Home » Questions » Computers [ Ask a new question ]

Windows suddenly reports "This copy of Windows is not genuine"

Windows suddenly reports "This copy of Windows is not genuine"

Recently, my Acer Aspire 5050 that came with a copy of Vista, went through a series of Automatic Upgrades. Now, in the bottom of the desktop, I get "This copy of Windows is not genuine". Apparently, because of this, I cannot open "Properties" on Computer, or open the Control Panel, etc. This makes gathering information (like the Service Pack) difficult at best.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 314
Total answers/comments: 1
Guest [Entry]

"Acer will not be able to help you with fixing a failed WGA check, you'll have to to contact Microsoft to rectify the problem (they're the guys with the finger on the killswitch after all), the problem is quite common and MS representatives are rather helpful when dealing with the matter.

you can always install the OS from scratch, even with a Windows Anytime Upgrade disk.

here is a tutorial How to Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Version of Vista

once you have your Vista installation properly activated again, i recommend to backup your Vista activation files:

How to backup your OEM Vista activation"