What's the setback of using a non-genuine copy of Windows 7?

Asked by gambitking (4206

) August 16th, 2012

I have a custom built PC that was bought from a friend and I recently had to rip and reinstall Win 7. I didn’t have a restore disc, so I had to use a copy I got from a work buddy. It’s been a month now, and Windows wanted me to activate my copy, which I could not do because I have no product key. Now it’s saying my copy of Windows is not genuine. I can still use it just fine, I can get on the internet and seem to have all the functions I need, so what’s the consequence of using Windows 7 without activating it?

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You have 30 days to activate Windows. If you do not activate, Windows claims you won’t be able to use all features on the OS. What I know from experience is that the desktop wallpaper will go black, and the annoying pop-ups will keep on bugging you. Those pop-ups are mostly annoying if playing Fullscreen games because it’ll kick you out of game.

RandomMrAdam (1655

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A lot of updates and downloads from MS require an activated copy of windows. For example Microsoft Security Essentials won’t work if windows isn’t activated.

Lightlyseared (34863

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None, I run mostly pirated copies without a problem for updates or anything, but it does need to be activated legally or iligally for it to work properly.

XOIIO (18328

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