This copy of windows is not genuine

Steve

Why am I getting this?

Where do I look?

It's on a laptop with 100% genuine W7 x64 pro bought new last September.

me_irl

You could download and run the following:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

and make sure it matches the key that should be on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop.

Steve

Sticker on the bottom says W8.1, no key, - it was a downgrade.

I have the recovery discs etc, all W8.1 but I need to stay with W7.

It is an Asus bought from Elara.

Is it gonna lock up on me?

me_irl

Steve wrote: »

Sticker on the bottom says W8.1, no key, - it was a downgrade.

I'm not sure that key is valid with a downgrade.

I've been wrong before.

Steve wrote: »

I have the recovery discs etc, all W8.1 but I need to stay with W7.

If there's a software reason, you can run programs in compatibility mode.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows/what-is-program-compatibility#1TC=windows-7

Steve wrote: »

It is an Asus bought from Elara.

Was it a refurb? Did you do the "downgrade" yourself or did elara?

Steve wrote: »

Is it gonna lock up on me?

Not sure!

Riesen_Meal

It should not lock up and stop you using it...

Where did you get the Windows 7 key to downgrade it if the laptop came with 8.1 installed?

Can you not go back to 8.1 and upgrade to Windows 10 legitimately?

10 is much better than 8 IMO and as said above anything that does not run on 10 can be ran in Windows 7 mode...

Steve

I bought it as W7, specifically as I need it to run some legacy software. It came out of the box with W7, I didn't downgrade.
Don't think Elara did either, that would be too much like work for them. No offence to Kin.

I have a shared licence for office, could that be it?

Steve

Fieldog wrote: »

Where did you get the Windows 7 key to downgrade it if the laptop came with 8.1 installed?

Can you not go back to 8.1 and upgrade to Windows 10 legitimately?

10 is much better than 8 IMO and as said above anything that does not run on 10 can be ran in Windows 7 mode...

I bought a W7 box 100% legit , don't want / cant upgrade.

me_irl

Steve wrote: »

I bought it as W7, specifically as I need it to run some legacy software. It came out of the box with W7, I didn't downgrade.
Don't think Elara did either, that would be too much like work for them. No offence to Kin.

I have a shared licence for office, could that be it?

Don't think the Office key would cause the message.

Steve wrote: »

I bought a W7 box 100% legit , don't want / cant upgrade.

Really odd issue!

Only scenario I can think of is that elara did instal a legit copy of Windows, but then someone else installed the same key... Yeah, small chance... but could happen.

It should have come with the 7 OEM key / recovery disk(s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_equipment_manufacturer#Computer_software

Can you contact elara, or MS?

Fysh

Win 8/8.1 Pro should qualify you for downgrade rights to Win 7 if needed. I've never been entirely sure as to how activation is supposed to work outside of Volume Licensing/MAKs in that context, but you could try retrieving your existing product key using something like this (note: I haven't reviewed the code nor run it myself, use at own risk etc) and then compare that against the key used to activate your OS instance. If they don't match, try entering the key retrieved by get_win8key and activating again.

Having said that, if the laptop arrived with Win7 installed and a dodgy license, best bet is to contact Elara about it.

machiavellianme

Had similar problems with an Asus reinstall of windows 7. It didn't ship with the recovery media or an oem disk. Eventually downloaded a copy of an oem w7 dvd and used a program to make it work with my legitimate key (on the sticker). It sorted out the call to Microsoft for me.

Your 8.1 Pro COA legally entitles you to downgrade to 7 Pro, so a call to Microsoft's activation line might be the best thing here.

Allyall

It was a well known issue a few years ago, it happened to me wih a copy I bought on Ebay from Germany. I thought I had got scammed.
I bookmarked the solution:
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/227921-windows-7-all-sudden-saying-its-not-genuine.html

The problem here is possibly a corrupted Licensing Store - until it's fixed not activation can be successful..
Recreate the Licensing Store
1) Click Start button.
2) Type: CMD.exe into the 'Search programs and files' field
3) Right-Click on CMD.exe and select Run as Administrator
4) Type: net stop sppsvc (It may ask you if you are sure, select yes)
Note: the Software Protection service may not be running, this is ok.
5) Type: cd %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform
6) Type: rename tokens.dat tokens.bar
7) Type: cd %windir%\system32
8) Type: net start sppsvc
9) Type: slui.exe
10) After a couple of seconds Windows Activation dialog will appear. You may be asked to re-activate and/or re-enter your product key or Activation may occur automatically.

You may have to use telephone activation.

There are 'other' grey area fixes that will fix it straight away.

greasepalm

yes same here on a laptop second hand and the hardrive went buggers put vista on it ,who use vista,told them to put my files back on from previous drive .could that have lost my w7 key?

desktop also running w7 also says not legitimate ,dont know how many times i was asked to run activex to see if it was original and no issues then .

Steve

Ok, it gets weirder..

It has gone away on its own. The only thing I did was run a full MBAM scan (which didn't flag anything).

The only other thing I ever did which may have caused it was a hack to stop the incessant 'free upgrade to W10' message from popping up all the time.

I found the Asus recovery discs and there is a sticker on them that says W7 was factory preinstalled but I could uninstall and use W8.1 but not both, that makes sense.

I still haven't found anything resembling a Windows activation key so would be afraid of even trying a recovery without it.

Allyall

A fix probably downloaded and installed itself.

Using Internet Explorer visit this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/validate

Allow any addons to install and run.
At the end of the process it should tell you that your copy of Windows is genuine.