Win 7 expired, validation required & possible Conficker contamination

[bkindtoall]

Win 7 expired, validation required & possible Conficker contamination

I finally got around to putting win 7 on my pc. Installed as a full install (not upgrade). A hardware problem was exposed and fixed (bad memory stick.) So I was finally able to get into Win 7 consistantly. But now it wants me to activate windows because the activation period has 'expired'. Consequently, it's not allowing access to parts of, Win 7.
ALSO,
I haven't been able to download virus protection and scan my pc. One way or another I'm getting errors. Which makes me wonder if I'm infected by Conficker. I've tried the win 7 betas of trendmicro, mcafee, and now am trying kaspersky.
Any suggestions?
Between trouble-shooting the hardware problem/blue screens and getting a good load of win 7 and now potentially having an infected pc - ugh!!- I've spent hours on this. I could use some direction hear.

 

[copernicus]

Download avg or antivir on another computer, or the same one, but don't run them.

Boot into safe mode and install there. Run the antivirus, reboot and run it again.

 

[bkindtoall]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Download avg or antivir on another computer, or the same one, but don't run them.

Boot into safe mode and install there. Run the antivirus, reboot and run it again.

Another to try is Avast! it's running 100% on 7068 32bit.

 

[Sam]

You should probably activate your PC. The product keys are universal, but apperantly I can't give you one directly
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx
Conficker won't let you go to an Anti-Virus website or Microsoft's either, so if you can load their webpage your clean.
Also changing your SATA port could speed your system up, it worked for me on 7057.

 

[swarfega]

How do you change sata ports?

 

[Sam]

Turn of your computer and take out the AC power cord.Open your computer case and locate your HDD, follow the skinny and flat cord to your motherboard. Now move the connector of that cable to another smaller port nearby.

 

[Night Hawk]

You can also change which sata drive to boot from by either bringing up the boot device menu at post or set that as the default boot device in the bios without even opening the case up. I do that regularly when bouncing back and forth between 4 sata HDs and an ide drive.

 

[Sam]

Is that effective as a physical change?

 

[Night Hawk]

It's easy once the OS part is already set. In order to make each drive bootable you first have to unplug any other sata if an OS is present there or any ide drive if installing on a sata to make it bootable. Later you simply change which hard drive will the default for any long term booting.

The boot device menu is used there for a one time session and falls back to the default boot drive once you restart. That comes in quite handy when first installing Windows rather then repeat trips into the bios once the system reboots the first time after all setup files are copied to the hard drive.

When the system restarts you immediately see the installation complete itself since it automatically boots from the hard drive you set as default. With the situation there of not being able to activate 7 being passed the grace period which build are you trying to run? 7000 likely.

Only the Ultimate edition in 7 can be activated to start with. If that was a leak of 7 it may not have been the 7000 but a previous build where the time limit has passed. With the RC stage being reached and the public beta available back in January 8/1 for 32bit the activation period may have been limited there by intent since it was made readily available for the public on a limited basis only to start with.

The maximum activations for the 7000 builds is only 5 total if you needed to reinstall or try it out on additional test machines. For seeing the Conficker removed the media in general has been doing a good job for whoever when consulting security experts? about it where by going directly to the antivirus companies and being able to log in there shows you are not infected. The download section should also see a special removal tool as well.

 

[Lordbob75]

Is that effective as a physical change?

I doubt it, unless the port is bad...

~Lordbob

 

[Chappy]

I doubt it, unless the port is bad...

~Lordbob

Exactly, since all the Sata connectors are all controlled by the same southbridge chip and therefore it really doesn't matter which one you're plugged into.

The first thing I have to ask the OP is...Did you activate it at all? That's something never mentioned by the OP and if it's asking to be activated, I would say the answer is No.
Do you have a Beta key?
Did you activate it and it's now showing not activated?

 

[Sam]

It's possible one solution, I feel the best and simplest.

 

[Chappy]

It's possible one solution, I feel the best and simplest.

But what does this have to do with Windows Activation?
Why are we talking changing Sata ports, most likely the only option this poster has to him ATM is to clean install and Activate the OS immediately with a Beta key. If they don't have one, they aren't hard to find, any P2P site will have tons.
Once the OS shuts down after the 30 days are up, it's pretty much useless as all it will allow the user to do is access the Internet and ONLY to MS activation site.
If there is any possibility that Conflckor may also be present, then a clean install is the way to go.

 

[Lordbob75]

But what does this have to do with Windows Activation?
Why are we talking changing Sata ports, most likely the only option this poster has to him ATM is to clean install and Activate the OS immediately with a Beta key. If they don't have one, they aren't hard to find, any P2P site will have tons.
Once the OS shuts down after the 30 days are up, it's pretty much useless as all it will allow the user to do is access the Internet and ONLY to MS activation site.
If there is any possibility that Conflckor may also be present, then a clean install is the way to go.

Agreed.

~Lordbob

 

[Sam]

Yeah, he should of activated ASAP.

 

[Night Hawk]

Yeah, he should of activated ASAP.

That depends on the buiild since that was never mentioned. If that's the 7000 build 32 or 64bit you may want a look at the 7000 64bit Ultimate install here that never saw activation and still boots right up! The later builds on the other hand show the "Windows must be activated in 3 days" message when installing.



Well soon enough the January installation seen in the image there will no longer be unactivated once the connection type is updated with a different ISP with 64bit support("yes finally!" ).

 

[Lordbob75]

That depends on the buiild since that was never mentioned. If that's the 7000 build 32 or 64bit you may want a look at the 7000 64bit Ultimate install here that never saw activation and still boots right up! The later builds on the other hand show the "Windows must be activated in 3 days" message when installing.



Well soon enough the January installation seen in the image there will no longer be unactivated once the connection type is updated with a different ISP with 64bit support("yes finally!" ).

No....... It will need to be activiated within 30 days, just like every other copy of Windows...

I only know of 7000, but that one needs it within 3 days.

~Lordbob

 

[Sam]

Well does Bkindtoall have the Conficker, since he didn't activate Windows he wouldn't of received the patch. Therefore making him a prime target of the worm. So is he in a double bind now that he can't visit the MS website to activate Windows.

 

[Night Hawk]

No....... It will need to be activiated within 30 days, just like every other copy of Windows...

I only know of 7000, but that one needs it within 3 days.

~Lordbob

The screen you see above is from the January installation still on and running 3 months later without activation. I'm presently waiting to see it actually reach that part when I can finally get online with any 64bit OS to start with by changing the ISP here.

Why no prompting is seen is curious but remembering this was still a public beta in the earlier stage there unlike the newer builds leaked out seeing the expected requirement. It suggests MS wasn't pushing activation since the 7000s have an internal expiration date built in while the information also seen shows you can only activate 7000s some 5 times if you have to reinstall or install on other test machines.

It's a good one alright! I think someone thought up an April Fools gag months back to still see it running.

The 32bit 7000 was activated and still running without any problem seen while the other 7000s tried out Home Premium, Business can't be activated from the start.