BleepingComputer.com: WINDOWS AERO

Hello,

I am new to this and I hope I am posting in the correct place, if not so sorry.

I keep geeting this window that pops up stating windows that says windows aero is not working on top and you may be a victim of software counterfeiting.

It wants me to validate my microsoft windows as genuine and go on line to resolve now.

is this some virus waiting to happen or is this a ligit thing?

please help

thanks

Welcome to this forum!

This is probably not a virus. Have you tried to follow the onscreen instructions to validate it? If your OS is an OEM version or is otherwise genuine, you don't have to be afraid of anything. If it says your copy is a counterfeit, you will have to contact MS tech support, though.

I personally am not using Vista right now. I bought a desktop computer with Vista Home Premium 64 bit version preinstalled, but fomatted it and installed XP Pro instead due to software incompatibility issues. I recently installed it again in an effort to multiboot my PC, but on two occasions I lost the use of mouse after Microsoft updates, which rendered the computer useless. As a result, I will never use Vista again.

This post has been edited by czhang: 05 February 2009 - 01:26 PM

Thanks, I went on and clicked to resolve and it sent me to what appears to be a microsoft webpage but did not procede because thats how i got a virus on my other computer. I didn't know if you actually had to validate it online. My wife bought this notebook because she thought it was cute! Didn't ask me or I would have said hecck no to vista. all it has ever been is a pain in the neck.

Do you have virus protection for your computer? I use Norton Internet Security 2009 (also previous versions) to protect my PCs. NIS includes anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-spyware functions. It works fine for me, although I have to update it (virus definition etc) constantly. It will cost you about $60 per year to protect up to 3 PCs.

At some point, my Windows XP PCs all forced me to install "Windows Genuine Advantage" to validate my OSs. I think it is probably the same case with Vista.

If Vista is a pain to you, you may want to try Ubuntu 8.10 (32 bit or 64 bit version):
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

It is free and will always be free. I tried it and it worked fine for simple tasks such as web browsing, e-mailing, and office work (Open Office, includes Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation). Another advantage is that you don't need to worry too much about virus, esp. the 64 bit version.

thanks i will try that

Some notebook manufacturers do not activate Windows prior to selling them. You must either activate Windows online or over the phone to regain the missing features. XP has similar anti-counterfeiting measures so installing that would not help you in this matter. If you want to go for Ubuntu know that some of your software will not work, unless you're in WINE, and you may have to drop down to command line (Think DOS) to get some stuff done. If you're interested. there are various sites that will explain how to install the OS. I personally enjoyed the Kubuntu flavor of Ubuntu better than the plain GNOME edition. Know the limitations before you switch to Linux. You could always download the beta of Windows 7, which is superior to Vista in my opinion. I've been using this for about a week and it is remarkably stable for a beta release. As for virus protection, Norton is horribly overpriced, I use NOD32 which is more lightweight and cheaper.