“You may be a victim of software counterfeiting.”
Nevermind that this is a machine which has already been previously validated, and has done nothing unusual but be turned off for a month or two. There is no way in which I could have been the victim; only Microsoft would be the victim.
And to add insult to injury, there’s a little thing saying “this copy of Windows is not genuine”. Liars. It is, in fact, a genuine copy. It is even a fully legal, fully authorized, copy that was licensed for use with this specific machine.
What offends me about this is that the entire thing is absolutely dishonest. It’s not just spin; everything they say about this is lies. There is no counterfeiting involved. It’s not true that this “is not” genuine. The strongest claim they could justifiably make is that they haven’t successfully validated it - and even then, the victim would be Microsoft, not me.
Except, of course, I am the victim. I’m the victim of Microsoft’s determination that their customers should be abused and treated like thieves.
Their helpful software explains: They detected an “exploit”. (No, they didn’t. There was no exploit. I just didn’t turn the machine on for a couple of months.) Therefore my key is invalid. I must buy a new key, or talk to their phone reps. And you know what? All false. No exploit. And sure enough, the exact same key works fine when entered again. If they had simply checked the key they already had, they’d have confirmed that it was valid. Instead, they lied to me, hoping to sell me another $109 of licensing I didn’t need.
This is sort of a recurring theme in Microsoft’s business strategy these days; accuse everyone of stealing in the hopes of extracting more money from them, because there’s no way left to grow their market except double-charging people. It’s pure sleaze. If you have a legitimate key, just re-enter it and watch, dumbfounded, as it turns out that everything the software had said to you was a lie.