Win7 - unhack an illegal copy to make it legal again?

[cubby1223]

Over at a new business today checking out their systems and one had a hacked copy of Win7 they had purchased from a shady person recently. I happen to have a spare oem coa at the moment taken from a dead laptop, is there a good software tool to "unhack" this copy of Windows so I can apply a legit license?

The computer just sits there and complains it is not activated, and the activation process keeps saying it is activated. Otherwise I'm not seeing any negative affects of whatever hack was put on that copy of Win7.

I prefer not to go through a reinstall of Win7.

Thanks

 

[shortylickens]

Isnt there an option in the System page to unlock a version of windows with a legit key?

 

[ViRGE]

It would likely depend on the hack used. If it's a well behaved hack, then it can be uninstalled. If it's a lousy hack (and it sounds like it is) then it may not be possible to get it off of the system. You would have to find out what activation hack it is.

Also, unless I'm mistaken you can't take the OEM key off of a dead laptop and use it here. That key belongs to that laptop forever (hence OEM).

Finally, assuming you can get the hack off, then using slmgr /ipk would let you install a new key.

 

[cubby1223]

Thanks. Not sure what was done to the OS. Microsoft Security Essentials would remove some of the XP hacks and the OS would be good after that. Only other time I've dealt with Windows 7 license issues, I went through Microsoft's systems to purchase a license key from their website to apply to the machine, and it just worked.

I'll play around with this computer some more when I have access to it again tomorrow.

 

[Fardringle]

Honestly, if I knew that a computer had been installed with a hacked version of the OS - especially a business computer - there wouldn't be any question of what to do. Complete format and reinstall a legitimate copy of the OS.

In some situations that's not feasible, such as if they have some software installed on the machine that can't be obtained/reinstalled again, but those aren't common.

 

[MadScientist]

Someone used a Windows 7 loader program to hack it. The easiest way to unhack it is find out what loader program was used and use the uninstall feature of it. Otherwise it's format time.