Hi, I recently bought a Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows 8.1 Single Language. I upgraded it to Windows 10 and it was activated. As it had so many pre-installed software, I decided to make a clean install of Windows 10 using the image download via media creation tool available at Microsoft's site, which says: However, after installation, activation has failed. Don't know how to proceed further. The only option I think is of restoring the windows 8.1 from the recovery disc I made before Windows 10 upgrade.
You need to provide an error code or something - otherwise it's like asking "how long is a piece of string?"
@Corrupt Most usual error that can be seen - have you actually downloaded the ISO of CoreSingleLanguage SKU?
As Tito says you need the correct ISO.... Single Language - not Home. Skip the keys - you already have digital entitlement.
Network issue is gone now but error is still there. The my laptop came with Windows 8.1 Single language. It didn't mention whether its Home or Pro. Currently I have installed Home, may be the installed version which came with laptop was Pro edition.
@Corrupt Please don't make this more complicated - 8.1 Single Language => 10 Single Language. The SKU is internally called CoreSingleLanguage which is a variant of normal Home/Core SKU where you can't install any language pack after installation. Microsoft doesn't mention this elaborately to avoid confusion. TL;DR - you need to download CoreSingleLanguage ISO from Techbench & do a clean install.
Seems like I was using the wrong ISO file previously. Download the one from techbench and it worked. Thanks Thanks everyone.