This morning I turned my pc on as normal and it worked fine. I shut it down and then an hour later (around ten to eleven give or take a few minutes), I turned it back on.
Whilst booting up, rather than displaying the windows logo that flashes up prior to loading the desktop, it popped up with a message saying 'Activation Successful' and was displaying a message in the bottom right hand corner of the screen saying what operating system I was using, the build and that it was not genuine. This message persisted after loading the desktop.
Checking the system properties activation screen it merely displayed 'not available' for Windows Activation and Product ID.
I then rebooted, the message saying it was not genuine vanished but the system properties screen still said not available for activation/ID.
Having then shut down again and booted up a third time about ten minutes after this all started, the not genuine message was still gone, and after a brief display of 'not available', the system properties screen now shows windows as activated with its product id.
I'm obviously a bit concerned about this as Windows should not suddenly decide it is not genuine after being activated for a month or so already.
I'm using Vista 64 (and yes it is a genuine version), and NIS 2011. I'm just wondering if there is any non-malware etc related explanation for this all occuring or if I should just format the PC again (which I did around a month/month and a half ago anyway).
If you have the activation KEY hand then I'd try to activate it again with that KEY ... if it is rejected the screen will tell you how to handle it including, I believe, a special phone number to call .....
Just to provide a bit more context to this situation.
The Vista 64 in question is one we have been using since 2008 with no problems with regards it's legitimacy until today.
As far as simply entering the key again, when the screen was displaying that it was not genuine, there was not even a windows activation section to do that with, after rebooting the activation section was there but just said 'not available' (while the 'not genuine' message had vanished), and on the third boot the 'not genuine' message remained gone and after a short while the 'not available' for activation/product ID changed to activated and the product id.
or in a clearer format:
Boot 1: Pre-desktop 'Activation Successful' message + message saying it's not genuine in bottom right of screen.
Boot 2: Normal boot up, no 'not genuine' message but activation section of system properties says 'not available'
Boot 3: Essentially normal in everyway as far as I can tell.
Since we'd been thinking about it anyway we've decided to just upgrade to 7, (I:E format the pc again and install a freshly bought copy of Windows 7). That said I am still curious about what could cause this. Could it be a temporary 'glitch' on MS's servers (which presumably windows 'dials home' to at some point?
That "Not available " sounds more like a server problem .....
If your hardware will support it then I think you will find Windows 7 a great improvement over VISTA -- I've been using VISTA recently on my retired desktop and while the hardware is not up to my new one VISTA really crawls ....
Watch out for Catch 22 -- If you think of getting the 64 bit version there are two gotchas that I've run into:
Something on your motherboard may not support 64 bit Windows -- there was no updated driver for the ethernet chip on my old PC so Windows 64 would not even install because it could not get out onto the internet to update etc.
Similarly some of your hardware -- especially printers and scanners -- may be in a similar position with no 64 bit drivers although WIndows 7 does have some default drivers for some of this hardware some of the functions, like duplex printing, may not work.
Microsoft has a wizard that will check out your computer on line and give you a report so run that and see what it says.
On the other hand WIndows 7 32 bit is very good at running old software and hardware and the only thing that would give problems is software so old that it has what are called 16 bit installers which won't work on Windows 7 of any variety.
On the whole you may be better off buying a new PC, since Windows 7 may cost you up to $150 and a few hundred more would get you a wonderful new high speed PC!
But again if you have older hardware -- as above -- be careful since most new PCs come with 64 bit versions only unless you go into the more expensive business ranges where you can specify 32 bit. If you get 64 bit then you have the same problem with anything older you may want to use.
If you want to discuss this more we have Tech Outpost as a forum for non-Norton computing matters ....