What to do when your computer asks for your license

Q. Recently, during use of my home computer, I have been getting a pop-up declaring that my license is about to expire. I've never before encountered this. Is this a legitimate notice?

A. If there is a button in the notice that says Go to Settings that takes you to your PC settings when you click it, it’s legitimate.

If your computer was provided by your company and you are using it from home without ever connecting to your office network, it may need to communicate with the company licensing servers. Windows checks this once every 90 days. During the pandemic, I have had a lot of my users working from home and this crops up all the time. All they need to do is connect to the VPN or take their computers back to their offices and connect to the network and Windows is happy again.

The other possibility is that you actually have an unlicensed version of Windows installed on your PC. It that’s the case, you’ll need to contact Microsoft about getting a license key.

If you do find yourself with an unlicensed computer and need a key, you can always buy one from Microsoft. They are available at Microsoft.com and you’ll get the key right after you make payment.

Q. When I edit and then save a file on my Windows computer, it does not update the date on the file. I can see the modification date, but the date column simply doesn't update. Is there a fix?

A. When viewing files in Windows File Explorer you will see a number of different column names. This can include the name, the size, the type and several different kinds of dates.

The most common date is the file creation date and is often just labeled as date.

If you right click in a blank spot on the column bar you will see a list of the other columns you can add. This includes Date, Date Modified and date Created, along with several others.