Windows 7 "not genuine" after installing recovery disc. Why?

Seymouro

Honorable
Nov 10, 2013
2
0
10,510
My wife's PC hard drive went down. Best Buy replaced it. We installed the factory HP recovery disc and after four weeks we downloaded it, we started getting the "Not genuine" popups and the message in the bottom of our screen that our edition is "not genuine".

It is genuine. This is a disgrace. It was on the HP Pavilion g laptop when we bought it last year (June 2012). We do not have a "product key" because it was on the PC when we got it. We are even getting a similar message now from Google.

Any ideas as to what could fix this? I've tried a number of things but nothing works.
 
Solution
It says "Not Genuine" because you have gone 30 days (4 weeks) without activation.

On the PC somewhere, the Activation key is printed on a sticker. On a laptop, it is probably on the bottom. On a desktop, somewhere on the case.

Start button - right click. Select Properties
At the bottom of that window, you should see something relating to Windows Activation.

At worst, you may have to go through the Microsoft phone robot to activate, or call them via voice.
But if you have the actual, valid key...it should work.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
It says "Not Genuine" because you have gone 30 days (4 weeks) without activation.

On the PC somewhere, the Activation key is printed on a sticker. On a laptop, it is probably on the bottom. On a desktop, somewhere on the case.

Start button - right click. Select Properties
At the bottom of that window, you should see something relating to Windows Activation.

At worst, you may have to go through the Microsoft phone robot to activate, or call them via voice.
But if you have the actual, valid key...it should work.
 
Solution

Seymouro

Honorable
Nov 10, 2013
2
0
10,510