W7 NOT Genuine?

learninmypc

Posts: 9,662   +724
I have a friend with a laptop of unknown anything with the exception it says "Windows 7 this is not a genuine copy" on the desktop by the notification area. I asked her where she got it & she said something about a friend gave it to her.
She also said she might dump it so I told her if she does, give it to me.
Either way, how would one go about getting it genuine??
 
I have a friend with a laptop of unknown anything with the exception it says "Windows 7 this is not a genuine copy".
When a hardware modification or addition without the machine being connected is made, it might return that error. This is a lot more likely with a desktop. For example, stuffing a video card in while offline.

Other than that, just stuff a (free) copy of Ubuntu Linux in the machine. Download that here: https://www.ubuntu.com/

Depending on the age of the machine, and the fact it's a laptop, you might have to install a 32 bit version, instead of the more prevalent, mostly standard these days, 64 bit .
 
There are loads of scrapped Windows 7 computers and the authorisation keys to validate the OS are widely available on eBay for not much money. Worth a try but make sure the key is for the same version of Windows as on the dodgy laptop. You can change the Windows key but I've forgotten where that option is.
 
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