All of a sudden W7 Ultimate is not genuine ?

n2gc · Sep 10, 2011

I bought a 32/64 cd back on 6/3/11. Installed it on that day
or maybe a couple days later. The activation went ok. The
key was accepted and I have been using it on my laptop
up until today, when I get this MS flash stating my copy
of W7 is not genuine. It sure looked like it was a genuine
package when I bought it. Sealed, the whole works and
loaded fine. It was an upgrade version which I did a clean
install on a new drive.

All has been working great, until I get this warning. If this
was a bogus or counterfeit copy of W7Ult, why has it taken
so long for this warning to pop up ? It's been 4 months and
a couple days. Does it always take this long to detect or what
is going on ?

Thanks for any info.

Wishmaster · Sep 10, 2011

Where did you get it from? MS Store?

Its possible its a mistake. Just call MS and they will fix it.

richnrockville · Sep 10, 2011

Welcome.

I guess my question is:;
Who did you purchase the copy from and how much did you pay?

Rich

scrooge · Sep 10, 2011

have you used any reg cleaners around the time you got the warning?
i have a friend that used i think it was called regbooster or something like that and the same thing happened to him .
i told him 1000's of times don't use any regcleaners cause there just snake oil.

scrooge

n2gc · Sep 10, 2011

I'll be straight and say I bought it off eBay and it was 100.00 bucks. I'm not
the only one who had bought this and though I can't pull the item any
longer, I do recall others stating this package worked for them, but
after I bought and installed, another buyer stated that his or her's
came up as not genuine, so I don't know what to think. I haven't
used any cleaners save for malwarebytes and superantispyware to
help keep the unit clean.

I've been real lucky buying OS software
off of eBay, maybe my luck ran out on this pack..

scrooge · Sep 10, 2011

sorry to say you may have been scamed....
you could have got a legit copy at newegg for $120.00 and with that you no what your getting.

scrooge

n2gc · Sep 10, 2011

Yep, I probably got nailed. Seems strange all things are working as I'm writing this
off the unit now. I have a msg telling me this copy in not genuine down in the
corner. Guess I'll have look for a legit key.

logicearth · Sep 10, 2011

You probably bought a copy that had a TechNet key, which is not transferable under any circumstance. This is a very common scam on ebay. It does usually take a bit of time before Microsoft find and deactivate TechNet keys that have been improperly used.

n2gc · Sep 10, 2011

^ I see from your specs you are running w7 7600 x86. I too am running the 7600. I guess it doesn't matter. I helped someone get 100 bucks richer and ended up with a dud. I WOULD like
to be face to face with that person right now, but oh well. Live and learn.

Barman58 · Sep 10, 2011

Call Microsoft, as this sort of piracy is so common Microsoft has sometimes in the past worked with Genuine Victims of this and provided special deals to go legit.

No promises, but worth a try

n2gc · Sep 10, 2011

Thanks. I'll look into it. I have a legit copy of Vista [yikes] that I'll
load if it shuts down. I'll see about calling MS Monday.

Crunchy Doodle · Sep 10, 2011

Over a year ago I experienced this sort of thing at work on our secure network. IT pushed down a set of recent Microsoft updates to all the machines on the network and some of them didn't survive. By that I mean, some of the machines started saying their Windows installation was no longer genuine, yet nothing else seemed wrong. Unfortunately, when Microsoft was told of this, they said IT would have to re-install Windows on the effected machines. There was no other cure.

So it may be you need to do that too.

I'm sure your Windows is truly genuine, it's just been buggered by a botched update or even a virus.

Bye.

n2gc · Sep 10, 2011

You know that's odd that you should mention this, as I had downloaded I believe
2 or 5 updates this morning. I have it set up so I can see what is going to load,
but I think today I just went and loaded them. I wonder if one or might of had
something to do with this...?

I had a similar prob on one of my desktops with W7 Pro when the SP1 package
first came out. Oh boy, did THAT ever do a number on my pc. I had to do a fresh
install after a reformat because for whatever reason, with that SP1 pack and the
updates that followed a few days later, my pc was so slow, I could get a pot of
coffee going before it would load some pages and getting on the net was just a
wreck.

After a fresh install and holding off the SP1 pack after a couple months of it coming out,
I loaded it and all was ok. I'll look at the update history and see what was loaded.

Thanks for the reminder. Thanks all for your inputs.

Wishmaster · Sep 11, 2011

You can try to validate it, or the activate by phone option to see what happens. If a update or something along that line caused a issue, it may fix itself.
A call to MS very well be the most beneficial though.

This is why I always use official channels.

Not only for Windows but other software & Games which require activation or keys.
This way you know for sure, and if by some chance something is wrong, a phone call or email resolves it.

Maybe Im in the minority here, but I do not trust anything from eBay.

For Windows, Ive always just used the MS store myself.
Download and burn to disc and no issues thus far.

carwiz · Sep 11, 2011

Was the DVD genuine? Most of the fakes have a holographic label stuck to a DVD instead of the burned in holographic of a genuine disc. You can feel a ridge on the DVD and can pick at the label with a fingernail with the fakes.

Another way to tell is the UPC label. Most of the fakes will say "Made in USA".

n2gc · Sep 11, 2011

^ No the label on top of the plastic states "made in Puerto Rico" but sure enough,
the label is a sticker and not burned in. So I'll look at my other os discs that do work
and go from there. Yea it way too good of a deal, but I wonder why it took so long for
MS to see it non genuine, and why did I not have any trouble getting the key validated
back in June ?

I'll have to load a Vista I have until things get right I guess, but first I'm going to try a reformat
and fresh install. I don't have much on here and all my stuff is backed up to an external, so we'll
see..

Wow..Just checked my other W7 Pro disc and the Vista disc and sure enough the holo
is burned into the cd unlike the W7 Ult which has a very life like holo sticker and not
burned it. Thanks very much for the heads up on this sticker deal. Very enlightening.

carwiz · Sep 11, 2011

n2gc said:
Yea it way too good of a deal, but I wonder why it took so long for MS to see it non genuine, and why did I not have any trouble getting the key validated back in June ?

Logicearth says it best: "You probably bought a copy that had a TechNet key, which is not transferable under any circumstance. This is a very common scam on ebay. It does usually take a bit of time before Microsoft find and deactivate TechNet keys that have been improperly used."

And that's what the eBay scammers rely on. They know it will take time to show up and it's beyond the time you can file a claim or leave feedback on eBay. The seller has probably changed IDs by now but I would still file a claim with eBay. It's long been known that there are a lot of fake Windows 7 Ultimate copies being sold on eBay. Personally, I would NEVER buy software off eBay. The "price fixing" by Microsoft only allows certain sales and discounts. When a below MS reseller cost offer shows up, 99.99% of the time it's a scam.

Barman58 · Sep 12, 2011

Microsoft's Anti Counterfeit software site is Here .....

How to Tell - Home

It shows various ways to check suspect products, and also includes ways to report potential problem products

The Windows Activation Technologies, [WAT] which is the replacement for Windows Genuine Advantage, [WGA], and is , unlike WGA, an ongoing program. Every so often, (currently 90 Days IIRC), the system is updated with the latest methods used by the Pirates and Counterfeiters, and the system is re-scanned. This is also the time when any newly discovered known "Bad Keys", (Technet, MSDN, OEM), are added to the list.

The bottom Line with this is that even if a particular install may pass activation and validation when initially installed, as the database of possible workarounds for activation increase, it may fail later.

Microsoft is often sympathetic to these victims who are prepared to work with them to find and remove these counterfeiters.

Of course no system is perfect and there have been cases where the System gets it wrong and flags a perfectly valid system as counterfeit. This is inconvenient, and often upsetting for the innocent party involved, Microsoft is aware of this and it is always the best course of action if you get a fail of WAT on a system you feel is genuine to talk to Microsoft.

Bill2 · Sep 12, 2011

Run this tool, click on Continue, click Copy, paste into notepad and upload the txt file here.

go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012

n2gc · Sep 12, 2011

Thank you all for your inputs and replies. It has been very enlightening.
I'll follow the steps and read the links posted. Feel like a darn fool, and
it's been expensive lesson, but a lesson well learned.

All of a sudden W7 Ultimate is not genuine ?

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