Made a new setup of W7 pro using stuff gotten from this place After first boot it claims I may be a victim of counterfeit software and nags about activation time expired and such. I used Daz little tool to get rid of it and all is ok, however the only thing I can establish might have triggered this behaviour is a BIOS clock going one year wrong or so. After correcting the Windows clock I had already "loaded" it so I am not sure if that affected the Activation mechanism. The comp is a homebrew and no net work was connected during setup, nor is yet. Considering wiping the setup, set the BIOS clock right, and see if behaviour is repetitive... Anyone got this?
The only thing I can think of is when you change the bios clock it changes the OS system clock and when windows thinks there is something wrong SPP thinks that you might be trying to exploit the activation system
First of all, this is a new problem on a home-brew (DOS or no pre-existing OEM junk). Never seen such problem on my home-made PC (home-made means parts assembled by self/hardware vendor with no OEM software at all). At least on Win 7 ultimate iso from the MDL repository, the OS starts with 30 days grace and no `non-genuine' status.
Yup. Home made. First I got you wrong when you said "junk" but after re-reading it I got it. The drive was formatted before setup using a completely external bootable software (DigiWiz bootable PE disk, for anyone who knows it) Could the BIOS clock, being wrong, alone have triggered this? (DFI lan party mobo, 4 GB ddr3 ram, amd am3 phenom 4, dual ATI gfx, seagate hdd)
This is not relevant here. OEM bloatware is a menace and the customer has to pay for it. In March 2010, I bought a HP laptop for a close relative of mine, and no wonder the prices are so high. Full of cyberlink, hp, and what not.
Yes - you get 30 days to activate - if it detected some discrepancy in time it nags you to activate and calls you names. It would complain if the clock was set ahead - mismatch time stamps - windows generally checks the date online behind your back - and if the clock was behind you simply run over the 30 day time limit - I've done this with an install on an E-Sata drive which I forgot to activate - I use that system for installations on other machines. If it's working now I'd leave it.
It could not have done that. No network. The BIOS was set behind, not ahead. Nevermind, it may have been a one-time glitch or close to what Rosco said...
Its just another useless Microsoft 'protection' feature. Happens with KMS activation too. (Which is also countdown-based.)