Microsoft requires all copies of windows to be activated in order for you to be able to install the operating system, or be allowed to take full advantage of all the features, including updates when available however, sometimes the activation doesn’t always go as smooth as it should be.
What is activating and what is the purpose of activating my copy of windows?
Activating your copy of windows allows you to use one copy of windows and it is away from Microsoft to control how many copies of windows you are allowed to use and it’s also allows Microsoft to only give updates to those who have paid for the copy of windows.
there’s also ensures that you are using a genuine copy of windows, and not a copy that could be pirated or a copy that could be harmful such as it, containing viruses, spyware, Keyloggers and other unwanted surprises that could put your information into the wrong hands.
MS-DOS: I am not sure about the operating system, MS-DOS, if it required an activation key to be entered in order to install, and then require some type of activation, in order to determine you have a genuine copy of MS-DOS.
Windows 95: In order to install windows 95 it would require the user to enter a product key consisting of letters and numbers and I do not believe it required the product key to be validated after the installation was completed. In Windows 95 this is when users were introduced with a task bar along with a menu, although the menu was well basic.
Windows 2000: In windows, 2000 things definitely improved which is still required. The user to enter product key consisting of letters and numbers however, the product key would have to be validated. Users had a much better task bar along with a menu. The growth in amount of users using computers was much more than the previous operating system Windows 95 during the winter 2000 era, this is kind of the birth of when computer users were introduced to viruses, spyware, an online piracy of Music, movies, software, etc.
Windows XP: Windows XP is probably Microsoft best operating system that they have created 21 years ago when it was released on October 25, 2001. When you compare Windows XP to MS-DOS, Windows 95 and Windows 2000, Windows XP was definitely user-friendly for the home user, and also for the business user as it offered a lot more features that were not available in the previous operating systems.
Much like the previous operating systems in order for the user to install the operating system the user was required to enter a product key in order for the insulation to be completed. However, sometimes you were able to complete the installation but after 30 days if you did not enter a product key to get your copy of windows activated, it would automatically bring up a prompt telling you that this is required in a few clothes out of the activation prompt. It would automatically log you out.
While the online activation doesn’t seem to work anymore, however, you can still activate your copy of windows, XP by the automated telephone system.
Windows Vista: an installation key typically was required however like windows XP sometimes it would allow you to be able to install the operating system and use it for 30 days and then require you to activate. However, unlike Windows XP if you didn’t activate within 30 days, when does Vista would allow you to use the operating system, but there would be some limitations such as you will not be able to receive any update, you could not customize your computer, such as like the background, etc and they would Display a small notice at the bottom, right hand corner, right above where the clock would be saying that this copy of windows is not genuine and your background, would turn black.
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 10
Windows 11
The error message “This copy of Windows is not authentic” may appear on Windows 7 systems that have installed the KB971033 update, which was distributed several years ago. This update introduced system components that are responsible for validating product keys and activating licenses and can cause the error message to appear.
Please follow the steps below to activate your OS
First of all, you’ll need to uninstall the KB971033 update. To do so, open the Command Prompt as administrator by clicking on Start > in the search field type “cmd”, right-click on the Command Prompt Icon, and select “Run as administrator”.
Run the following command and press Enter:
dism /online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-Security-WindowsActivationTechnologies-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~7.1.7600.16395
and restart your PC.
Launch the command prompt with administrative privileges again and enter the commands below (press enter after each command)
net stop sppuinotify
sc config sppuinotify start= disabled
net stop sppsvc
del %windir%\system32\7B296FB0-376B-497e-B012-9C450E1B7327-5P-0.C7483456-A289-439d-8115-601632D005A0 /ah
del %windir%\system32\7B296FB0-376B-497e-B012-9C450E1B7327-5P-1.C7483456-A289-439d-8115-601632D005A0 /ah
del %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\tokens.dat
del %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\cache\cache.dat
net start sppsvc
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
(Replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with the actual product key for your copy of Windows 7)
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato
sc config sppuinotify start= demand
*Your OS is activated! Reboot your computer > Click on Start, then Control Panel, then click on System and Security, and finally click on System to check the activation status.