Visa updated pirated software?

just reactivate the box. If it was bought with Vista on it, then who makes the box? HP, Dell, Sony, etc?

 

And who did you buy the computer from?

 

This is not really a solution.

If you buy a copy of Windows legally, than it should work.

 

Shoulds, oughts, and gratuitous retorts

When I turn the key in my ignition my truck SHOULD start but sometimes it doesn't; telling me it should is not a solution!

Kb, if you provide some details I am sure many of us will be glad to assist if we can. For example:

1.You say "after windows update": do you mean, e.g., updated from XP, updated existing copy of Vista from Win Update?

2. Regardless of the warning, does the update seem to run OK (whether Win Update or Win downloads recognizes it as legit or nor)?

3. What have you done to try to effect a solution, e.g., apply any patches, etc.?

Monk

 

Is it possible that office is causing the trouble?

Or maybe it's a warning and not a detection.

 

What he say!

Right on VDude! So we get a warning but if the OS functions OK so what? I have never seen such a warning; furthermore, Win Update will apply OS security updates to ALL installations legit or not (I have discussed this in detail elsewhere in MyDigital). In situations where SPs will not install in an invalid OS copy, the individual security updates attendant to the SPs can be DLed and installed individually via KB articles.

If the OS/key was invalid or corrupt, in my experience, the update would not have continued. So what's "pirated": the original version, the updated version, or neither? Those of us who have enjoyed W/OGA and the activation process know that MS experiences a 20% false positive (for illegitimate copies) rate - and thus the Internet is replete with "patches" and workarounds.

Note too, that MS treats the OS and other installed progs differently. Office, e.g., is not a required installation and Win Update will not apply any updates to it if the script reports an illegitimate installation (for whatever reason), while it will apply security updates to the OS. In other words, if it is the OS that is being updated, Office would not figure into the update process. Is it possible that the OS update somehow interacted with Office if it was installed in the system? I suppose within the realm of possibilities it's possible but I have never seen such an interaction.

If the updated OS is fully functional, one might consider letting sleeping dogs lie.

Monk

 

Ahh ok ^^ I have not used windows updates since win 95 after all the horrible experiences I have with it (legit copies even). It's good that they don't bundle office and windows updates together, I had a feeling they would for some reason.

Maybe the OP has a virus or spyware that's misleading him to a fake windows update site. I have seen this on friend's computers and they mistakenly clicked "update" or "download antivirus" to fix the problems and gotten to a worse situation

Or maybe he didn't activate windows and it's shutting down features by itself to force him to do something.

OP, is this a new pc? Have you changed a lot of hardware recently?

 

If your truck won't start, than you have either the wrong key or you have a technical problem.

What will you do? Right. You go to the garage or the dealer to fix the problem. And that'S what i propose: He should go to the dealer where he bought the software.

Of course, if your truck is stolen (and you know that) you can't go to the dealer or the garage to fix the problem.

 

Yes . . . but . . .

Pursuing the metaphor, perhaps I am misguided or too keen on assisting people, but I look at MyDigital as a group of dedicated independent mechanics. At this point in time, we have no idea what's wrong with the customer's machine but I do have confidence that, given sufficient "signs and symptoms," we will be able to elucidate the exact nature of the issue and proffer helpful, if not curative, solutions. Perhaps one of those solutions will be to take the machine back from whence it came; given the possibility of a false positive invalid OS determination, a simple tweak might have the customer quickly and happily on his or her way. My point is that we have yet to pop the hood and we sent the customer away!

Please, let's give the customers the benefit of our collective knowledge, skills, and abilities, make a diagnosis, divine a set of plausible cures, and then leave it up to the customers to choose the best fit for their individual circumstances.

Monk

 

Try contacting Dell for assistance they are the ones that built the pc and installed windows.

 

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it looks complicated, but it isn't

HSChronic has described it very detailed. If you follow these steps, you should be sucessfull.

 

The forum is with you

 

If you feel like this is out of your league, I could try doing a remote assistance or something like that with you.

 

Regain stability

IF the updates have caused, and are still causing update/piracy issues, one temporary, immediate solution is to uninstall the updates or do a system restore to a date prior to the updates. The goal here is to simply return you to a stable, working system - as it was before the updates - which then allows you to pursue the validity issue at your convenience.

You can remove operating system (OS) updates via control panel, add/remove. Depending on your setup, you may have to check the box to allow add/remove to show updates. Security updates are usually listed with the installed date, but not necessarily; program updates are usually not listed with the installed date. If in doubt as to what was installed when, go to Win Update and, after it loads, click on "Review your update history" in the left frame - which will show you the last month's installations - and make a note of the updates applied after which you issue appeared. Then, in add/remove, removed those updates, reboot and see if the issue persists.

An alternative is to roll back your OS files to a date prior to that when the issue occurred, presumably to a date prior to when the updates were installed. If you can get your machine to boot normally, in Vista you will find system restore via START>ALL PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>click on SYSTEM RESTORE. Or, click on START>RUN> and type "rstrui" without the quotes. Follow the directions and select a date PRIOR to the appearance of the piracy message, i.e., prior to the date the updates were installed. Not always, but usually, by way of anticipation, Windows will have created a "restore point" before the updates were installed (MS has learned that updates can create issues). If it is there, select that restore point. Sometimes, for arcane reasons, a particular restore point will not work (and you will get an error message to that effect after it attempts to restore); simply go back further until you find one that works. Note, however: sys rest does not always work but it's a start. If you cannot boot normally, access system restore via Safe Mode.

Either of these routes are likely to return you to a stable state IF the updates caused the problem. Another possibility is that in the process of the updates, Windows installed an updated Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) file (wga.dll or the like) that now sees you as pirated. As I mentioned in a previous post, however, WGA has known false positive issues.

Regardless, my goal would be to return to you to a stable state, then backup the pics/files you are concerned about and then address the validity issue.

Ultimately, if you do not wish to spend time on identifying exactly what happened and why, you can simply apply any of the known "patches" to render Vista legit.

Monk