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Questions tagged [windows-genuine-advantage]

A program Microsoft uses to enforce legal use of their products.

Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage, or simply WGA is a program that verifies a user's installed Microsoft software for illegal use, this includes Windows. If such use is suspected, the program will trigger a warning when the software is used or it might block the program altogether.

WGA is required to be installed when installing Windows Internet Explorer, Windows Defender, Windows Media Player or Windows Live.

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Making a cracked or activated windows uncracked

I have a PC which has windows 7 license but I installed windows from an image I downloaded and it is already activated. For validating genuine Microsoft, I need to enter my own product key but the necessary activation tools do not exist in my…
Uğur Gümüşhan
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How to avoid Windows Genuine Advantage for an XP update?

I am about to apply updates to a windows xp installation I have not booted in a couple of years. When going to update.microsoft.com, it forced me first to accept an activex installation and now it wants me to install wga: Windows Update To use this…
hlovdal
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Windows 7 Ultimate - Evaluation Copy Expires Sept 1st 2011

I have a genuine copy of Windows 7 from MSDN. I get a message 'Evaluation Copy Expires Sept 1st 2011' I read that this could be due to the Service Pack and not the OS. So I uninstalled SP1, not a trivial task. then reapplied. Great! Good news, a…
Guy Thomas
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After enabling hardware virtualization, Windows 7 says it's not genuine

I had to enable hardware virtualization to run an IE7 VPC image. For some reason this makes my Windows installation think that it's not genuine. This in turn also makes Microsoft Security Essentials report that it will stop working in 30 days. I've…
Stijn
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My Windows passes validation but still says "Ask for Genuine"

I have activated my Windows using Product Key. Then In Computer->Properties (Win 7 SP1) it says "Ask for Genuine". I followed the steps and validated for genuine successfully using this link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/genuine But it…
Narek
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XP Activation - Am I Legal?

Being the family CIO, my girlfriend's mom asked me to fix some problems she was having with her computer - Windows XP Pro. So, like any good IT guy, after fixing the issue, I made sure to get her computer updated. She was on SP2. I installed SP3,…
Dave
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Removing a bogus "not genuine" message from XP

I built a VM with an unused XP license I have using an unattend.txt process. Is there a way to remove the warning message saying my install may not be genuine, and I need to "Get Genuine" from MS?
warren
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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…
Glen Solsberry
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How to make sure that installed Windows 7 OS is genuine, when buying used laptop?

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…
James C
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VirtualBox: Windows 7 says it's not genuine

I've set up a Windows 7 guest machine under Windows 7 using oracle virtualbox 4.2. This Windows Guest has its own product key which corresponds to the boxed set I purchased for the sole purpose of running it in virtualbox. A few months ago I backed…
Jason Posit
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How can I resolve a non-genuine version of Windows XP without a complete reinstall?

My situation I have a legal Windows XP Installation disk I don't want to reinstall I am trying to do the right thing by letting an acquaintance use a legitimate version of Windows XP instead of the cracked one he is now using. So far I have tried…
Lieven Keersmaekers
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Microsoft Security Essentials is not genuine now

I installed MSE on several machines months ago, and these are legit systems with legit keys. However, as of today MSE is complaining. Windows did not pass genuine validation. Security Essentials will become disabled in 28 days if you do not…
Rachel Nark
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Installing a patch on Windows 7 VM

I've just installed a Windows XP and Windows 7 virtual machine in Oracle VirtualBox, as I want to test that my domain certificates are good for the forthcoming MS patch 2661254 (which checks the minimum length of public certificate keys is…
user1178602
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Building a fast, affordable, and temporary Windows virtual testing environment

I was recently enrolled in an official Microsoft training course delivered by New Horizons. The learning platform offered labs on remote virtual machines. From my web browser, using Silverlight, I was able to create and launch a virtual instance…
dangowans
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How do I check if a Windows key is genuine without activating it?

Possible Duplicate: Is there a way to establish what version a Windows 7 product key is? I need a way to test if a Windows 7 key is genuine, and for what version it is so. I would like to do this without activating it. What would be ideal is an…
njallam
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