activation of windows 7

[Whetsell]

I have been using windows 7 professional for approximately three to four years. As of today, my office 365 would not load and went online to correct itself. Upon completion, it informed me that my copy of 7 was not genuine. Lengthy conversations with Microsoft have only served to inform me that I must purchase a new 149.00 activation key as the one that came with the disk is not valid. Beyond that,. they instructed me to call Frys to ask them. Frys will not assist me over the phone. They want me to bring my computer in, which is not possible as I no longer live near them. I don't know what to do. I feel like Microsoft has found a new way to make money. Can someone provide some assistance.

 

[Whetsell]

Additional information- I have not changed the motherboard.

 

[USAFRet]

When you try to activate online, what does it do?
Say invalid?

Then, does it give you a phone number to activate via the phone robot? Not calling a human, but rather an automated activation set up.

 

[Mr5oh]

I've talked to several people more recently that Microsoft has deactivated their Windows 7 licenses, and in general are no help what so ever in coughing up a reason.

Honestly I doubt Frys would be able to tell you anything anyways... If I bought a copy of Windows at Walmart, WalMart wouldn't be able to tell me why Microsoft decided my copy was no longer geniune.

I had this conversation with Microsoft too about a key on a work machine that was downgraded to XP (from Vista), and was no longer able to be activated. They did not like my comment about "This is why people pirate software." As I know everything on this machine was legitmate, and had the COA attached to the machine.

 

[Whetsell]

Invalid and microsoft store to buy a new code. Have to talk to humans. Had to yell at real person. There was no reason for it to invalidate. Now the store only sells 8.1 and I really don't want to go through installing a new operating system again.

 

[hang-the-9]

There is no way that a valid COA that came with a retail disk is invalid. Call back and find someone else to talk to, without yelling. I can tell you that likely 80% of why they did not fix this was because you got mad at them. The other 20% may be that they just can't do anything with the code, but if it was sold by a major retailer on the shelf packaged, there is pretty much no way it can be an illegal key.