Computer Repair Help

Nope, not in this case. It sounds like you’ve got a pirated copy of Windows, so if you want it to be legit you’re going to have to purchase it, which I would recommend since Windows Updates are a bit of a necessity considering many of them fix security holes.

As far as the popup is concerned, getting rid of it is described in pretty good detail in the article above.

Um, yeah, the WGA notifier DOES come from Windows Updates, otherwise how would you get it?

It is, of course, not an acutal update, but regardless you “contract” it via the update service.

Microsoft added the WGA notifier as an “update” a while before Vista came out as a deterrent to pirating a copy of Vista. This I would imagine has been quite effective since anybody that is using an illegitimate copy of a Microsoft OS no longer can get security updates/bug fixes.

I purchased Windows Genuine and downloaded the service key which did get rid of the baloon thing, but now when I try to switch from screen to screen, I get an error message. Says send error report / don’t send. Well I kept sending then it keeps coming back. Now I just click “don’t send”. How do I get rid of that? I also received my software. Should I “uninstall” the downloaded version and reinstall with the software? Do a system restore? Will that get rid of that error message?

I got a message saying the same thing, and now all my programs that microsoft made, like word, locked up!!! I purchased my laptop, it came witht the installation cd, the key, and everything. It came with Microsoft Word, and the cd to install it. I got it through my moms work, and now it’s telling me it’s not genuine.

I have genuine XP pro that’s been running for three years, with all the updates. Suddenly I get the infamous message telling me that too many hardware changes have been done and I have to validate again in three days and blah blah.

Actually the only hardware changes have been a few changes of mouse, a change of keyboard, heavy use of Flash memory and a couple of webcams trials. Reminds me of the blue screen of death.

I was having NTFS error messages in the system event log with my Vista Home Premium – laptop purchased from HP on the internet. After running both sfc.exe and chkdsk.exe and rebooting, now I get the following message after login where I HAVE NO WAY TO USE MY COMPUTER:

Title: Windows must be reinstalled to activate
Msg: Insert the Widows installation DVD or CD into your computer to begin the reinstallation process

Text in bottom right hand corner: Windows Vista (TM) Build 6000 This copy of Windows is not genuine.

The only option I have is to close the message window and the OS promptly logs me off. There is no task manager, no explorer shell…nothing else I can do.

I AM NOW A VICTIM since this laptop was purchased from HP on the internet in Aug 2007.

Ok so I deletd C:\Windows\System32\wgatray.exe.
But there is wgalogon.dll also, Im not goin to delete it just just yet, well see if it stops. Also I wanted to add the first time it showed up, I clicked ‘Fix now’ (or whatsever it says) and nothing happened… I didt get the option to but anything, it just loaded as usual.?.

i downloaded hijackthis!
i restarted in safe mode!
i opened hijackthis!
and scanned!
but i couldnt find any file with that name!
vista was working fine first few days of my new laptop.
2 weeks in and this happens!
heeeeeeelp!

Oh comon, i am a pirat and all that i want is a way to solve this, your solution is great but since my copie is not genuine the things doesn’t even allow me to start in safe mode and i am useing vista ultimate so i dont have the “wgatray.exe” thing…. is there any other nam,e on vista so i can delete it? dont come on me with silly seremons saying i should buy the real one bla bla.. i am evil and i like it!

ok.. ive done what it said at top..ive deleted the wgatray.exe and its now gone..but i still get this software is not genuine.. ive done exacly what the top said and its still not working..
i hope you can help me =D tyvm

Christine, you should find your product key on a sticker somewhere on the side or bottom of your pc. It looks like a sticker with a hologram in it and a barcode type pic along with lots of numbers and letters (those being the key)

If not search google for steps on locating your OS key from your installation files.

I’m having the same issue, but I know Microsoft has had an issue with losing registrations/keys.

Problem is I just called mine in over the phone to have it reactivated; still getting the ‘not genuine’ which leads me to believe a virus…

Ok I got this computer from usanotebook.com they told me something needed to be updated and that they could not do it them selves (not sure why but ok) so they gave me a disk to update and it updated me to windows vista ( I am guessing that it was a copied disk and that why) well I have had windows vista for like 3 months now and like 2 days ago I logged on and a pop up opened and my screen was all black and said that “this copy of windows is not genuine” I am not some computer geek so dont tell me something confusing and I dont want this to cost a fortune either, but i need help

Katie and Reddjuice,

There was a recent problem with windows activation and that could be your problem. The other possiblity is that the computer company gave you a pirated copy of the software.

In either case you should contact microsoft and ask them what you should do aside from buying a new copy of windows.

The computer company can be held liable if they gave you a priated copy and they should have to get you a genuine copy.

Good Luck

I am getting the annoying “not genuine” message. I bought this computer from Best Buy with Windows XP loaded. I have the Certificate of Authenticity right on the computer. I have clicked on the links and it says it verifies the program, but every time I reboot it comes back. Is not having loaded Service pack 3 a factor? What can I do??

My girlfriend’s pc has been doing this! we got it from Staples!! I am very excited to go test this out!

Thank you!

I’m not able to delete the wgatray.exe file in the said path. It shows me the following error… “CANNOT DELETE WGATRAY: ACCESS IS DENIED. MAKE SURE THE DISK IS NOT FULL OR WRITE-PROTECTED AND THAT THIS FILE IS NOT CURRENTLY IN USE.” Pleaseee help…

Thanks MadBarbie, it worked like a magic for me.
The trick is to be very quick at no.5.

ok people, ive done this to about 7 machines now, most of them were illegal copies and i got them working without the popups AND they can still update off microsoft. this is for windows xp and vista. here goes…

(most computers do not need to do step one, but try it anyway.)

step 1.go to the task manager, (ctrl+alt+delete)
and go to the ‘processes’ tab. find the program wgatray.exe and right click on it, and press end process, a popup should come up, so click yes. now, if what most of you are saying is right, and it comes back up again, press the reset button on your computer before it opens it again. if your computer does not have a reset button, quickly press start, u, r on your keyboard. (this’ll only work if you got a good computer.)

step 2. while its rebooting, go into safemode. safemode lets you change core files in the computer without badly screwing it up. to get into safemode, you have to constantly press f8 until it shows a page that lets you boot with the option, ‘boot in safemode.’ (some computers use f9, so try both ways.)

step 3. ok, you should be in safemode now. if you computer has the windows 95/98 style, and a black backgroung, and words up the top saying something like, ’safe mode’ yeah, your in safemode. press ’start+r’ and it’ll open run, or click on start then click run. type in ‘regedit’ and this will bring up the registry editor. (PLEASE NOTE: do NOT try to change anything else in the registry, unless you are dead sure you know what your doing.) go to ‘H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/WINDOWS/WINDOWS NT/CURRENT VERSION/WINLOGON/NOTIFY’ and there should be a folder called ‘wgalogon’. delete it. this should tell the computer that wgatray.exe is not being used anymore.(ANOTHER NOTE: if your not sure this’ll work, right click on the folder, then click export. this’ll make a copy of folder in your destitation of choice, so you can always put it back in later.) now close the registry editor.

step 4. now go to ‘C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32′ and find and delete WgaTray.exe. (an easy way to find it is to press ‘w’ when your in the folder, and that will take you first file beginning with w.) also go to ‘C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/DLLCACHE’ and find and delete the same file. most of the time though, there will only be one file in either of those directories. now just to be safe, check the task manager (ctrl+alt+delete) and make sure the program is not running. (if it is, then try doing step 3 again, or if you made a backup of the folder ‘wgalogon’ try getting rid of this too.)
if this didnt work, look at the bottom paragraph of this post.

step 5. now reboot your machine. you should have no genuine problems coming up at all. congratulations! its gone! BUT, we’re not finished yet.
to make sure it doesn’t come up again, we’ll have to stop it being downloaded again. so, go to control panel, (its under start,) and go to the security center. it’s the same with vista. now go to automatic updates, and check the box that says, ‘notify me but dont automatically download or install them.’ this will make it so that every hour or so, windows will search microsofts website for newer updates. if it finds one/some, an yellow icon will come up in the notifcation area. (bottom left.) if you click on it, a window will come up asking something like:
automatic, let windows download files, or
custom, let me choose which ones to download.
pick the custom button, and i think you press next then. now make sure that the file, ‘windows genuine advantage notification’ isnt there. if it is, simply uncheck the box next to it, and click download, or next. if you unchecked any boxes, it’ll ask if your sure you want to not download the unselected files. check the box that says something like, ‘do not show these files again’, or something like that. now press yes. ok! no that it wont try to download it again, microsoft doesnt know that it isnt a genuine copy, but it will still let you download updates. if you want, you can go back to the automatic updates window and make it so that it downloads and installs automatically, but i dont know if it ignore you and download the genuine file again, so i suggest that you keep on custom. plus, you know excatly what is going on your computer.

and we are done! i think you can all give yourselves a pat on back, and you get a medal saying, ‘junior geek’.
its not on the simple side of things, i know. but it gets rid of it without using and programs or whatever.

(this next bit is for you people whose computers arent letting you delete wgatray.exe, in step 4.)
go to ‘run’ again. (start+r) and type in ‘cmd’ this will bring up a black window with a command line. now, you need to in, ‘cd ..’ until the command line is just ‘C:\>’. now type in,
‘cd windows’ and it’ll change the command line to, ‘ C:\windows>’ now type, ‘cd system32′. ok, now we need to search for the file. if you type in ‘dir’ it should shoot through this big list really quickly, too fast to read. so we have to break it down. so, try typing in ‘dir/p’. this will break it down into one page blocks, so that you press enter to go to the next page. now search for the file wgatray.exe. this can be time consuming, but just do it. if it isnt in there, good! skip past this next square bracketed bit.
[once youve found it, you know its in here, so now we have to kill it. this part completley destroys the file, as it doesnt even put it into the recycle bin. in your command line, type in 'del wgatray.exe', or 'delete wgatray.exe'.(capitals or not, it shouldn't matter.) and boom! its gone.]
now in the command line, type ‘cd dllcache’ to bring you into the dllcache folder. now search for the same file using ‘dir/p’, and once again, if it’s in there, ‘del wgatray.exe’.
now get out of the command line by typing, ‘exit’ the files should now be completley gone. (if you did these step, then you get and ‘honorary geek’ medal.
if it still didnt let you delete them, try doing this proceedure in safemode, and if you just did, then damn.

if the very rare few of you STILL couldnt get rid of it, then i’d be more than happy to help. my email is blazing_glory92@hotmail.com i dont use this email that much, i only check it about once a week, so please be patient.

The Windows getting out countefeting

sorry about double posting.
also please realize that it WONT WORK if you skip step 2 or 3. if it doesnt work, email me!
blazing_glory92@hotmail.com

if you see this that ” you may be a victim of software counterfeiting” then just do these 2 simple steps.
1. go to system restore & chose the best known configuration point & perform this restore operation.
2.after restart of ur compuer then go to windows update & “turned off automatic update “.
hope u enjoy windows.

saroj,

that’s it really? Will I be able to load spk 1. I have a computer doing this and I cannot load SPKs on it because it is not genuine. Will this work.

If not, Aaron, I am doing your suggestions!

MadBarbie, that worked, whew!!

Took me quite a while to figure it out, but managed! Now let me reboot and see..

i have tried to delete but it aint working!!

I deleted wgalogon.exe & wgalogon.dll, backed up the registry & search for any occurence of wgalogon.dll & deleted them all.

restarted it was ok, mthe message was gone.

btw. That was a registered licence

The best way to get around this is to install Linux. Grab a copy of ubuntu from http://ubuntu.com

I run Vista in a virtual machine in order to connect RAS into work. I have nothing but trouble with Vista. Even using Microsoft’s own copy of Vista from my MSDN subscription, WGA will pop up and then shut down Windows. I usually have to go into my MSDN subscription and request a new key in order to fix it. This is MS’s “fix” for the problem. I’d have a fit if I actually paid for a Windows OS and then couldn’t use it.

I may have to write code on Windows at work but I love coming home and using Linux. Everything just works and it works a whole lot faster, with a lot more features and it’s all free!

well .. change to safemode first den go to C:/windows/system32/ .. search for wgalogon and wga.. delete off or change their extension name like exe1 or dll1 as the top mention…

I have a Acer Laptop and something got screwed up and i went and got it fixed. the guy had to delete everything on my harddrive and including windows vista. well he reinstalled it but the damn sticker on the bottom of the laptop was worn off so he couldnt enter a product key. now my laptop is locked up it says to buy a copy of windows. which sucks because i dont want to spend 90 dollors. is there anything else possible?

it would not let me delete the wga.exe in the system 32 folder buy i renamed the exe and dll to xxx (what ever you want) marked as read only and it never came back up. But i still ahve the black back ground. If neither works take the drive out put it in an external case and delete from anotehr machine

I have a 3-4 year old Dell Dimension 9100. I bought directly from Dell and am suddenly getting this message. In addition, my computer won’t boot, even in Safe Mode. Does anyone have any suggestions? I think I’m in trouble.

OMG that thing with renaming those >>>

1. WgaTray.exe
rename it as WgaTray.exe1
2. WgaLogon.dll
rename it as Wgalogon.dll1

Path: C:\Windows\System32\and then press “w” to find these files.

>>> realy worked !!!
Just rename these and it’s done … ur problem is over !!! :)))

just so you all know even if you do have the wgatray microsoft HAS to update your system. All it does is turn off your auto updates. just turn them back on. It poses to much of a risk to have that many machines out of updates it makes their whole structure at risk.

Hello,

My dad bought this acer laptop with microsoft vista 2 years ago. Now all of a sudden, in my hands(he gave it to me in april 2009 now its may 2009) I am receiving this message saying it’s not genuine.

My problem here is, I tried to resovle through computer – properties – activate windows … what I’m getting is three choices – enter new product key, purchase key, ask microsoft for help.

I entered a product key which is on a sticker underneath the laptop. They say it’s wrong.

Now the REAL problem is it is telling me to activate my WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE yet the sticker underneath says WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM.

My dad’s away on a trip so I cannot reach him. can anyone simply help me? I don’t find any CDs in the laptop case also =/

For anyone using Vista with this problem of “This version of Windows is not genuine,” and nagscreens saying “Activate Windows now,” check out this tutorial. It’s a Vista Forum, with all kinds of solutions for Vista.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/84488-activate-vista-phone.html

I had the nagscreen for a week and all I did was change the product key, restarted my computer and voila, good as new!

i got my computer clean because it had a virus from a omputer expert when it return to me it was working very well till i update this thing pop up tell that window is the genuine.Bought the genuine package and can not get it to work. what am doing wrong

@Huyen Giang – What software are you talking about? HijackThis IS free, and can be downloaded from a number of places. Windows itself, however, is NOT free and their WGA software will attempt to make you purchase a new valid key.

There are plenty of fake virus and spyware scanners out there that will tell you that they’ve detected items on your computer and then attempt to make you purchase their software in order to remove these ‘infections’ when the “scanner” itself really is a virus.

There are also many legit free online scanners available that will only scan your computer and tell you where the virus source files are, but will make you pay to remove them.

The Windows Live OneCare scanner is one of the only online scanners I’ve found that will actually detect and remove infections for free.

You can also use McAfee’s ,SuperDAT command line scanner for free as well, although if you don’t know how to work a command prompt then you won’t be able to use it. Fortunately, I’ve written a how-to for it here.

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Hey everyone…what you all are describing sounds like what happened to me.
I logged on to a wireless network that wasn’t legit I think and the next time I turned on my comp I got the windows is not genuine message. I think that someone got to my computer through the faulty wireless network.
The only thing I’m wondering now is what to do about it…
If anyone knows could you email me? vfa1986@gmail.com

Thanks!