You may be a victim of software counterfeiting – Easy Fix

“You may be a victim of software counterfeiting“, “this copy of windows did not pass genuine windows validation”, “ask for genuine Microsoft software”, You will see these errors when you don’t have genuine Windows XP. Not only this error message, your screen may get blank. You may not install some softwares. You will get too many problems.

     

This solution is for using not genuine Windows XP without any issues. If you want to Fix Windows 7 not genuine error, read my earlier article about How to Fix This copy of Windows is not genuine error in Windows 7.

Solution for this problem is very easy. Before going to tell you about solution, I strongly recommend you to buy latest version of Windows. Because Microsoft has stopped support for Windows XP. When you use older OS, your PC may get hacked easily. And your PC will be infected by virus very easily. If you want to buy Latest Windows, buy only from Microsoft Windows store only. Because if you get any problem in future Microsoft will help you. If you buy Windows DVD from any other online shops, you may be in trouble.

Why I am seeing this Error message?

When you update Windows, Microsoft will install Windows Genuine Advantage(WGA). It is an update created by Microsoft to validate your Windows license. See more details about WGA fromWikipedia.

You are seeing “you may be a victim of software counterfeiting” error message, because knowingly or unknowingly you have installed WGA update.

Now solution is very simple, just remove WGA from your computer, you will not get error message. Follow below simple steps to remove WGA component from your computer.

Fix: you may be a victim of software counterfeiting error

You need to follow below 3 steps to remove error and to stop WGA update.

Step 1: Remove WgaLogon folder using Registry Editor

Go to Start -> Run or Press Windows + R to open Run dialog. You will see Run dialog.

     

Type regedit and click Ok shows that in above screenshot. You will see Registry Editor window shows that in below screenshot.

     

• Click on + symbol left to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. You will see sub folders.
• Click on + symbol left to Software.
• Click on + symbol left to Microsoft.
• Click on + symbol left to Windows NT.
• Click on + symbol left to CurrentVersion.
• Click on + symbol left to Winlogon.
• Click on + symbol left to Notify.

Right Click on WgaLogon folder and Click Delete. Now restart PC. You don’t see “you may be a victim of software counterfeiting” error message.

Step 2: Remove any other WGA files

For additional security you can remove any other WGA files from Windows/System32 folder andWindows/System32/dllcache folder. To remove those files,

Open C: drive -> Go to Windows -> Go to System32. 

Search for any WGA files. Those files may have hidden attribute. So first you need to change folders and files view option.

• Click Tools in top menu.
• Click Folder Options.
• Go to View tab.
• Check Show hidden files and folders option.
• Click Apply and Click Ok.

Now you can see hidden files. Now you are in C/Windows/System32 folder. You can see manually for WGA files or Click Search for files or folders option in left side shows that in below screenshot.

     

Type Wga*.*  

Search for the results. Delete all the files. You may see Wgatray.exe , Wgalogon.dll, Wgasetup.exe. Delete every file. Even if you see any other file with Wga word, delete them.

Now follow same step 2 procedure to delete Wga files from C/Windows/System32/dllcachefolder.

Step 3: Stop Wga update

You have removed all WGA components. You are free from error message. If you install updates, there is chance that Microsoft will install WGA update one more time and you will get error message one more time.

To solve this problem you need to turn off updates. Or you need set it manually approve updates. To do that,

• Go to Control panel.
• Go to Automatic Updates. You will see below screen.

     

You can check “Turn off automatic updates” so that you will not get any updates and you will not get WGA update.

You can check “Notify me but don’t automatically download or install them“. In this case you will receive all Windows updates. You need to manually install them. When you see WGA update, you should not install them.

Click Apply and Click Ok.

Caution: Don’t buy Windows OS from any other third-party eCommerce stores. Because if you get any issue, you need to contact your vendor. Microsoft support will help you, when you buy Windows OS from Microsoft store only. I strongly recommend you to buy Microsoft products only fromMicrosoft store.

I hope you like my tutorial about Easy fix for the error you may be a victim of software counterfeiting. If you like it, do me favor by sharing it with your friends.If you want to add any other point, You can add through comment section.