Resolved Bogus Win 7 on Computer I Bought

I bought a laptop on eBay that advertised that it included Win 7 Ultimate. The laptop was in excellent condition and all looked good for a while. I did some MS updates and installed some SW. I then noticed the message "This copy of Windows is not genuine" in the lower right corner of the screen. It wasn't there when I first booted it. I've been trying to work with the seller to resolve the problem. I may have to report his eBay store as selling fraudulent products to eBay.

I like the laptop and don't want to return it. It has an XP product key on the bottom. I have an old XP installation disk and was wondering if I could install that and use the product key on the bottom, then install an upgrade of Win 7 Home Premium. I'm concerned because the product key on the laptop would be for an OEM version and mine is a full retail version. The goal is to put Win 7, 32 bit on the computer as cheaply as possible. It doesn't have to be Ultimate, but I do have a piece of HW that doesn't work on the 64 bit OS.

 

You can't upgrade directly from XP to 7. You'd have to upgrade to Vista first then on up to 7. (It does work, I've done it).

What you really need to do though is to try and get the seller to send you a legitimate Windows 7 Product Key. Simply type that into the Windows 7 you're already running and you'll be good to go.

 

I'm did request that the seller send me a key and instead he sent me a program that he said would make the message disappear. It did - for a few hours. Sounds like it was more than an honest mistake.

According Microsoft's web site, the up grade will work for XP.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/Windows-7-Home-Premium/productID.235488300/vip.true

 

I guess it boils down to what your definition of 'upgrade' is.

A quote from that Microsoft page you linked to:

And then from that "Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7" page they linked to:

In other words, in spite of the fact they may refer to it as an 'upgrade', you have to start over.

 

I understand about the "clean" upgrade installation. I have another XP computer that I built when XP was introduced. It would really be a pain to do this exercise on that computer. This is a newly acquired computer and I have very little installed. I would really only have two applications to install, plus a couple of utilities that require no configuration. I can export the configuration on one of the apps. I'm not sure about the other.

If I'm able to get the seller to send me a legitimate product key, how do I enter that? I've only entered keys during installation. Does that mean a registry edit?

 

1. Click the Start button, right-click Control Panel and select Properties,
   
   (or, if available on your keyboard, simply press [Winkey]+[Pause|Break] instead),
   
   
2. then down in the Windows Activation section at the bottom, click the "Change product key" link and follow the simple directions.

 

What he probably sent you was a little program that is supposed to fake WGA out. It worked on XP good. Then MS found out about this and had a way to get around this. Friend and I tryed this little program out on Vista and Win 7 just for the heck of it and it would not work. If the seller will not send you a good key code, MS would like to know about this. They will help you when it comes to things like this.

 

Absolutely. Easy to do too. Go to microsoft.com/piracy and click on "Report Piracy" on the left.

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If he does not send me legitimate response by the close of business tomorrow, I will take action. Thanks for the links to MS.

 

You're welcome, and good luck.

 

I sent this message to the seller:

"You either need to send me a legitimate product key or reimburse me for the cost of purchasing a legitimate copy of Windows 7 myself or I will take action by reporting it as fraud and piracy to eBay and Microsoft. I'll expect an answer by close of business on June 18. 2012. "


Just got this message from the seller.

"Sorry for that.
Please ship it back to me by UPS Ground. I will refund your money, and I will also reimburse your returning cost. "

The problem is that the laptop suits my needs and I would rather keep it. The hardware suits my needs. I am using it as a monitor for my security cameras and motion detection recording to a NAS. I've found that a laptop has rather low power consumption - especially when the screen is off.

It seems that the seller wants it returned to avoid trouble. If he had a legitimate product key, he could just email it to me. I'll buy a Win 7 disk and absorb the cost and an eBAy learning experience.

 

Sounds like a plan . . . although I'd still report him anyway.

 

He will ***** the next guy just like he did you when you ship it back. Did you use PayPal to make this purchase?

 

I did use Paypal.

 

Have you check his record towards selling on ebay ? It sound to me the guy made a mistake . We don't know all the circumstance as why he try to sell this laptop that way but I wouldn't report him if it's a one time thing , nobody is perfect...

 

I considered that, but in our correspondence via eBay he wrote this:

"Can you take a picture and email it to ebay@humox.com
I remember I activated the Windows. I look at my secound picture, but it doesn't show the message. "

From what I've read and experienced, programs to fool Windows into thinking it's been activated seem OK until Windows updates are done.

Later he wrote the following:

"Sorry about the issue.
Can I have your email address? I will send you a program to run, then the message won't show up again. "

This seems like it's more than an honest mistake. At first, I thought perhaps he acquired a laptop that had the OS already installed until he said he activated it himself. If that is true, he could just email me the product key.

BTW, his eBay feedback is 100% positive.

 

The program he sent me was RemoveWAT.exe.

 

I agree. E-Bay would be getting a copy of the e-mail as well as MS. He didn't ***** you, but the next person that buys that same laptop, will get it like you did.

 

I got another response from the seller.

"I didn't use pirated copy. I used Dell Reinstallation DVD.
I will try to find a product key from my computers. It will take several days because I have several hundreads of computers, and most of them are with Windows XP COA. If you don't want to wait or return it for refund, you can ship it back. I can reinstalled it with Windows XP, and give you some discount. "

Seems he doesn't understand the difference between OEM and retail versions of Windows. I sent him a message to explain why he can't use an OEM copy from a computer that is no longer in use and the product keys are not with the DVD, but rather on the computer's case.