As the title says, I'm having a hard time getting Windows to activate. I have a custom built PC (not from a big manufacturer) that came with a Chinese version of Windows 10 installed. It wouldn't fully boot up (gave some error message in Chinese), so I tried to install English Windows 10 and hoped it would activate. Of course, no such luck. So I formatted the PC and installed Windows 7 Pro and activated with Daz. From there, I tried the gatherosstate method, install Windows 10 Pro, but it said I didn't have a genuine license. Back to square one, format, install Windows 7 again, activate with Daz, this time try upgrading with the Windows 10 ISO. Same result: No valid license. When I previously had this problem, I managed to get around it by using the Assistive Technologies update method, but the road has been closed. I'm stumped at this point. I guess I could try downloading the Windows 10 update, but I don't see why the two methods I used before wouldn't work. Is it possible the PC was activated with another version of Windows before and I'm somehow "locked" out of activating with a different version now? Does anyone have any suggestions what to try? FWIW, I followed the advice in this thread: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...te-upgrade-process.64770/page-83#post-1416509 But I skipped the step about installing the drivers in Windows 7. Is that really an important step? Could that be what's causing my trouble? Should I backup the drivers I have in my (unactivated) Windows 10 now and restore them on the Windows 7 instance before trying to upgrade? There ARE a lot of drivers missing in Windows 7...... But does it make a difference? Thanks in advance for the help!
Yep, indeed. Mainboard, Network and CPU (if there are any) drivers installed in my tests always led to success .
Ok, thanks for the feedback, everyone! I'm reinstalling Windows 7 as we speak, will give it a shot and report back in about an hour. Thanks again!
If windows 7 doesn't provide you the path to a free HWID for 10, try this: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...te-upgrade-process.64770/page-80#post-1414677 (8.1 probably has more native support for the hardware). More info: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...te-upgrade-process.64770/page-80#post-1414647 Gatherosstate10586: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...te-upgrade-process.64770/page-82#post-1415381
What has your question to do with the post you quoted? When the mandatory driver install on the Win 7 system is skipped, none of the ways will work. Doesn't matter how the ticket is generated, be it automatically via the upgrade or via the manual route.
Just popping in with a play-by-play update: I've been working through the Device Manager in Windows 7, eliminating the yellow badges one by one. There's only the USB Controller and High-Definition Audio Device left. I'm going to get them all, and run Windows Update to boot. By my understanding, after this, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to activate via DAZ/gatherosstate. Hoping it was worth it!
Final post: Yep, that did the trick! After I got rid of all the yellow badges in Windows 7 and ran Windows Update a few times, I installed Windows 10 (stay offline), reboot, put the Genuine Ticket in the proper folder (still offline), reboot, then connect to wifi. Windows was activated before I could even check the activation status. I had a thread a long time ago on here where I was having the same problem, and I'll bet it was because my computers were missing too many drivers. Live and learn! Thanks for all the help!
I think that the chinese win10 was not really activated. Some computers do no longer support win7. Your win10 need kms-activation now.
He managed to get his win10 activated. His problem was that there were missing drivers that prevented the win10 activation to be done either with the ticket method or through the upgrade method, once he has downloaded and installed the right win7 drivers, the problem was solved.
Yeah, who knows. As I said, the computer wouldn't even fully boot into the Chinese Windows 10. It would get to the part with the blue windows logo on the black screen and the "loading" circle, then some error message would come up. In the end, it doesn't matter now. The point is, to anyone who finds this thread later: UPDATE YOUR DRIVERS IN WINDOWS 7 BEFORE UPGRADING TO WINDOWS 10. It's actually an important step!
U dont even need to install win 7.....install win 10 clean install go in the activation window use the win 7 key and activate....just make sure if u installing win10 pro ... your win 7 key most be pro...if u installing win10 home your win7 key must be home....trust me it works i do it a bunch of times already...if u get the error at the bottom u will se a option in red to check the key just click on it and will activate the license ...i dont know if is a MS security activation flaw.
If you don't mind me askin' - if I have 7 ult. presently activated, and fetch my key, which version number of 10 should I put on a dvd to install? does it matter? also, I just bought a fresh new unformatted ssd to install it to, any problems you might foresee?
This will only work with Retail keys or for OEM systems with the key from the COA sticker (these systems are by default shipped with generic OEM:SLP keys which won't give HWID activation). The Win 10 version doesn't matter.