Q: I sent you a question a couple of days ago about how to recover Windows 10 after a computer hardware failure. (Geek Note: See last week’s edition).
I would like to add to that question. I have since heard that Microsoft claims that they can identify all computers that have legally updated to Windows. I have no idea of how they could do that. What if the mother board was the failure? Would that not wipe out any identification trail? I may be paranoid about this, but I have had electric surge failures in the past that required major hardware replacements.
I just read your anniversary column in the NWF Daily News. Many thanks for the many years of your help to everyone.
– George C., Shalimar
A: Thank you again for your acknowledgement, George. The 9th Anniversary Issue sort of went by without much fanfare last month, and the column plods merrily on.
This is issue 477 for anyone who is keeping track. If my calculations are correct, that means that Feb 19, 2017 will be the It’s Geek To Me landmark issue 500! Mark your calendars, and start buying your confetti now, before the big run on it starts and the price skyrockets.
Just exactly how Microsoft keeps track of the PC that a given copy of Windows is registered to has never been made fully public to the best of my knowledge. However, the circumstances in which user complaints have arisen shed a little light on the process.
When you register Windows, some sort of “signature,” for lack of a better word, is created that identifies your machine. It likely includes things like the serial number of your CPU, brand and model of the motherboard and various peripheral cards, and probably more. This signature is sent to Microsoft during the registration process and is stored in their registration server along with the product key that identifies your copy of Windows.
It can, and does happen that something breaks, or a PC owner performs a hardware upgrade, and suddenly it looks to Microsoft like the operating system is running on a different computer than the one it was registered to, and your PC blithely announces “This copy of Windows is not genuine.”
Typical updates to memory, hard drives, printers, etc., should not trigger this problem! When it does happen, often you can simply call Microsoft, inform them of your upgrade, and convince them to reset the registration.
If your copy of Windows is from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), it’s possible that your operating system support comes from the PC vendor rather than Microsoft, so you may have to deal with them instead. The certificate of authenticity (COA) that either comes with or may already be affixed to the PC is the proof that a copy is legitimate and genuine.
Beware of buying any copy that doesn’t come with a COA or you’ll almost certainly find yourself in this position at some point.
I have also read about cases where some bad updates have triggered problems that have caused the legitimacy of a copy of Windows to be called into question. That’s kind of the ultimate insult, isn’t it? Getting an update from the very vendor of the operating system, and that update results in said vendor marking your OS as pirated. Talk about a “Thanks, Bill!” moment!
In cases like this, the fix is usually to un-install the update or roll-back to a previous restore-point, then mark Windows Update to exclude that update from automatic installation.
[Source:-nwf Daily news]
