So I bought a laptop a few months back, and all was good. But one day I had to watch a movie for school and I decided I would watch it on my Laptop. It said I needed some media player to run a movie, which I needed to pay or something (wasn't sure) so I googled it and said I could get it for free if I entered this serial key, which I did. But after installing the software or whatever it did, It kept saying that the windows was not genuine (or similar) and I need to to activate windows. It pops up randomly in a blue screen and is really, really annoying when trying to work. I did some further googling on how to solve it, but after following the steps to deactivate the popup message, the box to uncheck it was greyed out, meaning I couldn't disable it. Do I need to fork out money to reinstall Windows, and If I do have to, would I lose all my data on my Laptop? I could back it up, but I'd have to pay further for an external hard-drive which I don't have the money for. Any way just to get rid of the blue popup screen or fix this would be an absolute legend! Thanks for the help in advance.
Windows 8 Activation popup
- Thread starter skiinaa
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You will need to run a diagnostic.
http://www.eightforums.com/windows-...3-please-read-activation-troubleshooting.html
Please post there as well.
http://www.eightforums.com/windows-...3-please-read-activation-troubleshooting.html
Please post there as well.
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You didn't by chance add Media Center? Open the system screen, right click the Start Button and select System. Then see if it says with Media Center under Windows edition.
It does say Windows 8.1 Pro with media centre
I believe this is my problem according to the diagnostic test -
LocalGenuineState: Invalid license
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I'm guessing that's the "serial key" you mentioned you entered. Once you upgrade to media center it will activate with that key. If that key was used on more than one PC it will fail activation. If said key was listed on the internet for all to see its been blacklisted by Microsoft. So, when did you add media center and where did you get the product code from? If you didn't buy it from a reputable site, or didn't buy it at all, that's your issue. Your Media Center key is blocked from activation.
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Buying a new code should be the easiest solution. Just buy it from Microsoft. The Media Center upgrade shouldn't be very expensive. Your not buying the whole OS just an upgrade to it. Then open the System screen, right click the Start Button and select System, then click Change product key on the right hand side down in the Windows Activation section. Other than that you have go back to 8.1 Pro. Did the PC come with 8.1 Pro?
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Have a look at this, Get Windows Media Center - Microsoft Windows
It doesn't work because I already have windows media player, like I have the actual program installed and it works fine, I just can't get rid of this 'activate windows' and it gives me an option to buy one online, but it says you can't buy keys in this country or region, then says something about buying one from a local retailer. like.. what??.....
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OK, I was afraid that would happen. My next suggestion was to see if clicking change key would let you buy one, but it looks like that won't work either. Yes, its installed but Windows isn't legally activated. The Media center key becomes the new key Windows activates against.
I would backup any data you don't want to lose to external media and then think about doing a Windows Refresh or Reset to see if that will get you back to your legal 8.1 Pro. You may have to do a factory reset to get things back to normal again.
I would backup any data you don't want to lose to external media and then think about doing a Windows Refresh or Reset to see if that will get you back to your legal 8.1 Pro. You may have to do a factory reset to get things back to normal again.
rubbish. That is the last thing I wanted to do as I have a LOT of things I need because I also do graphic design and I can't really afford to lose anything by mistake as I have a lot of loose folders
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Eventually, you may get more than just a nag to activate. You could end up with reduced functionality or a forced log out every couple of hours or so. I'd have to look it up to see what actually happens but eventually you'll have to fix the activation issue to keep using Windows.
There were a couple of threads on this issue a while back when Microsoft offered up the free Media Center codes. They expired if not used by a certain date so some got caught out by that. Some tried to use the one code on more than one PC and ended up with activation issues. It might be a pain to find them but their there. There was a trick to get back to 8.1 Pro but I think you need physical install media to do it. It's a variation on this, UNAWAVE - Downgrade Ultimate to Home Premium or Professional You'd have to find one of those threads to know what to edit in the registry for 8.1 pro
There were a couple of threads on this issue a while back when Microsoft offered up the free Media Center codes. They expired if not used by a certain date so some got caught out by that. Some tried to use the one code on more than one PC and ended up with activation issues. It might be a pain to find them but their there. There was a trick to get back to 8.1 Pro but I think you need physical install media to do it. It's a variation on this, UNAWAVE - Downgrade Ultimate to Home Premium or Professional You'd have to find one of those threads to know what to edit in the registry for 8.1 pro
King Rage Tech
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I believe that the media center upgrade is only $19
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