"Activate Windows"

[Brint Hannay]

The last couple of days I have been getting a message in the lower right corner of my monitor screen:

Activate Windows
Go to PC settings to activate Windows

This message is superimposed in gray letters over every page I open.
When I open a Word document it says at the top "Word (Product activation failed)" and a box appears: Microsoft Office Activation Wizard, with language that says "If this product was not purchased for commercial or institutional use, it may be counterfeit".

This just started happening without my having done any kind of action out of the ordinary. Everything still works the same as always (including Word), so it seems as though I'm using Windows as always.

Is this just another devious way to herd me into getting Windows 10? (I'm using 8.1.)

[Brint Hannay]

Upon further thought I realized that this is probably related to my installing and uninstalling Windows 10 a month ago, for reasons I described in this post:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=299176.

Now it looks to me as though the attempt to escape from Windows 10 was futile, and they won't let me be until I "activate" it.

But what's all that "corporate or institutional or counterfeit" stuff about?

[Mitch Drumm]

I'd call Microsoft's 800 number and give them your Product Key numbers for both Windows and Office.

The Product Keys are what you pay the money for. The applications can be had for nothing if you know where to look, but they are useless without a legit Product Key.

Let Microsoft tell you if either of the Product Keys are counterfeit. They are the world's foremost authority. You may have bogus stuff or legit stuff that is simply confused, in which case they may give you new Product Keys. That's happened to me.

Offhand, I wouldn't think it's related to Win 10 if you are seeing the message in Office, but anything is possible.

[Brint Hannay]

Thanks for the suggestion. Apparently I hadn't activated 8.1 after I re-installed it. Microsoft straightened it all out.