NOT Genuine Windows -

Ok
HELP

I am totally screwed I guess.  I have a Pirate version of Windows on my computer.  Windows 7 Ultimate. 

I now have a message on my computer that it isn't a Genuine copy. 

Is there any way to fix this without paying over $200 to get a Genuine version.  My son tried last night but we can't backdate the computer to before the  hit the fan 

Will the computer totally shut down, or will I just have to put up with the messages etc before windows will open every day???  I don't want to lose all the other programs installed on my computer which my son says will happen if he installs a different version of Windows 7.

This happened to one of my computers several years back. IIRC, it happened because I did the windows updates, which you probably shouldn't do if you have pirated software.

I can't remember exactly how the issue got resolved -- I am pretty sure there were just annoying messages from that point on but the computer never actually stopped working.

Do you have your hard-drives partitioned into a C drive, D drive, E drive etc.? If you reinstall windows you'll lose what's on the C drive (the drive where windows is installed) but everything on your other drives will stay the same. I never put important stuff on my C drive because I seem to have to reinstall windows every few months for some reason or another.

All my documents, pictures, movies etc are on my 'D' Drive.  I am not sure if I can move the Photoshop and other stuff over to 'D' but if I can I will.

I cant really afford to buy a 'Genuine' Windows version right now.  If the computer won't shut down totally then I may just have to live with the nuisance for awhile 

You'll only lose whats on a drive that you reformat. I don't *think* a windows install will automatically reformat an entire partition.

I don't *think* a windows install will automatically reformat an entire partition.

Actually, pretty sure it will wipe the entire drive/partition. Plus, Windows is a real resource hog and will try to allocate everything it sees. That's why it's always good to put Windows on a disk or partition all by itself if possible.

In this case, you WANT it reformatted...you want to get every trace of the old Windows off the drive, or you'll soon be back in the same spot.

When Microsoft detects an install of Windows that might not be genuine, they try to make you run a nasty little thing called something like "RealWindows" or "RealVerify" or some such. They go to great lengths to make it sound like protection you need to load immediately, but it's really there to check out your Windows and screw it up if it's not official. When you hide it or refuse it it will still come up occasionally; you need to watch for it and keep telliing it 'no'. Of course, you always check what files are sent you by Windows Update, and always use 'Custom Install' instead of 'Express Install' or 'Bend Over And Smile Install' or whatever they call it.

As long as you can keep that update away, your bogus Windows should be fine.

Try Google for something like:

freeware + remove Windows Activation Technology + Windows7

All my documents, pictures, movies etc are on my 'D' Drive.  I am not sure if I can move the Photoshop and other stuff over to 'D' but if I can I will.

Step one is to back up that drive! Large USB sticks are getting cheaper; I saw 64 GB on sale in Shanghai the other day.

I cant really afford to buy a 'Genuine' Windows version right now.  If the computer won't shut down totally then I may just have to live with the nuisance for awhile  

Consider switching to Linux or one of the BSD derivatives.
Previous discussion: http://raoulschinasaloon.com/index.php?topic=2460.0

They are completely free and do everything Windows does and some things better. On the down side, there's a substantial amount of re-learning to do before you can use them effectively. Also, Windows software will not run on them. For some things (e.g. Office) there are free alternatives that are fine; for others (e.g. Photoshop) there wasn't anything really adequate last I heard.

Use this, and it will set your Win 7 to legit/activated:

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6233106/ODIN_1.3.7_by_secr9tos

A reinstall will give you the option to re-partition or not. You don't have to wipe out your files on the drives other than C.
PM me for a validation method for W 7 Ultimate.  It's a small file.  It works (so far, ha ha!).

Dragonsaver, are you using Windows to do basic computing? By this I mean surf the internet, create and edit documents, store photos, play music, that kind of thing? If so, Linux Ubuntu has several advantages over Windows. It's free, so you don't need to choose between paying and running a dodgy pirate version. It's very stable, and doesn't gradually make your computer slow down (unlike Windows). It's based on the same under-the-bonnet nuts and bolts as the Apple Mac operating system, has a vaguely Maccy feel, and tends to be a fair bit faster than Windows.

There's lots of free software that duplicates commercial software and which you can download from the control panel with one click, in particular LibreOffice - fully compatible with Microsoft office - and Gimp - which comes damn close to doing everything that Photoshop does. (Those both work with with Windows too, by the way.) The only disadvantages I can see are that it's not exactly the same as Windows, so it take little while to get used to it, and although there is a program called WINE which will let you run Windows-only software, it's a bit hit-and-miss, so you're probably better off using free alternatives such as the ones mentioned above. Support for printers, scanners etc is fairly good, but there can also be the occasional headache there. I have two computers - a desktop running Windows and a laptop running Linux Ubuntu, which does everything I need on a day-to-day basis.

As said above, if you're not dependent on using Windows-only programs, and can spare the time to figure it out, I'd recommend Ubuntu as a life-long switch. I only persist with Windows on my desktop because I use work-related quiz-creator and graphic design software which is isn't compatible with Linux. Here's the link: http://www.ubuntu.com/

Oh, and you can run it from a USB memory stick to see if you like it before making the switch.

And I see that Pashley's mentioned this above, which I hadn't noticed (moral: read all posts properly before launching off with a know-it-all reply). As said and linked to above, this topic has been discussed here before - more details there if you're interested.