Bleg: windows 7
Suddenly, my netbook is saying windows 7 is not valid. I upgraded from xp over a year ago from Microsoft’s site. A website set off my malware program right before but it cleaned it up. Any ideas?
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
Uncle Pays the Bills
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September 4th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Not valid – what is that, like a Scientology thing? 🙂
September 4th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Uh, oh.
Tried reboot, hold F8 and run Repair?
September 4th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/how-to-activate-windows-7.aspx
That’s what I had to do when mine did that.
September 4th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Run Malwarebytes in safe mode. malwarebytes.org or cnet downloads. You “caught” something. If that something is really smart you may have to run it from a usb key. I’ve seen stuff that will keep you from downloading anything while it strangles your pc.
September 4th, 2011 at 9:52 pm
You know I have to say something like “Throw it in the garbage where all Windows machines belong” or something, right?
September 4th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Do you mean invalid as in “won’t boot”, or invalid as in “needs Activation”?
Which website and what was the malware causing the alert? Which A-V – malware protection are you using?
PM me via email.
September 4th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
I had to ‘clean’ mine then do as Wiz indicated…
September 4th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
I would comment here about all the Apple hatred in the past on this blog, but that would be impolite…
September 5th, 2011 at 6:10 am
For what it’s worth, can you currently trust the security state of your machine? If not, a clean installation of Windows is the safest bet.
September 5th, 2011 at 7:05 am
Use Ubuntu, or Free BSD, you silly boneheaded doodah. I have not the slightest ittiest bit of sympathy for anyone who has even one byte of Mr.Bill’s code on his machine.
September 5th, 2011 at 8:48 am
Somebody has been cruising the porn sites again….
September 5th, 2011 at 9:18 am
It boots. Says it need activating. When I do that, it tells me my product key is in use on another PC. Which it’s not. I forgot the site exactly but my son asked me to unlock some character on Mario Kart and it was some gaming site.
September 5th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Assuming you appropriately setup and registered your new Windows setup when you installed it (a month would be about right for it to start griping though, a year is awefully long so most likely this is a virus) go to malwarebytes.org and download the freebie version, update it and run it. If it finds something run it again and again till it comes back totally clean (some of the nasty ones will hide pieces of themselves that only get caught on the second scan, and some viruses hide behind others so same thing). Note, the payware version is only $25 and I highly recommend it (no I don’t work for them in any shape or form), but the freeware works just fine. You may have to do this in Safe Mode (safe mode with networking is the option you want to choose) if the virus you’ve picked up is really nasty.
September 5th, 2011 at 9:33 am
I’ve had 7 on the netbook since Feb 2010. This is out of nowhere.
September 5th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Definetly go run Malwarebytes then. Its the best thing I’ve found for these odd, painfull, viruses like this.
September 5th, 2011 at 9:46 am
I’ld also recommend Malwarebytes. That and Runalyzer. It’s saved me from some nasties.
September 5th, 2011 at 11:00 am
I know most folks like Malwarebytes, but I prefer Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. I’ve used it to get relatives’ machines out of trouble a few times and I run it on my computers. Handy for those times when your kids goof up your computers.
September 5th, 2011 at 11:01 am
It turns out that MS somehow unintentionally blocked it. Weird.
September 5th, 2011 at 11:23 am
Blocked it in what fashion?
September 5th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Made it invalid. Not sure why. Awaiting a phone call and reactivation.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Actually, it may not have been “unintentionally”. There are a LOT of folks using keygens to get a code. And if it shows mare than the three “authorized” validations on the M$ database, then foo on you!. Thanks to Micro$oft again.
Bleh.
I actually set my boxen up to multiboot Win 7 64 bit, ubuntu and XP. Most of the time I run Ubuntu for websurfing, 7 for apps and XP for games and old apps.
September 5th, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Adware’s nice but it won’t get some of the nasty’s that Malwarebytes will get.
September 5th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
I’m now using Linux Ubuntu desktop at home. Plus their server system on a test PC at work, and their Studio on ANOTHER PC.
I got tired of Microsoft along time ago.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:01 am
You should try Ubuntu (I like the Linux Mint variety) or many other flavors if you haven’t, it only costs the price of a blank CD. If you conduct any financial business online you really ought to use some variety of Linux for any online activity.
In three years of using Linux Mint: 0 viruses, 0 trojans, 0 worms, 0 spyware, 0 malware of any type. I’ve stopped telling myself that one of these days I’ll install a firewall.
Less than 1% of the crashes, bugs, and other problems with Windows. When something does crash/go buggy I can kill it and reboot just that component. I reboot every few months instead every few days (or hours as I recall the case often was.)
September 6th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
in activation problem cases, I tend to call Microsoft first before assuming anything more esoteric.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
In Win7, not activating only triggers annoying warnings, it does not disable features.
A problem like this, a quick call to MS should resovle the problem. I have to do it every time I change the hardware out in my PC, no biggy.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Linux. Oh, that’s funny*.
(* Yes, I’ve run Linux. Run it 24/7 as a server, in fact.
And you couldn’t pay me to run it as a primary desktop OS.)
September 6th, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Yeah, I run Linux at home myself but I’ve always found that to keep a Windows computer clean you need at least a couple of anti-spyware programs running. Dunno about this ‘Malwarebytes’ program, but Spybot Search and Destroy has always delivered my overkill anti-malware medicine.