What do I do about "not genuine" Windows?

chrijeff

I have an Acer Aspire laptop, bought in 2011. Some time yesterday afternoon my wallpaper vanished and was replaced by a black screen, on which were all my icons, with their names (nothing that hadn’t been there all along), and in the lower right a little message in white letters that said “This copy of Windows is not genuine.” Windows Activation says “Status Not Available” and “Product ID Not Available.” I contacted Microsoft, and the first tech I worked with helped me replace the black screen with buff, but the message is still there. The third tech I got said that my product key was some kind of mass license and they had no warranty for it, but Acer might. Apparently that's not true, but I still want to get rid of the “not genuine” message and get genuine Windows back, because I had a message that said the “not genuine” one might make me vulnerable to worms, etc.  So how can I do this, ideally without having to buy a whole new Windows suite?

JordanB

What laptop model?

 

What operating system is currently installed on the laptop?

 

Did you buy the laptop new?  Where did you buy the laptop?

 

What OS was pre-installed at the factory?

 

Have you tried to use the Acer recovery software to reset your computer to factory condition?

 

Have you made any hardware changes to the laptop such as cpu, HDD, or motherboard?