Not genuine windows message

[Littlefrog]

Hi Shane.  Your previous help with my weird permissions problem worked and appears to be still working but I have a new problem.

Roughly since November I have been getting a "This is Not Genuine Windows" notice very often during all sessions in all applications.  The link in that message to an online fix does not work.  I suspect that it brings up slui.exe with parameters 3 or 4 from the CMD system.  I've run both of those directly and each time the system says my Win 7 is activated and Microsoft pure once again.  The not genuine message comes back right away.

As far as I can tell from the web this is a bad download issue but I cannot find the specific download talked about and a restore to before the date of the suspected bad software had no effect on the problem.

Talking to Microsoft about this was beyond frustrating and useless.  The crew that built my computer went all out to help but they could not deal with it either.

I have the disk to reinstall Windows but that means redoing a lot of work and it is a last resort as far as I am concerned.  I also don't really know if it will work.

Any ideas about this one?  I saw the posts about switching DNS connections but I don't know if that is what is wrong.

Many thanks.

[Shane]

What you could do is a repair install instead of a fresh install. That way all your programs and file stay

First you need to have a normal install disk that has SP 1 already on it. Just in case you can grab the iso from here
https://sites.google.com/site/linuxlablibrary/windows-iso

Then just follow this guide on the Repair install
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Shane

[Boggin]

There's a couple of things you can try for that.

These commands you may have already run, but if not.....

Recreate the Licensing Store

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories

Right-Click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator - accept the UAC prompt

Run the following commands in the Command Prompt window, using the Enter key at the end of each

net stop sppsvc
 
(wait until the service has stopped before entering the following lines)

CD %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

REN tokens.dat tokens.bar

net start sppsvc

slui.exe

After a couple of seconds the Windows Activation dialog will appear.

You may be asked to re-activate and/or re-enter your product key, or Activation may occur automatically.

If you are asked for your Key, use the one on the COA sticker on the machine's case

Reboot.

Or this MS Fixit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2230957

Or these commands run from an elevated command prompt - you can copy and paste these ones and they will auto run but if any appear to be sticking, just press enter.

net stop wuauserv

net stop cryptSvc

net stop bits

net stop msiserver

ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old

net start wuauserv

net start cryptSvc

net start bits

net start msiserver

Hope some of this will be of help in negating the reinstall.

[Boggin]

What you could do is a repair install instead of a fresh install. That way all your programs and file stay

First you need to have a normal install disk that has SP 1 already on it. Just in case you can grab the iso from here
https://sites.google.com/site/linuxlablibrary/windows-iso

Then just follow this guide on the Repair install
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Shane

Shane, which one of those would you use for a standard Win 7 x64 Home Premiun download and do they require your product key to authorise the download ?

[Rick]

There's a couple of things you can try for that.

These commands you may have already run, but if not.....

Recreate the Licensing Store

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories

Right-Click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator - accept the UAC prompt

Run the following commands in the Command Prompt window, using the Enter key at the end of each

net stop sppsvc
 
(wait until the service has stopped before entering the following lines)

CD %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

REN tokens.dat tokens.bar

net start sppsvc

slui.exe

After a couple of seconds the Windows Activation dialog will appear.

You may be asked to re-activate and/or re-enter your product key, or Activation may occur automatically.

If you are asked for your Key, use the one on the COA sticker on the machine's case

Reboot.

Or this MS Fixit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2230957

Or these commands run from an elevated command prompt - you can copy and paste these ones and they will auto run but if any appear to be sticking, just press enter.

net stop wuauserv

net stop cryptSvc

net stop bits

net stop msiserver

ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old

net start wuauserv

net start cryptSvc

net start bits

net start msiserver

Hope some of this will be of help in negating the reinstall.

B, we need keep people honest and ask them to re-install in this case... Asking them to re-build with this method is probably more harmful than good as some people might simply try it to see if it even works... thereby causing more problems.

To people with this error; having to re-install is the only solution suitable to offer in this case.

[Boggin]

I disagree - if you read the instructions for the rebuild you will notice that the user, whoever it is may still need to input a valid product key.

The fact that MS has a Fixit for this problem as well as manual commands for this, tells you that it is an on going problem which is why there are remedial steps - and it has only been happening for Littlefrog since last November who obviously has a valid installation, as will many others who end up with this error.

A reinstall is only done as a last resort after workarounds have failed and that is still not a guarantee that it will resolve the error message.

[Boggin]

Forgot I had this tucked away in my toolbox which is probably the ultimate in the workarounds for the not genuine error message.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/validate/DownloadValidationSupport.aspx?displaylang=en

[Shane]

Shane, which one of those would you use for a standard Win 7 x64 Home Premiun download and do they require your product key to authorise the download ?

That would be the Windows 7 x64 Home Prem SP1 on the page.

Sjame

[Boggin]

Shane, which one of those would you use for a standard Win 7 x64 Home Premiun download and do they require your product key to authorise the download ?

That would be the Windows 7 x64 Home Prem SP1 on the page.

Sjame

They appeared to have different versions for each which I didn't understand.

These ISOs usually take about 1hr 20mins with my broadband speed but the initial attempt to download was over in a flash and checking my Downloads, it showed as 0kb

Deleted that and tried again where it said it was unable to download with a Try Again option.

Did that and after a couple of seconds, the download reported as complete - but this time gave the file size as 4.096kb.

When I've tried later, they appear to have been pulled as they are on the Digital River site and you are redirected to a page where you can click on Windows but you have to input a valid product key and from previous experimenting by others on another forum, they weren't always accepted.

MS would seem to have finally applied the Desist orders to otherwise useful sites.