Activation problem, what to do ?

[tommyboy08]

Hi all,
I installed W10 today via windows update on a iconia tab w500. There was a windows 7 home installed on it when I bought it. During the install, I didn't had to type a key. But now, the activation fails everytime. I don't have the key written on the pc so I don't really know what to do.. The windows 7 on it is an original one and was previously activated. What can I do ?

Many thanks

 

[Rafael Yousuf]

What version of Windows 10 did u get? you should have Windows 10 Home.

 

[slivovica]

Hi, i have same problem with activation Win 10 Pro. I had instelled Win 7 Pro before, of course it was activated. After upgrade to Win10, system is not activated. Key is not working.

 

[klose91]

Maybe we just have to wait, cause it may be the case that the activation servers are too busy for that stuff, and after the Upgrade you also got a new product key, that has to be activated, that's what I would assume, why it says that your copy of Windows is not activated since the new key could not be validated.

 

[zeke009]

Add me to this fun group as well. I upgraded 2 machines running Win8.1 Pro and both are not activating.

Error code: 0xC004F034
Error Description: The Software Licensing Service reporting that the license could not be found or was invalid.

Here's to hoping it is a launch day bug and that my valid product keys are still valid.

 

[mestari]

Count me in, this hasn't been a fun day. I did a clean install from build 10130 and skipped the product key parts. Now windows is unactivated and 8.1 OEM key doesn't work. I even somehow broke a good 32GB usb stick when I installed windows 10 in it, my pc just doesn't recognize it anymore, had to burn windows 10 to a dvd. Any suggestions on how to activate?

 

[DriessenbeeR]

I have upgraded my SP2 Pro from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 and Windows was activated. After that I downloaded an ISO and performed a clean install.
During the installation the setup asked me for a key. I had the understanding that this should not be the case, if the upgrade was successful. After the installation, Windows told me that is was not activated and the key was not valid.

Some people write that the Windows activation servers are busy and patience is required. Unfortunately I am not one of the patient people and rolling back now to Windows 8.1 (original SP2 recovery) to upgrade again.

A little bit messy, but could be worse...

 

[mestari]

Will i be activated if i stay in insider program if this thing doesn't sort up? I can't reroll back to 8.1, i have no backup for it.

 

[Isror]

OK...So spoke to MS and they claim their is an outage with the licensing servers. No ETA on when it will be resolved, but in my case...They told me it should resolve its self in roughly 48hrs. It should automatically see the license server and validate in that time frame. If I still have the issue on Monday, I'll need to have them escalate.

 

[eddieDOTexe]

Weird, I did a clean install on my desktop after downloading ISO and it says its activated. No expiration date either.
It was enrolled in Insider Preview beforehand but not anymore. Still activated though. I hope I'm good. I'd hate to have to install 8.1 and have to go through the entire update process.

 

[NeoDerGrosse]

I also have this activation problem, I guess waiting is the best we coud do. MY installation works perfectly good besides that so I don't need to activate it right now.

Will i be activated if i stay in insider program if this thing doesn't sort up? I can't reroll back to 8.1, i have no backup for it.

Did I get this right, you just downloaded the ISO File and burned it to a DVD to install it on a PC running Windows 8.1? So you never did the actual update on this PC but instead just did a clean reinstall and tried to activate that with a Win 8 key? If that's the case you've done it wrong. Microsoft said that you first have to do an update on a PC to "register" it and after that you could do a reinstall with the iso. I'm not shure if an update using the iso as a source would work, but just using a Windows 8 key for a clean Windows 10 installation won't work.
Your only solution would be to reinstall Win8 and that upgrade it. If you like you could do a clean install after that. I don't think staying on insider program would be an alternative since I can't imagin that Microsoft is permanently throwing Win10 away for free over this backdoor.

 

[mestari]

No, i installed it on a PC running windows 10 tp. Anyway, i just grabbed a student dreamspark license, and now It's activated.

 

[a5cent]

During the install, I didn't had to type a key. But now, the activation fails every time.

99% of the time, this is do to either never having done an in-place upgrade or the activation servers being overloaded.

See the FAQ for more details.

Since there are plenty of other threads dealing with these issues, and the posts here are a bit all over the place (there are multiple reasons why a W10 installation may not activate), I am going to close this one.