Windows XP counterfeit warning message

AndyCambs · 13-12-2014, 09:12

Not sure if anyone is still running Windows XP, but I have an elderly neighbour who has an old computer they occasionally use which is Windows XP - it's been ok and no problem but this week comes up with the message stating the version of Windows may be counterfeit.

I can't think it could be fine for 10 year and then just decide it's counterfeit, and I wondered if it might be just Microsoft's way of saying no more XP?

Has anyone else seen this or any thoughts?

Thanks!

alanbjames · 13-12-2014, 09:21

His key may have been hit upon by someone using a keygen for XP something that is a million to one shot i know but could happen.

Taf · 13-12-2014, 13:21

It pops up for me from time to time in Vista also. I just do the verification thing it asks for and all is well for while.

heero_yuy · 13-12-2014, 14:09

A friends machine developed this out of the blue and it was coming from WGA*. I just dumped that off the machine and the message never came back.

*Windows Genuine Advantage

Dave42 · 13-12-2014, 14:24

xp aint that save to use now with no support

heero_yuy · 14-12-2014, 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave42

xp aint that save to use now with no support

Not necessarily. I have an old Sony laptop that I put XP SP2 on three years ago, never had any updates (Turned off). It's only ever had the firewall on it and I use it daily for browsing and e-mails. It's also been on public wifi sites many times. At home it is usually on my routers wifi with its own firewall as well

Just put AVG on it this morning and a scan came up clean as a whistle. It's the user that makes a machine vulnerable IMHO. Not the age of the OS or absence of updates.

Kursk · 18-12-2014, 23:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

A friends machine developed this out of the blue and it was coming from WGA*. I just dumped that off the machine and the message never came back.

*Windows Genuine Advantage

I would do this or a restore. I'm still running xp on a machine I picked up in a skip. The pc was hardly used and I decided to run it without caution (and I mean, I visited lots of colourful sites) just to see what the result would be. It still runs fine (I use Avira and spybot every now and then just to clean it of the odd bit of adware) but I've come to believe we mollycoddle our pc's.

Perhaps xp is safer now because it's not targeted so much? In my scientific research I've found music sites to be much dirtier than porn sites when it comes to picking up nasties