[Donna]

What to do if Windows isn't genuine anymore as per the genuine advantage tool?

Sunday afternoon: I got up from bed, having my American blend coffee which I brew myself using star bucks coffeemaker While sipping the coffee, I turned on the PC that has Windows Vista. I was greeted with 2 dialogue box that says:

1. Windows Aero is not working. This copy of Windows is not genuine.
2. Windows DreamScene is not working. This copy of Windows is not genuine.

Then at the lower right hand corner, I noticed “This copy of Windows is not genuine”.
The genuine logo in “system properties” is gone.



I didn’t panic since I know the copy is genuine. I fire up SnagIT by TechSmith to capture it because this is the very first time I experienced using Windows Vista as ‘not genuine’. It’s no fun of course, to solve something that it shouldn’t have problem at all especially if you’ve activated and validated Windows already. However, there’s people who says “First-hand experience is the best teacher” and “Put yourself in their shoes” so you’ll understand what another person is going through.

Browsing the forums for WGA at Microsoft, there is incidents were retail, OEM keys are flagged as invalid licenses and they can’t validate windows even though it has been activated.
You’ll notice me in that forums :)I joined the said forum last year but I only started helping this month. Anyway, when I started helping to solve WGA issues, I never experience the problem myself until today so I think it’s a good one to me to know the problem of legitimate users and understand their pain because of the WGA tool of Microsoft. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the idea behind WGA of Microsoft and I am aware that it’s not a one-time process to validate (that is true if Microsoft released a new version of WGA tool or if WGA validation communicate with Microsoft which is done periodically, and if a user changed something in the computer that might trigger the activation and validation.) . In fact, I like the idea and I’m hoping Microsoft will continue to improve the Genuine Advantage Tool so there will be no more misdetection especially if a user did not do anything to trigger WGA to detect something unusual with the copy of Windows.

What I did:
1. I opened the downloaded program folder and check whether the WGA and OGA ActiveX are still in place. Yes they are.
2. I opened “System” to see if its showing not activated. Nope. It says “Windows is activated” but “Genuine Logo” isn’t there anymore. It was replaced by “Get Genuine” and when I clicked to it, the browser opened the URL of http://www.microsoft.com/genuine.
While I’m in the said page, I click “Validate Windows” button. The result is I need to activate Windows before I can activate. {Ugh… but I activated it already and your tool isn’t detecting it right}
3. I proceed in opening Windows Update. “This copy of Windows is not genuine” is what I received.
4. I opened “System” again and noticed the only option is “Change Product Key”. I clicked that option and entered my product key. The result of the activation is successful. {Great!}
5. Since activation is successful again, I went to http://www.microsoft.com/genuine one more time and try to validate. Ugh.. it said the same thing. I have to activate Windows before I can validate. {What am I doing wrong?}
6. I have a copy of Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool (MGADiag.exe) in hand. I run the said tool and the result is I have invalid license of Windows {That’s incorrect result of course}
7. Since WGA or MGADiag.exe is not playing nice here. I decided to fire up the command prompt and try once again to activate Windows from it:
While in Command Prompt, I enter SLUI and run the activation again. Result is activation successful! So I went to validate Windows again by going to http://www.microsoft.com/genuine. No luck. It still want me to activate Windows. {Oh geez! }
8. While in command prompt, I enter SLUI 4 to get the installation ID and phone # of Microsoft. The Windows Activation with installation ID was shown and I see myself calling Microsoft to activate Windows again. There’s no one there because it’s Chinese New Year! Good thing the automated machine is ready to help. It let me key-in the Installation ID shown in my screen and then it gave me the “Confirmation ID”. I activated Windows after entering the Confirmation ID. Windows activation is successful again {that was many times already no?}. I visited http://www.microsoft.com/genuine webpage again to validate Windows because the bloody desktop is still showing at the right hand corner that “This copy isn’t genuine”. Finally, it worked and solved. The http://www.microsoft.com/genuine said:

Quote

Validation Complete
Thank you for validating your copy of Microsoft Windows.
Thank you for using the Windows Genuine Advantage program. You may now access resources for genuine Windows users.

9. I fire up “System”, the genuine logo is back!! {WooHoo!}
10. I restarted WindowsVista. Aero and DreamScene is working again. The “This copy of Windows is not genuine” is gone. Windows Vista is again genuine.

WGA is a tool. It’s a software only and we know, a software can have problem and there are times when system or network errors prevent validation from working properly.. the above incident may happen to any user. Inform Microsoft of the issue to help them improve the said service. It’s time consuming but it will help in fighting piracy.
If you know you are using genuine copy and experienced the above problem, try the solution I did (#8). That should solve the problem. If not, go to:

1. Download Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool (MGADiag.exe) from Microsoft. Run the MGADiag.exe tool
2. Post the result of the diagnostic tool at WGA forums of Microsoft

To find out if you are using Genuine software, go to How To Tell and start validating your copy.

Edit: Please note that I reported this incident to Microsoft and they are now aware of the issue and figuring what triggered this issue.
Note that there are some common fixes and issues so you might want to read their sticky in their forums:
Common problems and fixes
Validation Issue or Activation Issue?
For questions on validation or activation, please do not hesitate to Speak to them through their forum (if FAQ in http://www.microsoft.com/genuine website did not cover your specific questions or issues).

[Hardhead]

Wow nice work Donna, but that was a pain.

Let's hope in the future that Microsoft will improve WGA.

[Corrine]

Thanks, Donna. Great job! Although I hope I never need it, I've added this to my notes. Another favorite is your tutorial on creating Firewall Rules in Windows Vista ( http://dozleng.com/i...security/?p=133 ).

[Haroldo]

If this occurs on a newbie or intermediate's machine, I doubt that they would be able to figure out what to do. Was there a telephone number available to call? I know when you have a problem with the authentication code, the screen displays a number to get to Microsoft (a very quick, painless process).

[Haroldo]

Actually, I wanted to know if there was a number displayed early into the process, since a newbie would never get to step#8

[Donna]

Corrine, on Feb 18 2007, 03:36 PM, said:

Thanks, Donna. Great job! Although I hope I never need it, I've added this to my notes. Another favorite is your tutorial on creating Firewall Rules in Windows Vista ( http://dozleng.com/i...security/?p=133 ).

The above incident made me drink 2 cup of in 1 hour (I didn't panic?)
Thanks for reading the Windows Firewall Rules blog entry Corrine!

AMD said:

Posted at TEG/VISTA site.

Thanks! Looks like a member have problem in viewing the topic. Please direct them at:
http://www.dozleng.c...showtopic=13244

Haroldo said:

Actually, I wanted to know if there was a number displayed early into the process, since a newbie would never get to step#8

No. There is no phone # displayed because 'activation' did not fail even once. What failed is 'validation' by http://www.microsoft.com/genuine website and the WGA tool.

The MS phone numbers will be shown or should be displayed to users only if the activation failed.

AMD said:

once before,
i got into difficulty and went online to M$ and got a phone number that gave me someone in the maritime provinces of Canada and she took my visa number and spun me to another person in MUMBAI,India.
they straightened it all out and refunded the $35.00 back to my Visa card.

but the process is not EASY!

Glad to know you got the refund but why you had to pay for that amount? Tech support fee?

[Donna]

Hardhead, on Feb 18 2007, 11:48 AM, said:

Wow nice work Donna, but that was a pain.

Let's hope in the future that Microsoft will improve WGA.

I find WGA reliable. There must be something in what I did previous day that caused the issue. (note: To some users, they have installed a game that has client side protection program called GameGuard. See the comment at blog entry:
http://dozleng.com/i...security/?p=141 and in WGA forums, MS posted too info about the conflict.)
What I did previous day:
I removed Acronis True Image then I installed the new build 4940.
I'm not sure if this is the caused but we know True Image installs driver in the disk drives. I reported it to WGA Team of MS so they can check if it's the caused.
I want to try to reproduce it but I need a break from 2 cups of coffee!

[Donna]

AM2, on Feb 19 2007, 02:24 PM, said:

tech support fee before they would talk to me.

My guess was right

Thanks!

[Herro]

Microsoft came out with a program themselves to get rid of the You may be the victim of software counterfeiting popup. It can be removed manually easily enough too using hijackthis though.

[Donna]

It's similar method of using WGA Removal Tool that was 'stopped'
http://www.firewalll...m/removewga.htm

Microsoft has instructions on how to remove or disable WGA:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921914