The thing is: I turn off a lot of services and now I'm not exactly sure which ones I need to turn back on to activate windows again. My reason for disabling services is to minimize CPU usage. It all worked great until Windows started to send me errors claiming that my version isn't genuine.

nah - ive been updating. in my case at least (and those of others I know with similar) it seems to be related to prebuilt pcs (laptops in my case) and those "OEM" builds - MS just doesnt want to allow the licence through without a new payment - for windows 10!

I think there is a registry work around to remove that message.

Its to do with functionality - not the annoying as fuck popup ya numpty-face! :P

I know there's one of the windows services that if you have it turned off, default programs will annoy you constantly (MSpaint, notepad, word pad, etc).

But i agree, turn off a lot of stupid services you don't plan on using...

That pop up is like nose. My eyes see it all the time and still ignores it.
I removed internet explorer right after downloading firefox.

I restarted my computer and I don't see the message anymore, weird..

Go here
https://gist.github.com/xvitaly/eafa75ed2cb79b3bd4e9

echo Uninstalling KB971033 (license validation)

I turned off updates completely a while back on my W7, and SO FAR, haven't had an issue with needing to re-activate it.

I turned them off because MS has been "backporting" W10 crap to earlier versions. Maybe I turned them off early enough to miss out on something that now causes re-activation requests if updates are off - or maybe I just haven't been "targeted" yet. But so far, so good...

What I don't get - have you tried re-activating (even with updates off)? You haven't said anything about that - only that you called them and said you would not turn on updates.

Activation and updating are two different things (well, at least they used to be). You should be able to attempt a re-activation without having updates on (unless that has changed via an update after I turned them off).

What makes you believe the need for a re-activation is caused by your updates being off (versus something else like a detected hardware change or other thing)?

What happens when you attempt a re-activation?


[Edit]: Oops - somehow I didn't see the most recent posts where the issue went away - NVM the above :)

I feel like Microsoft should have introduced Win 7 SP2 before introducing Win 10 upgrade option.

There must be a work around as Government PC do not get updated by auto update, all updates have to be tested in the corporate environment fist. Everyone knows some updates can break your installation and cause software you have not to work.

Regards

You said you turn off lots of services. When you restart your computer, those services will restart, so I'm guessing the reason you were getting that message is indeed due to one of the services you ended.

Having Windows Update on or off should not matter regarding the "not genuine" message you were getting. I've had my Windows Update off for quite some time on one of mine and have no issue whatsoever with my copy of Windows being "not genuine." The only thing I notice is that I have a constant flag on my taskbar (the flag represents "PC issues to be resolved") and that is always listed. But never do I get the "your copy of Windows is not genuine" message, because, you know, it is genuine. Like you, I paid for mine.

Just uninstall KB971033 (Update for Windows Activation Technologies) which is the one responsible with that non-genuine bullshit. And then right-click and select "hide update" so you don't see it anymore as an available updates.

Yes, my Win7 died as well. Wasn't too upset as it was from a Uni whilst the missus was doing a course. Still running 8.1, which works, but isn't ideal. Am putting Win10 on a laptop to see what its like, but I am having a linux partition now which hopefully will take most of the load in the future.

Yes I've been on the phone with Microsoft support somewhere in India for two hours trying to reactivate it with no success.

Thank you, will try that. There is tons of complaints on the internet about this issue I've read this morning.

I did get a new solid state drive to think of it. Do I need a new copy of windows 7?

Thank you kind Sir!

Everyone who genuinely helps gets +1 :)