We do a lot of Symantec Ghosting in our environment. We send a lot of computers to events and when they return we wipe them back to a basic image. Lets assume all of our images are Windows 10 Pro (NOT Enterprise) and the computers in question all have UEFI windows 10 in the BIOS. Lets say I have a laptop with Windows 10 in the UEFI BIOS and I have Windows 10 Pro installed (not upgraded) and activated. I re-image it to a base Windows 10 image using Symantec Ghost, will it attempt to re-activate? If my motherboard is registered with the activation server, how many activations do I get ... unlimited? Will I have to pick up the phone and call Microsoft after 5, 10, 50 activations? i can't seem to find any definitive information from Microsoft detailing how many activations I get with Windows 10.
When using a 10586 msdn iso you will have a little problem because it reads out the oemm bioskey (you say it's home?), but i don't know what an exact systemcopy will do after restoring. About the reactivation count, i've done it 30+ times on my testsystems for both Home and Pro, it still activates again and again
same here with pro activated on same HWID activation mode and all clean installs activate before it's done
Since reactivation is based on a "unique" HWID, as long as nothing changes to alter the HWID it should always reactivate infinitely.
There is certain times for auto activate. Beyond that you need to call Microsoft customer service for activation.
According to slmgr /dlv it's 1001. Not sure if that number is just a way to say "a lot" or is counted precisely. Anyway, for a normal user 1001=Unlimited
I have seen it on either Microsoft FAQ page or Microsoft Answers Page, but now I can't find the post. But I am pretty sure about it.
Well my Win 10 on one drive would not upgrade to 10586 as it seemed to get confused on auto reboot while installing as I have three hard drives all with an OS.....and it was just activated. Anyway put the drive on a different computer (just with this drive) and it upgraded perfectly using the media creation tool and was awarded a "bonus" from just activated before to activated with digital entitlement h'mm well if it's a bonus BTW I haven't bothered to put this drive back into the original computer and it is just now a spare HD
The answer is in the title of the thread - just remove How..........Many times will windows 10 Activate - only if it Digital Entitlement Activation. Because HWID can only activate the same machine over and over again - and M$ don't have any problem if you keep on re-installing on the same machine. Activation system was introduced to stop the malpractice of installing one license on more than one machine without paying for the second license fee. So HWID (Digital Entitlement) assures that you cannot activate your Windows 10 on any other machine by just swapping Hard Drive with activated Windows 10 or install a copy on second machine and get it activated with the HW imprint of another machine. Number of activation was restricted before since the activation was not based on HWID (Digital Entitlement) although activation used to fail when there were major changes in the system and one was able to re-activate without any issue.