Some Windows 7 PCs deactivated by a Windows update

According to some Windows 7 admins, a recent Microsoft update is causing their PCs to crash. An error message prompts which says “Not Genuine” which is likely a windows license error.

Microsoft and updates don’t really go well, the software giant has always had issues with its released updates, the most recent January security patch, KB971033 is now deactivating Windows 7 PCs. The networking issue basically crops up in certain configurations. As per the reports, the KB971033 update is causing an issue on Windows 7 Enterprise PCs, the update was part of Activation technologies for Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Professional.

These specific versions are KMS activated, which is a volume licensing option offered by Microsoft. KMS activation basically allows the admin to activate several PCs easily by checking them via a local server for a valid license key. After installing the latest update (January security patch) the error occurred when a Windows 7 PC checked into the KMS server. The server sent a blacklisted error instead of the usual response which prompted a “Not genuine” message and hence caused the deactivation of the operating system.

Good news is that Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and reverted the update, furthermore, the company has also offered guidance to determine whether the PC has updated and installed the update or not and if it has installed the update then how to remove that update. It should be noted that this recent update problem comes after the annual Windows 10 update debacle.

Previously, Microsoft made a huge blunder when it released a ‘bugged annual windows update‘ which caused a lot of problem for Windows 10 users. Many users reported about their data being deleted, some lost their important documents while others lost their music and video collection. Microsoft had to pull the update back which was quite embarrassing for one of the oldest and most experienced tech-company in the world. Let’s hope that Microsoft resolves the Windows 7 deactivation issue as soon as possible.