So everything was activated and fine, so I come back to the pc and it says windows isn't activated. So I clicked activate and....nothing. I had to restart, then it still said not activated. Then it became activated. Just wondering what causes stuff like this? I had a 8.1 pc so I got the free upgrade back when it was 10240, I'm now use a clean install of 1511. Never had problems like this before.
Even on genuine win 7 oem systembuilder home premium i've seen the "you probably are a victim of pirated software" message a lot, and everytime it went away by itself. Since 10 was (pre-)released my pc got HWID activated and i've never seen any messages, that it wasn't, anymore, nor from any of the people who i've provided with a HWID activated 10.
AFAIK, Windows contact the License Server at any restart, and, if that server couldn't be contacted in some period of time, Windows will show NOT activated. That applies for MS Original Licenses but OEM, and/or Corporate (VL/Enterprise).
You are right. It contacts the server to verify intermittently. I have seen this type of issues - regarding activation status sometimes in windows 7 too.
Why was it a problem for you? Apparently, other than showing you were temporarily not activated, you didn't lose any OS function during that period, or did you? It's probably nothing but a bug--maybe. Once activated these machines should stay activated whether online or off, imo. Apparently, you are still activated, so whatever happened did not derail your activation. When you clean installed 1511, how did you activate--? Was it automatic, or did you use your 8.1 key to activate? I ask only to suggest that if you did not use your 8.1 key that you might wish to use it to activate, rather than trust the hardware paradigm--which I don't particularly trust, myself. Although...I have not had any problems with activation (recently) and I have yet to use either my Win7 Pro or my Win8.1 key...so I wouldn't worry over it atm. I agree with the earlier posts in the thread...problem is that none of us really quite absolutely understands the activation mechanisms yet--at least, I don't... It's like Microsoft is still experimenting, probably.