Soon I am going to buy a used laptop computer. I am checking advertisements, and some of the sellers promise a genuine copy of Windows 7 OS installed on the system.
On a couple of occasions I have already seen Windows genuine tests showing that the installed OS has a valid license. Later however, it proved to be a cracked copy.
When trying out the potential new computer, how to make sure that the installed Windows 7 actually is genuine, and not a cracked version ?
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/exe-validation.aspx
Download the genuine validation tool. Even if they have messed with the validator that is part of Windows this should still pick it up.
If you download the Genuine Validation Tool, it will tell you if the PRODUCT KEY is genuine, or is being a cracked version. However it will not check Whether windows 7 was installed using some tampered ISO !
I suggest you try use the Magical Jelley Bean Key Finder, it will fetch you the product key ( that was used on installation ) from the registry if it is legit.
Also if you will do a clean install yourslef, download the genuine official Windows ISO . That's just my paranoid self though :x
Method 1 – Activate Windows Dialog
The first way to validate that Windows 7 is genuine is to click on Start, then type in activate windows in the search box.
If your copy of Windows 7 is activated and genuine, you will ge t a message that says “Activation was successful” and you will see the Microsoft Genuine software logo on the right hand side
Method 2 – Control Panel
The third way to check for genuine Windows 7 is to go to the Control Panel. Click on Start, then Control Panel, then click on System and Security, and finally click on System.
Then scroll all the way down to the bottom and you should see a section called Windows activation, which says “Windows is activated” and gives you the Product ID. It also includes the genuine Microsoft software logo.
Method 3 : open cmd.exe and type:
slmgr.vbs /dli
you can see licenced status as follows:
