Have you been running Windows since its install with its desktop message to "Active Windows"?
Many years back, when my fully licensed HP laptop's video portion of its circuit board caught fire from playing D2 LOD for far too long, I had built a small tower case computer to run Windows and D2. What always greets me is that ol' transparent Win10 Activate Windows message. I have never had a reason to change that as it has never affected anything that Windows runs. I know there is a trick to remove it, but I find it a comforting message. I'll talk to my therapist about that. Soon...

no i have normal paid windows but back in the day i had a custom windows xp called the pirate edition that removed all bloat

Looks like it's time to move to Linux

This is for all of the juggalos and juggalettes. FUCK THIS SHIT

I did! I love Linux. Clean, fast, and customizable like no other. But, I am running Win on a little tower to play legacy games without any hitches.

I used to have an HP laptop. Nothing happened to it, but randomly one day it changed my background black with that same message. Randomly thought I was using a pirated version of windows. Wouldn't let me change it back to anything and I think it locked me out of certain features. Was weird.

no sorz