I saw the other post about a similar problem. My Windows 7 is downloaded from MS Windows 7 site, is installed on one computer only and have an Product key for it valid until August 2009 (or so I thought)I have a message in the lower right corner that says "This copy is not genuine"Anyway this looks like a real problem since we are at least two who have experienced this.any other solutions than a re-install?thanks

Did you activate your version? Just inputting the key does not necessarily activate the installation. If you have already input your key, type activate at the Start menu search dialog box. At the top of the list, you will see the link Activate Windows. Click and follow the instructions. If all of that fails, you can reset your installation by typing slmgr /rearm at an elevated command prompt ((right-clicking command prompt and selecting Run as administrator). You can do this up to five times if necessary.

Thanks for the prompt answernot sure I did activate my version of Windows 7, I have 30 days to do it and I only install Windows 7 for a week.Now following your advise I tried to activate Windows, the result is error code 0x80070005, description: Access is denied.I removed the antivirus program (Kaspersky) and if it didn't solve the fact that I still can't activate Windows 7 (same error message 0x80070005), at least now the messages about a counterfeit version are gone. So looks like now I am left with finding an antivirus that will not trigger the counterfeit messages and a way to activate Windows 7

You need an anti virus application running, you are open to infection if you don't. I suggest you try the free version of Avast. At least you will then have anti virus cover. I'm currently running Avast on my system and i'm not seeing any problems - other anti virus applications I have tried have caused problems.John Barnett MVP: Windows XP Associate Expert: Windows Desktop Experience: Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

Incidentally, if you scheduled at task to run your anti virus this may have caused the error message you received.John Barnett MVP: Windows XP Associate Expert: Windows Desktop Experience: Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

Do you have any third party firewalls installed? If so, disable them. Then try this. First, make sure you have your installation key handy. At an elevated command prompt, type slmgr /ipk <product key> to make sure you have the key installed. If necessary, reboot. Following that, type slmgr /dlv and make note of the Activation ID. Finally, type slmgr /ato to activate (you may need to enter the Activation ID). For more information type slmgr /? to see all of the available switches and syntax.

thanks you for you help to sorting out this problem.I installed Avast for a day and it worked fine. I am running Trend Micro client/server Security Agent now and no issues so far.All firewalls are down (windows and Trend Micro) right now and were down as well when I had Kaspersky running.Any messages related to a counterfeit version of Windows are gone, so i assume it was a compatibility issue between the antivirus (Kaspersky) and Windows 7. I order to prevent problems that may be related to the activation of Windows I've been trying to reset the installation using slmgr but it failed. I also tried to change the key as someone suggested in the previous post about a counterfeit version of Windows 7 but it failed as well. So it looks like i won't be able to activate this version of Windows 7, unless there is something else to try.

When I installed Windows 7, I noticed it asked if you wanted to activate when on-line. I left that enabled and have had no problems. I simply installed AVG free and other programs, ran Windows update and I am fine.I suggest that you abandon 3rd party firewalls in favor of a hardware one. My Linksys WRT54G is an antique wireless box and it has a firewall to protect me from pests. It works fine with the Windows firewall and there are no problems.AVG + Windows Defender make a reasonable malware shield. AVG seems to be good at catching various malware I have tested on it. Of course nothing is perfect. Malcontents will keep posting new malware with no end in sight.I am a professional developer and I am registered with Microsoft Connect. I am also a vegan. Economics and chess are two of my many interests.

Vegan,Activation is always secondary for me. Even when clean installing Windows Vista I always disable the option to activate one installation has completed. Over the years Microsoft have always suggested that beta testers delay activation just in case they have problems and need to install a number of times. This makes sense, especially when you can easily get 'product key already in use' messages if you re-install. Having the operating system activate automatically after install can esaily cause this same problem if, after a few days, you experience problems and decide to re-install. By delaying activation, or in this case disabling the feature, you can, at least, run the operatign system for a few weeks to see if everything works okay. If problems do occur you can then re-install without having to worry about spending time on the telephone reactivating. I know it doesn't take long, but some people may not be as quick at meorising the activation key that the automated service gives them and activation may fail, thus they have to go through the automated procedure and then wait for a real person to guide them through.I usually leave activation for around 3 weeks, then activate.John Barnett MVP: Windows XP Associate Expert: Windows Desktop Experience: Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

For your information, you can easily tell if Windows 7, Vista or Server08 are activated by hitting Win+Pause, to bring up the System control panel applet.

John_Barnett said: Vegan,Activation is always secondary for me. Even when clean installing Windows Vista I always disable the option to activate one installation has completed. Over the years Microsoft have always suggested that beta testers delay activation just in case they have problems and need to install a number of times. This makes sense, especially when you can easily get 'product key already in use' messages if you re-install. Having the operating system activate automatically after install can esaily cause this same problem if, after a few days, you experience problems and decide to re-install. By delaying activation, or in this case disabling the feature, you can, at least, run the operatign system for a few weeks to see if everything works okay. If problems do occur you can then re-install without having to worry about spending time on the telephone reactivating. I know it doesn't take long, but some people may not be as quick at meorising the activation key that the automated service gives them and activation may fail, thus they have to go through the automated procedure and then wait for a real person to guide them through.I usually leave activation for around 3 weeks, then activate. John Barnett MVP: Windows XP Associate Expert: Windows Desktop Experience: Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org I understand your aversion, but since I use few programs, I activated it and it was stable for the most part. Only had to reinstall after a hostile malware site crashed my system. Took 1 day to restore the system, not that big of a problem.Windows beta 1 has been stable for me after a hot fix for my LAN shares for Expression Web. Before the hotfix I was getting blue screens galore.I can say I have several keys so if one is out of order, I have a few spares.I am a professional developer and I am registered with Microsoft Connect. I am also a vegan. Economics and chess are two of my many interests.

I use hardware FW + Software FW + AntiVirus + am being cautious :D

I have the Linksys box, i use AVG and the WIndows defender. Windows also has a firewall that is helpful.On my developer site, check the forum on dealing with activation. I posted a series of ideas that seem to work 95% of the time. Look in the Windows IT forum. There are lots of other articles generally, but not many for Windows 7 yet.I am a professional developer and I am registered with Microsoft Connect. I am also a vegan. Economics and chess are two of my many interests.

Vegan Fanatic said: Only had to reinstall after a hostile malware site crashed my system. Took 1 day to restore the system, not that big of a problem. I am a professional developer and I am registered with Microsoft Connect. I am also a vegan. Economics and chess are two of my many interests. Really? Already? How in the heck did that happen? Did not UAC inform you that something was amiss?Hmmmm.

UAC is not all that secure. The problem was with a booby trap web site. There seems to be more and more web sites being hacked and it makes it harder to search.AVG is the malware tool I use, and it now reports scans of web sites when I search with any major search engine. This is how bad things have become of late.I am thinking of a sub-forum on my site for security issues it so bad.IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Whatever I need a new web server, the antique IBM 300GL has a 137GB disk limit, for my chess site. I wanted to post many more downloadable files, the existing 30GB disk is insufficient.