preparing your Desktop stuck - then not genuine message

Yes, I believe so. Fresh install into another partition.

Ok, I am back up and running. the problem started because of my messing with the Windows partition. All I did was resize it (left and right) with Partition Wizard (through the boot cd, not within windows). But that was enough to mess up something for Windows. The result - it relettered my drives - then registry did not match.

Found fix in a Microsoft thread: Not Genuine after partition change

In short:
- boot to safe mode with command prompt
- (attempt to) log in
- ctl-alt-del
- choose task manager
- applications tab, new task
- check to run as administrator
- browse (it brings up windows explorer)
- note the new drive letters and remember what they used to be
- cancel out of windows explorer , type regedit in the new task box
- go to HKey_Local_Machine
- go to System
- go to MountedDevices
- rename the Names with the drive letters (\DosDevices\C:) to be what they used to be. You may need to start by renaming one to a drive that does nto exist just to free up the name.
- exit out and reboot

In my case, I renamed \DosDevices\C: to \DosDevices\G:, then renamed 2 more just to get them all back to what they were (E to J, F to E).

After rebooting, microsoft security essentials said it was not genuine and to go online and fix now. I clicked that, brought me to a download page for some activation tool. Downloaded and ran the tool. Then pulled up Security Essentials again and clicked to re-check for genuine. It then went back to normal.

BTW, I started out the toubleshooting after unplugging all other hard drives.

I have powered off and on and everything still looks good.