what does it mean?"this copy of windows is not genuine"?

[880]

This message is displayed on the desktop of my laptop now"this copy of windows is not genuine"so my background became black & i cannot open some program such az firefox or google chrome (i reinstalled them but it didnt matter)so plz tell me what can i do now???

[Ash]

It means that you have a pirated operating system and not an original one.

[justme]

It means you did not pay for a genuine copy. To get everything back, you will have to pay for a genuine copy, and install it. You will probably have to format before installing, so if you can access any of your data, I suggest you back it up to an external source.

[puterfixer]

You need to purchase a license for the version of Windows you have, then enter the license key and activate it. You don't need to reinstall everything or format your drive; just give it a valid license code which can be activated by Microsoft, and all your functionality will be restored.

[Sojal]

It means the windows you are using, came from retailer who didn't pay for this.

[Jim]

Get a better operating system, for FREE. I did 3 years ago, and never looked back.
http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
http://nfp.freehostia.com/jims-intro-to-linux.html
http://www.zorin-os.com/
http://www.linuxmint.com/
http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-linux-distributions
http://www.distrowatch.com/