Why does my computer says it doesn't have real Windows?

[H Birchgrove]

At the low and right side of the "Desktop", it is written "This Windows-example is not genuine". I don't get it; I bought and paid my laptop and its OS fair and square, it has not been illegally downloaded or copied. :smallconfused:

Before I discovered it, I had done a Scandisk on my external harddrive (which took about a day BTW); can this have anything to do with it? :smallannoyed:

[Flickerdart]

Someone in your family may have played a joke on you by editing your background image. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. The bottom of that window should have the activation key if your Windows is genuine. If it doesn't, it might let you put one in, so find your key and feed it in.

[H Birchgrove]

I did what you said and yes, I can see my activation key. (Thank goodness for that, I wouldn't like having to search for it.) Thanks for the help! :smallsmile:

It might have been one of my mates who did the editing while he installed some games we had for a LAN "event" at his place. (Though I sat next to him while he did the installations... Hurm.) Though I would have assumed he would have written something like "Don't watch too much ****" or something like that. :smallsigh:

[H Birchgrove]

Simply changing the background picture doesn't take away the text. :smallannoyed:

[shadow_archmagi]

Hmm. I'd contact Windows about this, complain at them.

[Erloas]

Where did you get the laptop from?
Its possible the person selling it didn't use an authentic copy of windows. I know my brother had that happen when he found a (only slightly) cheaper copy of windows from an online store.

[factotum]

It's also possible you have a perfectly legit version of Windows and the message is a false positive--I've seen that happen on at least one machine at work. Calling Microsoft product support might help, but the only way we found to fix it was a complete reinstall...

[Death, your friend the Reaper]

This can be a pane to deal with, I'd suggest maybe some stained glass windows or such.:smallbiggrin:

And yeah, did you get the laptop from a store? I had my computer made, but had the "not real windows" thing pop up, so I think it was a very large possibility the guy may have stretched the truth a bit when he said "genuine windows":smalltongue:

[Tyndmyr]

It's also possible you have a perfectly legit version of Windows and the message is a false positive--I've seen that happen on at least one machine at work. Calling Microsoft product support might help, but the only way we found to fix it was a complete reinstall...

Yeah, I've seen in plenty. Call Microsoft, they'll sort you out.

[H Birchgrove]

Where did you get the laptop from?
Its possible the person selling it didn't use an authentic copy of windows. I know my brother had that happen when he found a (only slightly) cheaper copy of windows from an online store.

I and my dad bought it at a pretty large store, of one of the major chains here.

[H Birchgrove]

It's also possible you have a perfectly legit version of Windows and the message is a false positive--I've seen that happen on at least one machine at work. Calling Microsoft product support might help, but the only way we found to fix it was a complete reinstall...
I see, thanks! :smallcool:

I hope I don't need to re-install though; one of the security programs "complained" that my external harddrive which works as my "safe copy" might crash soon, which prompted me to do to the Scandisk I mentioned.

(I'm not even sure if it made a complete Scandisk or if it just corrected files, since I tried to start Scandisk several times without success before realising I needed to re-start the laptop in order to start the Scandisk, and one of those times I didn't cross both boxes. Scandisk took about a day either way, and so did the defrag I did before the Scandisk, which I did first because 1. I hadn't yet found out how to do Scandisk and 2. my older stationary computer with Windows 98 could notice if Scandisk was needed if you started defrag.) :smallfrown:

[Kallisti]

This can be a pane to deal with, I'd suggest maybe some stained glass windows or such.:smallbiggrin

Owwwww...

OWWWW...

You should be ashamed. And I should be ashamed for finding it as funny as I do.

[Quirinus_Obsidian]

Have you tried to re-activate Windows? Sometimes the automatic activation fails, or gives a false positive like was said. There should be an option in the Control Panel if ye do a search.

The other reason could be a hardware change; like adding a new hard disk drive, memory, or upgrading the processor after the first activation. If the HAL.dll file (Yes, that is a real file, Dave.) changes greatly, that could also kick off activation.

The last resort is to call Microsoft and let them know of the problem. They are probably going to ask to speak to the person that bought the PC. You'll need the 25 character activation code, the make and model of the PC itself, and some of it's specs.

[H Birchgrove]

Have you tried to re-activate Windows? Sometimes the automatic activation fails, or gives a false positive like was said. There should be an option in the Control Panel if ye do a search.

How do I re-activate Windows? This isn't the same as re-installing it, right?

I'll take take a look at the Control Panel.


The other reason could be a hardware change; like adding a new hard disk drive, memory, or upgrading the processor after the first activation. If the HAL.dll file (Yes, that is a real file, Dave.) changes greatly, that could also kick off activation.

Hmm... Maybe my guess about the external harddrive wasn't that far-fetched after all?

How do I find the HAL.dll file? (Nice 2001 reference BTW.)


The last resort is to call Microsoft and let them know of the problem. They are probably going to ask to speak to the person that bought the PC. You'll need the 25 character activation code, the make and model of the PC itself, and some of it's specs.

Aw dammit. I'm not even in the same town as that shop. I'm not sure were I have the code but I think I have the package here and the information of the model etc.

[Keld Denar]

Do you have any of the disks that came with the computer? One of them should be a Windows repair/installation disk. Its the one you pop in if you want to reformat. It generally has your activation key published on it somewhere.

As far as the serial number, that should be on a sticker somewhere on the outside of the computer. If its a desktop, check the top and sides. If its a laptop, check the bottom, or take a screw driver and pop off a couple of the doors on the bottom. Sometimes they stick em on the insides of those. Looking at my desktop here at work, it has the origional OS installed (XP Pro), along with my activation code and another number I'm guessing is the serial number, along with a bar code that probably has both of those numbers encoded.

[H Birchgrove]

Thanks! :smallsmile:

Found the re-installation DVD's - they had the keys written on the folders - and the codes under the laptop.

I wish I could Scandisk my own memory. :smallsigh:

[H Birchgrove]

I have to do go and study at the university; I'll post more if I find out more or if the computer acts up.

[Ashtar]

Had that happen to a friend of mine with the first copy of windows she really bought in her life. It took a couple of weeks to fix and several calls to the store and Microsoft. But it got fixed.

She now swears it's the last time she buys from the big M. The next one will probably be a mac.

[H Birchgrove]

I have been thinking about getting a Mac or even homebrewing something with Ubuntu as the OS, but it's hard to find shops here were you can get service for Macs or Linux/Ubuntu. In Norrköping, were I bought the laptop, there were no place that had service for either Mac or Linux. Maybe it's different here in Växjö, but I didn't think about checking that back then.

Also, Macs aren't problem-free, or so I've heard. Though they seems to be more stable. :smallsigh:

[Erloas]

Everything has its problems. Of course you are likely to hear about 10x as many problems with people using Windows as compared to OSX, but thats because 10x as many people are using Windows.

Support for Linux is pretty much entirely on your own, with the help of the internet. Given that it has a very good user based support group, but you aren't going to take them any place to get worked on.

Mac is a bit easier to get support for from a real person, but it depends where you live. Outside of major population centers support will be very hit or miss, short of sending it off for weeks to get looked at in a factory. As for stability in general, I couldn't say much, but my brother said that when going to school for video production, most people preferred to use the Windows systems because they were more reliable. Both computers had problems, but at least when problems came up with the Windows systems it was much faster and easier to fix, though that likely had a lot to do with familiarity.

[H Birchgrove]

@ Erloas: You speak much sense. :smallcool:

It looks like the issue has solved itself... some way. The error message has disappeared. I don't know why, I tried to update Windows after I saw the message but the computer said then that it was updated already. I did upgrade Firefox (because a new version had came), but I don't see how that would alter such things. :smallsigh::smallconfused:

[Castaras]

This error message appears randomly. It's nothing to worry about. At my school, every now and again our Microsoft Sponsered computers get Windows 7 complaining it's not a genuine copy. It normally means that your computer for some reason can't phone home.

[H Birchgrove]

Thanks Castaras; and everyone else who have replied. :smallcool: