So now that you have lost the will to live after reading that, any ideas how I activate this fresh installation?
You have unbelievable patience! Good effort. You're right, but I don't know how MS are going to implement it properly. As far as I can understand it, you should be able to install using generic keys and activate automatically as a result of your Hardware ID being noted previously, or the upgrade being linked to a MS Account.
I am glad you agree man, I was beginning to doubt myself but I was so sure because their website clearly states you can do a clean installation AFTER you upgrade which i done and windows 10 was activated prior to me doing a fresh installation so all should of worked as per their website. Its so frustrating.
The fact you changed to an SSD is the issue So now you need to start again, install a legit version of 7,8 or 8.1 then upgrade to 10. After that done the new system id will be on microsofts servers and you can once again try a clean install.
Time and the will to live lol, but i dont understand how doing it again will work. The onyl thing I can think of is that this time round, the fresh installation was done via their official tool whereas the upgrade from windows 8 to windows 10 was done through the 10240 build on this forum which was release before today, could it be that infact that build is not the official one? I did have my suspicions because cortana wasn't working for some reason saying it wasnt available in my language even though it was set to United Kingdom and had some strange issue with network adapters which I posted today, so maybe we have all installed that build thinking its RTM when it isint? unless i missed the memo that someone has already said this?
you should install it without entering any productkey, it will ask you twice to enter it but both times leave it blank and click the i'll do this later button, after its all done setting up you will be activated. i made the same mistake the first time as well and entered a key when installing and also wouldnt activate then. second time after upgrade i leave the productkey blank and now my windows 10 pro is activated
That wasn't the issue. I've upgraded from that image, then did a clean install and had no problems regarding activation.
The CSR sounds like today was his first day on the job in a new department created to support Windows 10. It also sounds like English is not his first language. On the other hand, OP you were confused about how the upgrade had to be done to be successful. I agree with the suggestion above to reinstall 8.1 with a legit key if you have one. Then you can upgrade to 10 and get it activated. Then, finally, if you want to do a clean install you can do that. But you have to do the steps in order or it won't work and you'll be left with Windows 10 that won't activate.
I didn't actually did NOT change my SSD, i was just trying to throw a scenario to see what he would say
Well, it would get you an activated Windows 10. You could always then just go to Settings > Update & security > Recovery and then select to reset the PC and remove everything.
you need to make sure that after the upgrade from win 8 it says activated .. then you can clean install
Normally it works, I have done it three times but I'm guessing introducing the new hard drive the first time you did it probably caused the issue. I probably would have tried normal phone activation, that almost always works.