Not Genuine 0xc004f200 KMS Activation Error Occurs on Win7

Not Genuine 0xc004f200 KMS Activation Error

Windows 7 Patch Breaks Networking and Cause OS Not Genuine

On each Tuesday, Microsoft always rolls out updates. However, some Windows 7 administrators have felt the pain of Microsoft’s updates in last week.

This time, they have found that the January security updates break Windows 7 devices: “Not Genuine” Windows license error occurs and a bug blocks administrator access to remote shares on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

Reportedly, the issues come of KB4480970 (the Monthly Rollup update) and KB4480960 (the security-only update) for Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1. The KB4480970 solved a serious PowerShell flaw and also adds extra mitigations for and Meltdown and Spectre side-channel attacks.

However, although it is cautious to patch quickly, the update trips up network shares over the SMBv2 file-sharing protocol. Normally, the security-only update may avoid the bug, but it also causes the same issues.

Some reports say that Microsoft hasn’t listed the bugs as known issues on the support pages for KB4480960 and KB4480970. But finally, this company has acknowledged the issues. And regarding the ‘Not Genuine’ Windows 7 issue, it confirms on its pages “some users are reporting the KMS Activation error, ‘Not Genuine’, oxc004f200 on Windows 7 devices.”

Windows 7 KMS Activation Issue Caused by Microsoft Mistake, Not an Update

In fact, Windows 7 not genuine issue is not caused by the cumulative update or security-only patch, rather by a code change on Microsoft’s Activation and Validation servers, and Microsoft released a support article on January 10th to explain that.

Last week, for some reason, Microsoft pushed the April update, KB971033. This code change is affecting Windows 7 machines that have the KB971033 update installed and are activated by KMS.

According to one sleuthing system administrator, he found that KB971033 was installed on Windows 7 VDI machines reporting that Windows wasn’t genuine after much troubleshooting. Actually, KB971033 should never have been installed in a KMS environment.

How to Fix Not Genuine 0xc004f200 KMS Activation Error

According to Microsoft, its support page for KB971033 contains a warning for enterprise customers who use Key Management Service (KMS) or Multiple Activation Key (MAK) volume activation not to install that update.

To solve the Windows 7 KMS activation issue, Microsoft strongly recommends that organizations with volume-licensed Windows 7 devices uninstall KB971033, even on machines that are not currently affected by the issue.

To do this, users can use one of the following commands and later restart the PC.

1. wusa /uninstall /kb:971033

2. dism /online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-Security-WindowsActivationTechnologies-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~7.1.7600.16395

After the update is confirmed to be uninstalled, users should reactivate the Windows OS through KMS using the command lines:

net stop sppuinotify

sc config sppuinotify start= disabled

net stop sppsvc

del %windir%\system32\7B296FB0-376B-497e-B012-9C450E1B7327-5P-0.C7483456-A289-439d-8115-601632D005A0 /ah

del %windir%\system32\7B296FB0-376B-497e-B012-9C450E1B7327-5P-1.C7483456-A289-439d-8115-601632D005A0 /ah

del %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\tokens.dat

del %windir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\cache\cache.dat

net start sppsvc

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk [edition-specific KMS client key]

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato

sc config sppuinotify start= demand

For more information about Windows 7 not genuine 0xc004f200 KMS activation error, you can see one support page from Microsoft.