Hi mate,

interesting. I had the same problem. The reason on my machine is, that I used the new Windows Vista Beta on another partition. I made the mistake to use the same folder as my profile. Windows Vista then takes ownership of your files in your profile and when I booted Windows XP it couldn't detect the files in my profile and said it is a not genuine copy.

You should think aboput if anything has happened with your profile. You find this usually under "C:\Documents and Settings\username. Your user id must be the owner of this folder structure. Here is what I would suggest:

Open File Explorer, locate your Documents and Settings folder, do a right mouse click on the folder with your user id, open properties, click on the security tab, click on the "advanced" button and select the Owner tab. If you don't see under "Current owner of this item" your Domain\username, you should set your user as the owner of this folder structure. Make sure the checkbox "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" is selected!

hope this will fix it.

John2, have you seen the other answers to your other questions? Were they of any help?

Cheers

Peter

John2,

I just had another idea! You could restore your system to a point where you didn't get the message. Do you know of the Windows Restore functionality? Go to Start - Accessories - System Tools and click on System Restore. You then select a restore point and restore your system to this point. Pleas note that all installed updates and programms will be rolled back!

Cheers

Peter

I had it on my computer at work, as well. Turns out that Microsoft doesn't recognize some of the earlier "Volume License Keys" that were issued, and those are now coming back to bite us in the a$$. Easiest way I dealt with the situation was to contact the activation "group". They were able to talk me though getting it back to working again. Give this number a call and see if they can help you out as well: 1-888-571-2048

Hey guys, I didnt get a chance to actually look into fixing this right now. My work schedule has been a bit nuts so I'll get back to you and reward points when I get a chance to look at it. Thanks for the input.

Alright, finally got around to this.

PeterNZ, I tried your first suggestion and "took ownership" over all of the files and then restarted my computer. Didnt seem to work. When I went into the security settings, there were actually two user accounts. An "Administrator" user and then "XXXXXXXXX" which is my username. "Administrator" was selected as the current owner so I switched that to my username, then I checked the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" box and pressed OK. It "took ownership" of all of those files and then completed the process. I then restarted my computer and there was no luck with it.

Anything I do wrong with that?

Also, If I do the second option of restoring my system, what will happen to all of the folders that I have on my desktop and all of the files that I've created and saved since that time? Will those be taken away too?

John,

Have you seen any progress on this issue? I have a feeling that the "take ownership" idea will not work so well.

As for the loss of "personal data", apparently, you will not experience any data loss, but just to be sure, I'd burn those files to a CD or DVD, or copy them to available network storage prior to doing the system restore.

My guess is you're probably going to get more help out of contacting MS and explaining the situation.

Alright, cool. I'll give the number a call above and see what they can come up with. I'll get back to you. Thanks for your time.

I called the number you suggested but it didnt seem to help me out, wasnt the right number. Microsoft directed me to the number 866-530-6599 where I was told exactly what happened. I guess what happens is just lately my computer tried to download an update where Microsoft recognized that this was not a genuine version. It's not that it was genuine before and all the sudden ungenuine, it's just this was the first time Microsoft detected it. They are guessing that my company doesnt have a license for each computer and is perhaps sharing the licenses between more than one computer, either on purpose or accident. Either case, I need to get in touch with my administrator and see what is going on there.

I'll update you on the results.

J

OK, got it.

Ever since my system started to give me the notice that my version of windows was ungenuine, it gave me an option on the lower left of my computer to get a genuine version now.

It sent me to this page on the internet:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloa...

I found on that page an opportunity to update my product key. The product key can be found on the bottom of my laptop on a label provided by the manufacturer.

On the Microsoft site I was able to download KeyUpdateTool.exe that you can download here:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhel...

From there I just followed the direction and put my valid key in. It required me to restart my computer and call their customer service after restart to get a confirmation number, but now it seems that the problem is solved.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

OK, got it.

Ever since my system started to give me the notice that my version of windows was ungenuine, it gave me an option on the lower left of my computer to get a genuine version now.

It sent me to this page on the internet:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloa...

I found on that page an opportunity to update my product key. The product key can be found on the bottom of my laptop on a label provided by the manufacturer.

On the Microsoft site I was able to download KeyUpdateTool.exe that you can download here:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhel...

From there I just followed the direction and put my valid key in. It required me to restart my computer and call their customer service after restart to get a confirmation number, but now it seems that the problem is solved.

Click here to see the Answer Discussion that preceded this tutorial.

Login to rate this tutorial: Good  |  Bad