Hi I had upgraded from an activated Windows 7 Ultimate to build 10130. Upgraded that all the way 10240. It reported activated. I was on the insider program. Few days back, it says I'm not activated and I had the key ended in 3V66T, which looks like a generic key on Google. So I just format and reinstalled hoping for the best, but I'm still not activated. Says the key is blocked? These are MSDN keys so maybe used on another PC I upgraded to 10, but they should be good for 5PCs at least I thought. Any idea what happened?
No key is needed to activate skip inputting one. The hardware ID of the Computer activates it. If that doesn't work your best bet is to install Windows 7 activate it and then upgrade with 10240
Yeah I completed the fresh install by skipping the serial key entry. Just not activated =\ It's so silly that I have to go back to 7, upgrade to 10, then fresh install! Should just have to enter a 7 key into 10 and it link to hardware id. Silly system.
yup, but if you use a retail key for Win10, this wont be an issue I believe. Otherwise it is treated as the free upgrade that uses no keys.
Still trying to work out why this happened. I was an insider, upgraded from 7, ran each build 10130 onwards. Ended up unactivated, how?
Nobody outside of MS can answer that question for you but supposedly you would remain activated under that scenario only if you stayed in the insider program.
When slmgr /xpr says a machine is permanently activated, as with our Insider RTM 10240 installs, you don't expect to lose that activation for little or no reason. One guy said he lost his activation after a bios flash, although others have flashed without issues. Another guy put in a network card and lost his activation. These are a couple of the things I've read on other forums. Seems as if MS activation has some hiccups from time to time.
I changed my GPU, could that have been it? If I put the old GPU back it should reactivate if that is the case?
The W10 upgrader works very simply: if your current Windows is activated, it won't ask for a product key. If it's not activated, it will ask for one. That's there is to it
I dont think you read the OP properly. I have upgraded from activated 7 Ultimate to build 10130 (i am a insider), upgraded that all the way to 10240 as new build came out. It was still activated on around 29th, but just recently became unactivated. I chose to format and reinstall anyway, but still not activated (not surprised). I think it might be the GPU change that caused it to lose activation. Going to test it now. Edit, swapped in the old GPU , nothing yet. Im going to assume it wont work. No idea what happened here then.
Hi, now I see...I have upgraded from nelegal windows to windows 10 with the same ended serial 3V66T. Windows 10 is activated but probably I can not reinstall windows 10 again...
as you been already activated after upgrade your HWID is registered on m$ servers, then you can do a fresh install of the same version on same hardware,activation will be done automaticly.
:REFRAIN THERE IS NO KEY NEEDED AT ALL! The Hardware ID (HWID) acts as unique key for this Upgrade. IF ASKED FOR A KEY; SKIP OR DELAY!! . IF NOT "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="BINGO!!!" GOTO :REFRAIN
Not sure if when it activates it takes into consideration of the hardware that is on your computer. I guess it is possible that a hardware change may do that?
it checks the hardware and gathers information to send to MS about it for activation during the upgrade. Then after the upgrade it asks MS for the info to activate that it gathered during the initial upgrade.