Genuine Windows Copy!!

[fiomurph]

Hi Lads, Firstly "Happy New Year" to you all... hope you all had a Good One..

Now, I bought a second Sony Laptop of Ebay,, with everything loaded, but just recently, the Windows Update pops up, and when I try and update it comes back saying this is not a Genuine Copy of Windows!! I ran the Diagnostic program and that came back all ok!! Can anyone help me, as I dont understand the technical jargin!!

Thanks, Fiona.

[Chanandler]

It means that the copyright software that runs on Vista thinks that your version is not a legal one.

There are a few answers, the main one though is that the copy of Vista you have has been activated too many times (or the serial key I mean) and you will need to call Microsoft to get them to give you an unlock key over the phone.

That is asuming of course that the laptop still has its Sony Vista sticker on the underneath with the serial key on it.

If not then not much you can do I am afraid. Cheapest way is to get an OEM version of Vista and install that (from scratch though), next cheapest way is to go through the online purchase method it advises you to do as it will be discounted. Last ditch way is to buy a full version.

There are of course many posts on the interweb for ways of getting round the activation but its not something I would advise as the automatic updates will not work as well as not being able to pass the windows genuine advantage checks on the microsoft website.

[Thalamus.]

Hi Fiona,

Does your Vaio have a recovery partition and is it intact?

If so I would suggest your recover your Vaio.

To do this by Restart your Vaio, when you see the Vaio Logo press the F10 key repeatedly.