the internet, and then turn off automatic updates before you connect again.
The downside to this is you can no longer install any updates on your PC since that particular update would be the first to reinstall, so you're left open to all the security breaches windows has. Good luck.

Answer 3

You have installed an optional Windows update that notifies you about your copy of Windows if it isn't genuine. You shouldn't have installed it. Now you cannot remove it. You now have three choices. Either ignore the pop up, or buy a genuine copy of Windows or use a free OS like Linux. Oh yes, you can reintall Windows too.

Answer 4

If it came with a computer you bought, I would contact the manufacturer of your computer. If you bought the copy of Windows off somewhere like EBay or something like that, you probably bought a pirated version, and you're gonna have to bite the bullet and just buy a legal copy. If you bought a copy that you thought was absolutely legal and genuine, call Windows. Good luck to ya!

Answer 5

Buy a legal copy! Although that's about $200...

But if you install Linux, a competing operating system its FREE! You won't be able to run as many applications, although there is some software that allows you to run windows applications. Nevertheless word processing, spreadsheets, Internet, YAHOO ANSWERS, and email will work just fine.

There are many free versions:
http://en.opensuse.org/
http://www.debian.org/

If you are not familiar with Linux you might want to pay $40 (still cheaper than $200) and get Linspire:
http://www.linspire.com/

Answer 6

Buy a copy of Windows immediately. Or Use the version that comes bundled with your PC.

You can re-install the windows once again and do not connect it to net.

Answer 7

Sometimes it's a ploy to get you to upload (and pay for) another version. If u know that your windows is legit and not messed up, just ignore the pop-up. most likely nothing will happen...you'll have to constantly close it or just drag it to a corner where it can pop up all it wants without bothering you. Good Luck...

Answer 8

Go to the store and buy a legal copy instead of stealing it.

Answer 9

Actually, I don't have a real answer to this question.
I just wanna say that I'm experiencing the same thing.
It's so annoying, isn't it??

Answer 10

this is what you get when you steal software. that's called a nag screen. it nags you into deleting the program and buying it.