Korean Job Discussion Forums

drdst122 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009

I bought a new laptop recently because my old laptop broke on me. I have to send it back home to get fixed under warranty, but that is another topic for another day.

I bought this new laptop with Windows 7, a Korean version and was told they would change it to English for me. They did, but I didn't get a true English Windows copy, I believe they just changed the language pack or something.

I activated windows and everything was going fine for the first couple of days, and then the this windows is not genuine pop-up started coming.

Windows is indeed activated, and it accepted it as it shows under the system. They are saying (the place where I bought it) is that the English pack is not genuine and they turned off the notifications and so I won't see it anymore.

I'm sorry for the long winded post, but what I'm trying to figure out is if, 1) Is this indeed a genuine copy of windows and they aren't lying to me that it's just the English pack that isn't 2) Does it really matter? It seems all of the windows updates have worked thus far. Maybe they will only work for a while and then stop?

What do I need to do, or what should I do?

Thanks in advance!

kprrok · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Location: KC

If you bought it at a legit shop and have the receipt, you can report it to MS and they will provide you with a valid key. Just check their website for genuine advantages.

tman88 · Joined: 14 Jan 2011

I don't think there's such a thing as the language pack being non-genuine while the operating system is genuine. They either reinstalled a fake English copy or the original Korean version was fake to begin with.

Use this to check:

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/validate/DownloadValidationSupport.aspx?displaylang=en

Boffo97 · Joined: 08 Dec 2010

I've always been told there is no English language pack for Korean Windows (even though there is a Korean language pack for English Windows).

But I've been dealing with XP, so maybe that changed.

But yeah, it does sound like some kind of shadiness on the part of whoever sold you the computer.

vDroop · Joined: 25 Aug 2010

If they didn't hand you a CD key or the Win7 box/disk when you got the computer, it's likely not legit.

Anyways, I wouldn't worry about it as long as it allows you to do updates.

orosee · Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Location: Hannam-dong, Seoul

This might be a good time to refresh:

Korean Windows (and possibly all versions of Windows) has English "under the hood". This means that with no effort at all, you can run this little marvel of a program: http://www.froggie.sk/ (and it works for 7 as well as for Vista) and within 5 minutes, your Korean Windows will look and act like the international (US/EN) version.

If you still get a warning from Microsoft after that, then the Windows installation is indeed not genuine.

One small drawback is that a few fonts for dialog boxes will display only rubbish instead of Korean, but that is generally the mistake of the programmer since everything else works just lovely.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

It is only the ultimate version of windows that is actually switchable to/from english and another language.

All other versions can have a language pack installed but the menus are still in the original language.

If you originally had a genuine version of win7 (Korean and not ultimate) installed and now have an English version then they dumped your old copy and installed a pirated copy in English.

Your options are:

1) live with it.
2) return to the original Korean version and live with the inconvenience of it (menus in Korean but English software runs just fine with English menus).
3) return to the original Korean version and update to ultimate for the option to switch back and forth (not a language pack but truly switchable).
4) buy an original English version.

.

Confused Canadian · Joined: 21 Jan 2003

This may also be helpful:

http://fixexe.com/ultimate-windows-genuine-advantage-wga-remover/

cadurling · Joined: 16 Oct 2007

orosee · Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Location: Hannam-dong, Seoul

akcrono · Joined: 11 Mar 2010

orosee · Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Location: Hannam-dong, Seoul

This one seems to work for Vista and 7 only. And it seems that you can change English XP to any other language using MUI packs, but not the other way around.

djloekee27 · Joined: 08 Sep 2010

in win7 pro and ultimate, you can change the language to english using windows update. i did it with mine and i'm able to dl all updates. i bought my copy at yongsan and i haven't had any "not genuine" notifications.