Windows 7 is not Genuine

[Imperial528]

Okay, so recently I've been getting the "This copy of Windows may not be genuine" pop-up message. At first I did everything the message said, downloaded Microsoft's validation software, and let the thing do its work.

When it finishes, it has a spiel about how genuine Windows software is so much better and all that, and the only thing it tells me I can do is buy a genuine copy. My reaction: Bull shit. The machine I'm on is only a few months old and it came with Windows 7 on it, installed by the manufacturer. Now unless HP somehow got false copies, which I doubt, there's no reason I should be getting this message.

So I looked up some ways to remove the prompt. The only one that doesn't involve tampering with the OS or downloading cracks that I could find was to run the activation utility, which tells me what I already know, activation was successful and that my copy is genuine.

Yet I still get the blasted pop-up, and it's annoying the hell out of me.

Anything I could do to get rid of it? Preferably without having to do things that are potentially illegal.

[weemadando]

Have you changed your hardware at all recently? Because that can sometimes trigger it.

If this is actually a genuine copy that you have, talk to MS support.

[Dominus Atheos]

Use System Restore to go back to a point when everything worked.

[Executor32]

Hold the Windows key and press Pause/Break. Scroll down to the Windows activation section and click 'Change product key'. Enter the product key off the sticker that's somewhere on your machine, then click Next and go through the activation process again. This might fix it. If not, Windows' Licensing Store might be corrupted. To fix it, do this:

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type cmd into the search box and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If you get a UAC prompt during this or any of the following steps, allow it.
3. Type net stop sppsvc and press Enter. If it says the service isn't started, just go to the next step.
4. Type cd %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform and press Enter.
5. Type ren tokens.dat tokens.bak and press Enter.
6. Type net start sppsvc and press Enter.
7. Type slui.exe and press Enter.
8. The Windows Activation dialog will appear. It might reactivate Windows automatically, or you may need to go through the activation process as you did before, possibly including entering your product key.

If that doesn't fix it, call Microsoft Support.