Windows 7 Activates - Valid - Not Genuine

Hi,

I have Windows 7 Professional & 35 identical computers each with a unique Windows 7 license. I setup PC 1 the way I want it, and am using FOG to clone the image to PC 2. On PC 2, after copying the image from PC 1, I change the windows registration key to match the one that came with that computer (from HP -- I know it's a good key!). Registration process happens with no issues and I get a message saying the key is valid. A couple of days later I get a popup saying that my copy of windows is not genuine. I continue to get these popups on all PC's.

Tried various slmgr.vbs options with no success.

See attached screen shots showing that Windows is activated/valid and the 2nd showing that windows is not genuine.

timconstan said:

Hi,

I have Windows 7 Professional & 35 identical computers each with a unique Windows 7 license. I setup PC 1 the way I want it, and am using FOG to clone the image to PC 2. On PC 2, after copying the image from PC 1, I change the windows registration key to match the one that came with that computer (from HP -- I know it's a good key!). Registration process happens with no issues and I get a message saying the key is valid. A couple of days later I get a popup saying that my copy of windows is not genuine. I continue to get these popups on all PC's.

Tried various slmgr.vbs options with no success.

See attached screen shots showing that Windows is activated/valid and the 2nd showing that windows is not genuine.

Different GUID on each. When you clone you you export the GUID of PC-1 and when PC-2.... tries to activate it shows as activated.

You cant do it that way. You might be able to clone before activation then activate with a valid key

I'm not sure how far I can get in configuring the PC to look the way I want all PC's to look before I'm forced to activate Windows, but I'll give it a shot.

Shouldn't the "change registration key" option shown at the bottom of screen shot 1 allow me to really change the registration key and have things reported as genuine or is it not that smart?

I change the windows registration key to match the one that came with that computer

Hi Ken

Would it be not better to leave the factory OEM-SLP activation method Product Key in place?

Would it be not better to leave the factory OEM-SLP activation method Product Key in place?

I'm not sure what you mean...

If you mean that I should just copy PC 1 to PC 2 and then not change the product key in PC 2 to match that computer, I still get the same message on PC 2 -- that the copy of Windows is not Genuine.

If you mean I should do something with PC 2 before I copy PC 1 image over to it (I currently am not -- just copying the PC 1 image to PC 2 out of the box), I'm not sure what that would be...

I have Windows 7 Professional & 35 identical computers

As in HP/Compaq, Yes.

Therefore, All your PC's have the same factory OEM-SLP activation method Product Key installed.

System Locked Preinstallation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On any of the machines thats non-genuine right now, please download and run this tool.

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

In the tool, click Continue, then click Copy, paste into notepad, save as a .txt file and upload the file here.

- Attached -

All your PC's have the same factory OEM-SLP activation method Product Key installed.

I see. Please forgive my ignorance, but I don't know what this means in practical terms. Are you suggesting that I should just be able to clone PC 1 to PC 2 and not change anything and PC 2 should show up as Genuine?

Yes. The machine is licensed but not validated. This is likely the issue:

Tampered File: %systemroot%\system32\sppcommdlg.dll|sppcommdlg.dll.mui

Are you using some vistalizator type of software for language settings? If not, something else seems to have corrupted this file so windows thinks its tampered with. To test, run SFC scan 3 times.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

See if its able to clear the corruption. You can run validation again after that. Also run mgadiag then because if the problem is not cleared it'll show up again.