Victim of software counterfeiting?

Hi, Just wondered if anyone knows anything or can help with this one. A year ago I bought my new computer of a local copmputer engineer that also sells machines. This, after he had come out numerous times to mend my old from from Tiny computers. He is a friend of a friend and always seemed to be very fair. Anyway to cut a long story short he said he would supply me with a better machine with everything on it ready to go (cost me nearly £800) as my old one probably wasn't worth fixing again. I as anyone who knows me are a complete computer novice (or just thick). He knew that and said he would bring it ready to go with windows 2000 and XP (my old one was windows 9. Everything seemed to be great - I did have to buy Norton anti virrus and system works etc. to complement the free anti virus software that he's already loaded which I downloaded straight from the symantec store. I also bought Spysweeper from webroot. All seems to have been fine for almost a year but now my computer keeps flashing up that I may be the victim of software counterfeiting ie windows 200 and XP. I have read a previous post by Foxy and it says that I should have the disks - he did leave me some but, not those ones although I still have a book with a code on and a disk for windows 98 (from Tiny I think). It says to rectify the problem follow the link and it looks like I have a choice of paying over £100 again and I'm not sure if that will just be for the windows or XP or that I may be entitled to them free if I send details about where I got it from. I don't want to do this as he is a friend of a friend of ours but, I am really annoyed as the amount of money he has had from us, and I thought everything was above board. Any suggestions please as I don't want to get myself into further trouble and I don't think I would be able to wipe everything off and start again.(+ the expense). Can anyone advise me please in VERY simple steps.

Thanks XX

not sure what to suggest. if u know the software is conterfeit and your worried, then i would go and buy it and restore the whole pc. not easy if ur a novice i know. you can save any important documents and software to disk so u wont lose anything.

not sure what else to suggest, maybe go back to the guy?

it's common practice with small business to load all PC's from their legit copy.. not sure about the legality of it? I have the same problem with my PC.. XP pro...
In all honesty you don't have to do anything...just X off the warnings.. the only time I get a problem is when trying to do the automatic windows updates.. I just don't update the ones with the warnings.
I certainly would not pay again for software I have already paid for .. you could ask the person who sold you your PC as he may have a "business" agreement.. not called that but it is a thing where they are licensed by microsoft to use the disc repeatedly
Hope that helps
Rachel

[QUOTE=darasa]it's common practice with small business to load all PC's from their legit copy.. not sure about the legality of it? I have the same problem with my PC.. XP pro...
In all honesty you don't have to do anything...just X off the warnings.. the only time I get a problem is when trying to do the automatic windows updates.. I just don't update the ones with the warnings.
I certainly would not pay again for software I have already paid for .. you could ask the person who sold you your PC as he may have a "business" agreement.. not called that but it is a thing where they are licensed by microsoft to use the disc repeatedly
Hope that helps
Rachel[/QUOTE

Thanks for your help - that has reassured me, as I thought I had got to do something. I can't understand why it's been perfectly okay for nearly a year though and has just started doing this now. I really don't want to have to pay again for something that I understood was already included and I don't think I would be capable of restoring it all again.

Kath XX

That's the problem... I don't know - I though everything was genuine. If I did decide to pay them again online would it be simple to follow through or might I loose everthing. I don't really want to pay again and I'm also frightened that I may not be able to restore it or whatever I have to do.

Thanks anyway for your advice. XX

I'd be carefull of this we've been getting the same thing at work this week ..its being investigated but we think its some kind of spyware .Personally I wouldn't follow any link from a pop up and then pay online ....sounds very dodgy to me ..I'll let you know if I hear anything else

Thanks for the info...that's one of the things that I don't understand as it's been doing automatic updates from Microsoft for almost a year and then now the problem? I think I'll just ignore them for now. Thanks Kath X

Hi Meganrose are you by any chance talking about the microsoft counterfeit campaign?

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/win...9265303,00.htm

.......continued from the above post...
I have got a second hand PC from one of my sons friends , heaven knows where the copy of windows came from

I few weeks ago I got a message along with millions of other people to say my copy of windows may be counterfit and they wanted £90 off me for a proper version of windows.

A little blue icon like a 5 pointed star has installed itself on my desktop and will now always be there. I was getting lots of Microsoft popups and could not turn my PC off at one stage.

My tame PC expert has turned something off and the popups are gone, the only problem is I can't receive Windows updates and security patches but I am well protected with Norton and various addware/spy detection so can cope for now. I think it is very wrong of Microsoft to do this to people who bought second hand PCs

You're not that well protected Mini-many of the security patches are because of inherent flaws in the Windows operating system when designed by Microsoft and having updates ensures your pc will work alright as and when required.

I would seriously consider getting a genuine operating system installed.