This copy of windows is not Genuine

[Kyle]

I've had a strange thing happen today to a couple of users whose roaming profile had become corrupt. When they try to log on it tells them that their copy of windows is not genuine and displays all the prompts to validate it. But if i log on as admin then it is OK. As soon as i delete and recreate the roaming profile of the user it works OK.

 

I know the Windows Copy is genuine because there were 50 odd computers all imaged with the same image using RIS and i know the CD key in RIS is genuine as it is used with all other RIS images in the school.

 

Strange or what.............?

[Ric_]

You've not just installed WMP11 have you? The setup wizard screens at first use ask you to validate Windows.

[Kyle]

Update.

 

We still have this issue on now 1 machine only. We solved the problems of the others by deleting the roaming profile of the user and recreating it. But the strange thing is we have one machine that still plays up. We have now re-imaged this PC but as soon as it was used again it came up with this 'Windows is not Genuine' again. Now if we go to the machine log on as admin then log off the waring goes away and the user can use it again with no problems. When the machine is shutdown at night and then started up the next morning the problem comes back and if we log in as admin it works again.

 

I know the CD key is ok and i Know the image is ok because we have 70 other PC's with the same image with out the problem.

 

Anyone have anymore suggestions?

[StewartKnight]

Linux

[sidewinder]

Have you tried going to the Windows validation site and validating again? That got rid of it for us when we had the same issue

 

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/Validate.aspx?displaylang=en

[mrforgetful]

I had it incorrectly reporting my Windows here in school as invalid back when they released that dodgy Genuine Advantage check that reported things wrong due to something to do with OEM and upgrades.

 

Anyway, I downloaded Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012) which does a proper check and fixed it in my image.

[eejit]

Kyle, when you did you build the original image? We had the exact same problem because we were unlucky enough to take our image during the time of MS's broken WGA tool - 2nd and 3rd of October I think. It was a total nightmare to fix. I spent days on the phone to MS about it and got passed onto various departments. Then all of a sudden it went away, I'm pretty sure that they did something to our key at their end like tell it to always pass no matter what because even they were getting frustrated with it all.

[mattx]

This is the naughty way of getting round this problem:

 

End the process wgatray.exe in Windows TaskManager and restart Windows XP in safe mode.

Now delete the following files:

 

Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\windows\system32

Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\windows\system32\dllcache

 

Start Windows Registry editor and delete the folder "WGALOGON" located in the following location:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinlogonNotify.

Delete all references in your registry to WgaTray.exe

 

Another alternative suggest that three files are installed Windows XP System Folder:

 

\WINDOWS\system32\WgaLogon.dll

\WINDOWS\system32\WgaTray.exe

\WINDOWS\system32\LegitCheckControl.dll

 

The wgatray.exe process makes the check for genuine windows software. You can disable WGA by removing the execute bit on WgaLogon.dll. That way, winlogon can't call it as a notification package at boot, and since WgaLogon is responsible for running and maintaining WgaTray.exe, no more tray popups either.

 

To change the execute bit of WgaLogon.dll, first turn off Simple File Sharing. Now right click the file in Windows Explorer and open the Security Tab. Hit the Advanced button, uncheck the Inherit box at the bottom, hit the Copy button, then hit OK. Go through each listed user/group and remove the "Read & Execute" permission for that file, leaving the "Read" permission as-is.

 

Hit OK to apply the permission changes and close the file properties dialog. Restart the machine. You can now turn "Use simple file sharing" back on, if you want.

[david12345]

You've not just installed WMP11 have you? The setup wizard screens at first use ask you to validate Windows.

 

hi have just got this problem on couple of pcs just after installed WMP11 on a different PC on the network. All pcs have same product key via ghost image, which is different therefore to the product key of the preiinstalled windows each pc came with, why should installing wmp11 and validating windows on that pc as part of the insatllation cause the non genuine message to start appearing on other pcs? (after a yaer with no problems)btw the wga offline tool says that windows is genuine on all pcs including the 2 problem ones, yet still the messages appear on the latter.

any solutions based on this particular scenario?

cheers, david

[alonebfg]

david sorry to be the bringer of bad news butit look like you have not been wise in what you have been doing. From what you have wrote you have put the same image on all pcs. it sounds like you have a ghost of an oem of another key and just tryin to dist it. OEM keys are all diffrent and it looks like ms have found you have the same key on lots of machines and stopped it. You will need eather to buy a new licance for all you machines or contact microsoft. Next time you need to be a bit more carefull only volume licences can go on more than one machine.

[david12345]

david sorry to be the bringer of bad news butit look like you have not been wise in what you have been doing. From what you have wrote you have put the same image on all pcs. it sounds like you have a ghost of an oem of another key and just tryin to dist it. OEM keys are all diffrent and it looks like ms have found you have the same key on lots of machines and stopped it. You will need eather to buy a new licance for all you machines or contact microsoft. Next time you need to be a bit more carefull only volume licences can go on more than one machine.

 

Wasn't me actually! Can't I just change the product key of windows xp on the affected PCs to match the product key sticker on the side of each respective box?

david

[srochford]

You can but I don't think it's easy :-)

 

Try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328874 - it refers to volume license keys but it might work for OEM keys.

 

One of the things Vista makes easier (maybe!) is the volume licensing process - you don't enter a key at all on the machine, you just set up a central licensing server. The idea is that if your VLK "escapes" MS can block its use very quickly and give you a new key which is automagically sent out to your clients.

[Guest]

so we cant use oem images to ghost to the same type of pc?

thats strange as we have always used ghost to put out images of oem versions and apart from the odd pc, we have never had this issue

I may be mistaken but im sure microsoft dont check domain pcs in the same way as pcs not on a domain.

and why would anyone buy volume license keys when most pcs come with an oem key,

am i being stupid and missing the plot?

[sidewinder]

and why would anyone buy volume license keys when most pcs come with an oem key,

am i being stupid and missing the plot?

 

Well for us we get PC's with XP Home OEM because its cheaper and use Schools Agreement to upgrade that licence to Pro and then use our volume key

 

Do you seriously go round each PC and install with a different OEM key? Because you cant just go and use the same key or you will run into problems like this

 

Also, there can be these stupid WGA problems even with valid VLK's - we found it on a few machines last year. In that case a quick revalidation at the MS site did the trick

[SteveBentley]

I thought this was exactly what Sysprep was there for?

[alonebfg]

it is if you sysprep when you restart it will ask for licance key if it is all done right. but you might find the key which has been put on all the pcs will not work so you will to get a least on key.

[SimpleSi]

so we cant use oem images to ghost to the same type of pc?

 

I personally have not noticed that this has happened and all of my OEM PCs in my schools are cloned from master machines.

 

Maybe I'm just lucky and the brown stuff is on its way

 

regards

 

Simon

[acrobson]

I have found with sys prep it requires an origional XP disk, other than those such as what come with the dell machines, the OEM discs etc. Thats just me of course like.

[alonebfg]

Its not to much of a prob if you run wsus as the pcs only contact the local server. If they every one keeps contacting ms with the same key this is when the issue becomes apprant to ms. So what do they do yep Stop the key. If you have not had a problem you are either very lucky OR you have imaged the origanal install which if you cheack the key is not a key from any machine you own. The problem comes if you do a reinstall and then put in that machines key and ghost that. If the origanal install has been imaged there should not be a problem as the key is a oem volume key that only works on there machines. what it sounds like is that si has ghosted orignal install and the person who imaged yours did not.