Telling me I have a fake copy of XP

Kiniska

Yesterday, there was an automatic update on my Toshiba laptop and it failed saying I have a fake copy of XP and when I clicked the resolve button the only other option was to buy a new copy of XP. Now this is the original version of XP that came with the laptop when it was bought about 3 years ago and it wasn't a black market purchase, but was bought in a legitimate shop. Is this common and is there any easy resolution?

Pete67

Is there a Microsoft Certificate of Authentiticy on the botton the the laptop, there should be if it is legimate. There will be a key on it. If you ring MS they should be able to confirm that it is valid.

Kiniska

Yes, there is. I'll ring them. Thanks!

Naikon

Maybe the shop that sold you the license wasn't
being as up front as you think?

center15

Microsoft even acknowledge there are some false positives, so best to ring them to sort it out.

Dartz

I had the same problem.

Toshiba laptop repeatedly called itself Pirated after I had to reinstall the OS. Using OEM disk, on the original machine. It'd activate, then deactivate, then reactivate... it got annoying as hell. I couldn't fix it... even rang microsoft about it.

So I switched OS.

RHJ

This post has been deleted.

Dartz

Well, that's what you do. If you don't like the product, don't use it. Don't pay for it.

I'm only using Windows 7 right now for the simple reason that I got it free.

Any time I see the prompt to install WGA notifications I decline the EULA, even if I know the copy of XP is legit. Avoids problems such as this.

Kiniska

Strange thing is, I re-booted the laptop and I haven't seen this message again and it's been 2 weeks. But if and when I do I'll call Microsoft and if it persists there is always Linux.

mukki

linux sucks


make sure that you have installed the same version of xp on the pc that is the sticker, sometimes shops put their own xp pro on a xp home or xp mediacenter edition system.

ttm

mukki wrote: »

linux sucks


make sure that you have installed the same version of xp on the pc that is the sticker, sometimes shops put their own xp pro on a xp home or xp mediacenter edition system.

Thats quite common I had a friend with an old Dell laptop that failed recently, whoever "fixed" it in the past reloaded a pirate copy of windows XP.

mukki

mukki wrote: »

linux sucks


make sure that you have installed the same version of xp on the pc that is the sticker, sometimes shops put their own xp pro on a xp home or xp mediacenter edition system.

That's very true. Switching to Linux because of WGA just reeks of "fight the powah, M$ sux." In XP it's optional, you can refuse to install it and are well within your rights to refuse the EULA if you don't use it.

I've come across a lot of machines where pirated copies of XP were installed by repair shops, I'd guess it's done so the techy doesn't have to bother activating it. I work in a repair shop myself but *always* use the supplied OEM licence - if they don't have one then I'll ask for one. I never install pirated software on a customer's PC - it's asking for trouble.

BigEejit

What happens is that the OEM Cert of Authenticity needs to be paired with the OEM Reinstallation CD. If a repair shop cant find the CD easily they then go and load a pirate version......

I have a Dell Latitude that used to be my work laptop, bought from my company very cheaply when they got me a new laptop. The problem is that they wiped the laptop and did not supply the Dell OEM Windows XP Home CD to match the COA on the bottom. It took flipping ages to get my hands on that.... and 18 months later WGA told me that I had a pirate version. So I installed something to stop/fool the WGA check and have not been bothered since. I'll say again, this was new install with the Dell CD and the COA on the bottom of the laptop and Microsoft still told me the install was not legit.

I always just use a generic OEM CD with the COA's key. Sometimes you need to phone Microsoft but otherwise there's no problem, it activates and validates just fine. The only difference with branded CDs is that they contain an SLP product key and OEM BIOS cert to bypass the need to enter a product key or activate. They don't use the key on your COA.

Naikon

Karsini wrote: »

That's very true. Switching to Linux because of WGA just reeks of "fight the powah, M$ sux." In XP it's optional, you can refuse to install it and are well within your rights to refuse the EULA if you don't use it.

I've come across a lot of machines where pirated copies of XP were installed by repair shops, I'd guess it's done so the techy doesn't have to bother activating it. I work in a repair shop myself but *always* use the supplied OEM licence - if they don't have one then I'll ask for one. I never install pirated software on a customer's PC - it's asking for trouble.

If you think WGA is the only reason he switched to Linux, you are sadly
mistaken. Have you actually used Linux for more than an hour?

There are plenty of reasons to give as to why I run Linux these days.
Get a clue please. Linux, like any OS does have problems though.

Care to mention any flaws? Fair points, based on actual observations
would be good for a start. Your argument at the moment is pretty weak.

D4RK ONION

One thing's for certain, Ubuntu has never told me I'm running a fake copy of ubuntu!

OP did you call Microsoft? Did you work it out?

Naikon

D4RK ONION wrote: »

One thing's for certain, Ubuntu has never told me I'm running a fake copy of ubuntu!

OP did you call Microsoft? Did you work it out?

Even If I had to pay 1000+ for Slackware or Debian, I would cough up:D
I have even contributed to OSS. Money is made daily from OSS.

Dartz

The following are the reasons I switched to Linux...

Viruses. (Yes, the old argument, but it's true)
WGA ( which I'd installed without knowing any better)
Performance on low-spec hardware. (The big reason. Windows XP with an antivirus suite and other things is a pain in the hole on 256MB of RAM)
Package management, and how the entire system is updated at once, rather than just to guts of the OS... and the whole package manager idea in general.
When you *do* have to compile software, it's so much easier to do. 2 commands in terminal, and the whole system is updated.
Reliability: I have literally had *one* system hang-up that wasn't caused by me, or hardware going tits-up. I can't say the same about any Windows.

Also, I like the user interface more in Xfce than Aero. It's clean, fussless, and just gets on with the job.

Naikon

Dartz wrote: »

The following are the reasons I switched to Linux...

Viruses. (Yes, the old argument, but it's true)
WGA ( which I'd installed without knowing any better)
Performance on low-spec hardware. (The big reason. Windows XP with an antivirus suite and other things is a pain in the hole on 256MB of RAM)
Package management, and how the entire system is updated at once, rather than just to guts of the OS... and the whole package manager idea in general.
When you *do* have to compile software, it's so much easier to do. 2 commands in terminal, and the whole system is updated.
Reliability: I have literally had *one* system hang-up that wasn't caused by me, or hardware going tits-up. I can't say the same about any Windows.

Also, I like the user interface more in Xfce than Aero. It's clean, fussless, and just gets on with the job.

I am a KDE fan myself:D
Memory usage is way lower than previous iterations. Xfce4 is nice too.

One of the best features is that most development tools like compilers, editors, ect are installed be default.
Not having to defragment volumes is nice too. EXT4 is a good solid filesystem.

Linux has never caused me to hard reset the machine. The most I had to do was
simply restart KDM. Cue the multi-user design.

Dartz

Naikon wrote: »

I am a KDE fan myself:D
Memory usage is way lower than previous iterations. Xfce4 is nice too.

One of the best features is that most development tools like compilers, editors, ect are installed be default.
Not having to defragment volumes is nice too. EXT4 is a good solid filesystem.

Linux has never caused me to hard reset the machine. The most I had to do was
simply restart KDM. Cue the multi-user design.

The irony is I had to do a hard reset yesterday, after my first ever kernel panic.... which corrupted the ext4 file system. System wouldn't even answer alt-SysRQ it was hung so badly. No idea what hung it.... might've been the corruption itself as the cause, rather than the symptom. A good hard fsck cleared it, however.

Been getting a few errors on that disk lately, however.

Capt'n Midnight

Ladies
Might be best to take the whole KDS vs XFCE discussion over to Unix

Closing thread