Not genuine again???

[Alex Clayton]

Anyone else getting this damn thing again?
As always when MS loads more updates I wait a while to see if anyone
reports trouble then take them. I did my laptop on Sat. All seemed fine,
then of course this morning when I get to school and ready to do some work
up pops the "This copy not genuine, if you do not resolve this in 30 days it
will stop working".
I "think" I got it after several tries and a download, but it never did
say for sure, just finally dropped the window. Is anyone else seeing this
now again? I have to at times wonder if someone at MS does not have a lot of
Apple stock.

 

[relic]

Anyone else getting this damn thing again?
As always when MS loads more updates I wait a while to see if anyone
reports trouble then take them. I did my laptop on Sat. All seemed fine,
then of course this morning when I get to school and ready to do some work
up pops the "This copy not genuine, if you do not resolve this in 30 days
it will stop working".
I "think" I got it after several tries and a download, but it never did
say for sure, just finally dropped the window. Is anyone else seeing this
now again? I have to at times wonder if someone at MS does not have a lot
of Apple stock.

Are you letting it do all the verification routines it wants to?

 

[Alex Clayton]

Are you letting it do all the verification routines it wants to?

Yes this time when I clicked the link it wanted me to download something,
which it did. I opened the file, got the UAC warning and told it yes. Then
nothing happened. I waited till the drive quite doing anything, network
meter showed nothing going in or out, warning about 30 days was still there
in the lower left corner. So I opened MS Security Essentials. It too was
warning not Genuine copy and so forth. It also had a resolve now where the
update button is normally. Clicked it, some more downloading, then the
warning went away. I updated the software and ran it, it shows all fine now.
This just gets a little old. I understand MS is trying to fight piracy but
damn. This is an OEM computer bought from a vendor with Windows pre
installed. I guess if I had been somewhere I did not have net access I would
just have been hosed till I could get back on line. I would think that with
the real smart people they have working for them that they could do better
than this??? Was also wondering if it's just me, or if others are suddenly
having this same thing again. I will update the desktop and my Wife's laptop
when I get home to see if they are going to do the same thing.

 

[Justin]

Anyone else getting this damn thing again?
As always when MS loads more updates I wait a while to see if anyone
reports trouble then take them. I did my laptop on Sat. All seemed fine,
then of course this morning when I get to school and ready to do some work
up pops the "This copy not genuine, if you do not resolve this in 30 days it
will stop working".
I "think" I got it after several tries and a download, but it never did
say for sure, just finally dropped the window. Is anyone else seeing this
now again? I have to at times wonder if someone at MS does not have a lot of
Apple stock.

You'll probably have to call Microsoft. Thanks to MS's aggressive
anti-piracy policies they are agitating their own customers. There's
nothing you can do about it. Accept the fact you are a Microsoft lackey
and are wt their beck and call at all times. Call Microsoft, and accept
the down time as a cost of living. Just like taxes.

 

[Alex Clayton]

You'll probably have to call Microsoft. Thanks to MS's aggressive
anti-piracy policies they are agitating their own customers. There's
nothing you can do about it. Accept the fact you are a Microsoft lackey
and are wt their beck and call at all times. Call Microsoft, and accept
the down time as a cost of living. Just like taxes.

It seems to be working now, and if it gets to where it makes me call them
that will be it for me. I have tried calling them in the past and unless you
are buying something they treat you like they could care less. I often hear
how great Macs are, but have not yet been willing to fork over the cost. If
they get to where I have to start calling MS to make their stuff work I
would be out to the Mac store. <G>
I did just recently get some money from them over something that happened
in 01. I bought a laptop at Best buy. The sales guy and cahier were giving
the hard sell to everything. The cashier offered me free MSN service for 6
months, that I said yes to just to shut him up and let me out. 8 months
later I noticed they had charged my Credit card. Called the bank, they found
it, told me I had to call MS. I tried, got the never ending phone tree, gave
up. Called the bank back and said close the damn account if this is the best
you can do. They then said oh we can just send you a new card so they can't
charge any more.
Then a year or so ago I get some stuff from some law firm, class action
against Best buy and MS over this. Said if I had paid and never used the
service send this card. I did, forgot all about it. The other day damned if
a check did not show up in the mail for the 2 months I had paid them.

 

[ray]

It seems to be working now, and if it gets to where it makes me call
them that will be it for me. I have tried calling them in the past and
unless you are buying something they treat you like they could care
less. I often hear how great Macs are, but have not yet been willing to
fork over the cost. If they get to where I have to start calling MS to
make their stuff work I would be out to the Mac store. <G>

And then, there is the other alternative that actually costs nothing -
legally.

 

[choro]

Anyone else getting this damn thing again?
As always when MS loads more updates I wait a while to see if anyone
reports trouble then take them. I did my laptop on Sat. All seemed fine,
then of course this morning when I get to school and ready to do some
work up pops the "This copy not genuine, if you do not resolve this in
30 days it will stop working".
I "think" I got it after several tries and a download, but it never did
say for sure, just finally dropped the window. Is anyone else seeing
this now again? I have to at times wonder if someone at MS does not have
a lot of Apple stock.

That's because MS spies on your computer and if it doesn't satisfy one
of their requirements you seem to get such messages. I certainly got
more than one such message in my lifetime even though my machines are on
auto-update. Once I got a message saying that "this computer seems to
have changed a lot" -- bloody hell it had because I build my own
computers and upgrade components now and then but always on the original
motherboard!

Bloody cheek!

And I must have bought well over half a dozen Windows OSs in the last 10
years or so to say nothing of MS Office programs! I can count at least
half a dozen Windows XP, + 1 Vista + 1 Win7 just in the last 5 or 6 years.
--
choro
*****

PS= By "spying" I don't mean spying as in spying. You know what I mean!
But it is still spying! Bit like peeping when your sister-in-law is in
the bathroom! ;-)

No harm done!

But seriously, I am just joking! (ROFL)

 

[Rebecca]

Ain't it great that MS assumes you're guilty of piracy until you prove
otherwise? WGA and its successors are not exactly good PR for the boys in
Redmond.

That's how it works in GB. Maybe Microsoft's heart is british.

 

[Char Jackson]

Anyone else getting this damn thing again?
As always when MS loads more updates I wait a while to see if anyone
reports trouble then take them. I did my laptop on Sat. All seemed fine,
then of course this morning when I get to school and ready to do some work
up pops the "This copy not genuine, if you do not resolve this in 30 days it
will stop working".
I "think" I got it after several tries and a download, but it never did
say for sure, just finally dropped the window. Is anyone else seeing this
now again? I have to at times wonder if someone at MS does not have a lot of
Apple stock.

I've mentioned before that I totally removed the Windows Activation
Technology (WAT) items from one of my systems, mostly as a test to see
what would happen. Well, a few weeks ago, after running fine for
months, WAT was back and had to be removed again. Thirty seconds
later, WAT was once again removed and all was well, but this
experience may confirm to you that Microsoft does indeed poke around
in that area from time to time. I know why it popped up on my server,
obviously, but I don't know why it's happening to you.

 

[ray]

That's because MS spies on your computer and if it doesn't satisfy one
of their requirements you seem to get such messages. I certainly got
more than one such message in my lifetime even though my machines are on
auto-update. Once I got a message saying that "this computer seems to
have changed a lot" -- bloody hell it had because I build my own
computers and upgrade components now and then but always on the original
motherboard!

Bloody cheek!

And I must have bought well over half a dozen Windows OSs in the last 10
years or so to say nothing of MS Office programs! I can count at least
half a dozen Windows XP, + 1 Vista + 1 Win7 just in the last 5 or 6
years. --

Flat learning curve, eh?

 

[Stan Brown]

Thirty seconds
later, WAT was once again removed and all was well,

Care to share the procedure?

 

[Char Jackson]

Care to share the procedure?

It's a little utility called RemoveWAT and I think the current version
is 2.2.5 or maybe 2.2.6. You run it and it offers to remove WAT. Run
it a second time and it restores everything. Seems to work perfectly,
at least until you take a certain Microsoft update, but then you just
run it again. Sorry, I can't tell you where to get it but I think I
just Googled for it. It's been awhile.

I'm not advocating piracy, although that's probably what this tool is
most often used for. It works fine here, but use it at your own risk.

 

[Stan Brown]

It's a little utility called RemoveWAT and I think the current version
is 2.2.5 or maybe 2.2.6. You run it and it offers to remove WAT. Run
it a second time and it restores everything. Seems to work perfectly,
at least until you take a certain Microsoft update, but then you just
run it again. Sorry, I can't tell you where to get it but I think I
just Googled for it. It's been awhile.

I'm not advocating piracy, although that's probably what this tool is
most often used for. It works fine here, but use it at your own risk.

I've got a legitimate copy of Windows (preinstalled by my computer
manufacturer), but I dread those updates that make Windows think it's
not legitimate. Thanks for the information.

Hmm -- before posting, I googled for it. It seems to be hosted on a
bunch of pretty scary sites. I think I'm going to play it safe and
steer clear, for fear that the one I download might actually be some
sort of Trojan (even though yours isn't.) The only page I could find
that even looked like an author's page was dated 2009.

 

[artleknock]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2011 07:30:34 -0500, Stan Brown

It seems to be hosted on a

bunch of pretty scary sites. I think I'm going to play it safe and
steer clear, for fear that the one I download might actually be some
sort of Trojan (even though yours isn't.) The only page I could find
that even looked like an author's page was dated 2009.

Try a.b.comp

 

[GreyCloud]

Alex Clayton wrote:

It seems to be working now, and if it gets to where it makes me call
them that will be it for me. I have tried calling them in the past and
unless you are buying something they treat you like they could care
less. I often hear how great Macs are, but have not yet been willing to
fork over the cost. If they get to where I have to start calling MS to
make their stuff work I would be out to the Mac store. <G>
I did just recently get some money from them over something that
happened in 01. I bought a laptop at Best buy. The sales guy and cahier
were giving the hard sell to everything. The cashier offered me free MSN
service for 6 months, that I said yes to just to shut him up and let me
out. 8 months later I noticed they had charged my Credit card. Called
the bank, they found it, told me I had to call MS. I tried, got the
never ending phone tree, gave up. Called the bank back and said close
the damn account if this is the best you can do. They then said oh we
can just send you a new card so they can't charge any more.
Then a year or so ago I get some stuff from some law firm, class
action against Best buy and MS over this. Said if I had paid and never
used the service send this card. I did, forgot all about it. The other
day damned if a check did not show up in the mail for the 2 months I had
paid them.

For the Mac... well, that all depends on what you want to accomplish.
If you program a lot, beware... their so called 64-bit os isn't really
64-bit.
There are some legacy libraries, namely Carbon, that aren't 64-bit. So
compiling with regards to carbon libs will cause problems. On the
bright side,
the programming tools are as complete as you can get. On par with
Visual Studio
2010 Enterprise edition as best as I can tell. There isn't any anti-piracy
verification procedures with OS X. But, yes, a mac is a bit pricey.

 

[Justin]

Alex Clayton wrote:


For the Mac... well, that all depends on what you want to accomplish.
If you program a lot, beware... their so called 64-bit os isn't really
64-bit.

I stopped reading there. OSX is indeed 64 bit. Certainly not like
WIndows where most of the drivers are still 32.
But at least they have a 64 bit version of Office 2011.

 

[Justin]

Yes this time when I clicked the link it wanted me to download something,
which it did. I opened the file, got the UAC warning and told it yes. Then
nothing happened. I waited till the drive quite doing anything, network
meter showed nothing going in or out, warning about 30 days was still there
in the lower left corner. So I opened MS Security Essentials. It too was
warning not Genuine copy and so forth. It also had a resolve now where the
update button is normally. Clicked it, some more downloading, then the
warning went away. I updated the software and ran it, it shows all fine now.
This just gets a little old. I understand MS is trying to fight piracy but
damn. This is an OEM computer bought from a vendor with Windows pre
installed. I guess if I had been somewhere I did not have net access I would
just have been hosed till I could get back on line. I would think that with
the real smart people they have working for them that they could do better
than this???

Probably. Microsoft is like GM in that respect. I did a case study of
Saturn. The Japanese automakers were scared to death that GM would put
all of its vast resources into making a quality product. It really did
scare them. Once they tore apart their first Saturn they realized this
wasn't the case. Like GM, Microsoft has the ability to make a decent
product.
They don't. Its as if they're not even trying.

Was also wondering if it's just me, or if others are suddenly
having this same thing again. I will update the desktop and my Wife's laptop
when I get home to see if they are going to do the same thing.

I wonder.
There is some malware that disguises itself as WAT.

The funny thing is I have a spare laptop running a bootleg copy of
Windows 7 Enterprise - I used RemoveWAT, ran all the updates and there
are no issues.

 

[Alex Clayton]

For the Mac... well, that all depends on what you want to accomplish.
If you program a lot, beware... their so called 64-bit os isn't really
64-bit.
There are some legacy libraries, namely Carbon, that aren't 64-bit. So
compiling with regards to carbon libs will cause problems. On the bright
side,
the programming tools are as complete as you can get. On par with Visual
Studio
2010 Enterprise edition as best as I can tell. There isn't any
anti-piracy
verification procedures with OS X. But, yes, a mac is a bit pricey.

Stuff like that is way over my head. I use the computer for e-mail,
shopping, banking, and just playing around like here. I just want it to work
when I turn it on. I have oft heard that Macs are better at some of the
video editing and such but I would not know where to start with that so
never cared. If it ever gets to where I have to call MS and wade through the
phone tree crap to make their OS work though that would make me willing to
switch, or at least try.

 

[GreyCloud]

I stopped reading there. OSX is indeed 64 bit.

Not the Carbon libs. They are still 32-bit.
And some of the older software that uses the old Carbon libs sometimes fail.
Especially if you have over 4Gb of ram.

Certainly not like
WIndows where most of the drivers are still 32.
But at least they have a 64 bit version of Office 2011.

The HP printer drivers for Win7 on their newer printers are 64-bit.
Of course it all depends if the company wants to sell their products or
watch their company slowly fail from lack of customers.

 

[GreyCloud]

Stuff like that is way over my head. I use the computer for e-mail,
shopping, banking, and just playing around like here. I just want it to
work when I turn it on. I have oft heard that Macs are better at some of
the video editing and such but I would not know where to start with that
so never cared. If it ever gets to where I have to call MS and wade
through the phone tree crap to make their OS work though that would make
me willing to switch, or at least try.

My wife has an iMac. When she first bought it, there was a problem with
Windows media player just launching and then quickly disappearing.
She made a phone call to Apple, free since it was within 60 days, and
she got a
prompt answer to her problem. All she had to do was use the Finder and
navigate to the Library folder->caches->windows_media_player.cache...
drag and drop to trash can. Worked fine. Their explanation was that
sometimes
the caches can get corrupted and does strange things to applications.
Right now, the old Apple Works 6.09 program and long in the tooth, doesn't
cooperate with the new HP 8500 Pro printer she got. Found out that the
one font
she likes is the one font that is custom only to Apple Works and found
no where
else. Sort of the pits. One problem, and a major problem, is that
Apple out of the
wild blue will change things around drastically and you just about have
to buy a
new computer. Wife is a bit stubborn so she is still hanging on to the
old iMac.
I have a feeling that it won't last much longer due to a few bulging
capacitors on
the main logic board. One of those cheapy cost cutting tricks done by
bean counters
to save a few cents... the caps are near the working supply voltage for
the breakdown
voltage. I may have to take it apart and buy some new caps and put them
in. Not a
very pleasant project to look forward to. From what I have heard, Apple
users usually
upgrade to a new Apple every other year, while Windows users usually
upgrade
around 4 to 5 years. But the bottom line is that their hardware really
isn't that robust.