Windows 10: Accidentally de-activated Windows 10, cannot re-activate

I created a problem for myself by mistake. I built a new PC and transferred a retail copy of Windows 10 to it. I intended to change product keys on the old PC and give it to my son, but I hadn't don that yet. It was just sitting on my desk unused. New computer worked great for two weeks but I had to turn on my old computer to un-license some software sketchup. Didn't even think about what that would mean for Windows. Sketchup deactivated and old PC goes back into storage, awaiting a new windows key. Shortly thereafter noticed MS Office software crashing randomly due to "Office 16 Click-to-Run Licensing Component".


Description: Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Office 16 Click-to-Run Licensing Component. Product Version: 16.0.13426.20404. Product Language: 0. Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation. Reconfiguration success or error status: 1603.


While trying to problem solve that I notice that the "activate windows" watermark starts showing occasionally on my desktop. Windows Settings crashes or doesn't respond when I attempt to select "Activation". It will respond if I boot in safe mode but it says that I can't activate windows right now.


At this point it dawns on me what may have happened. Turn on old PC and de-activate. By all appearances it's fully de-activated and the product key is removed.


Still cannot activate using the product key on new PC. Tried various methods including through "slmgr" Command prompts. Seems like it's actively preventing me from activating with this key. As I understand it, a retail key is transferrable although I made a mistake in turning on my old PC and connecting to the internet while it was still activated.


Is there a way to fix this short of reinstalling windows? Also, is MS Office crashing even related or is this just a coincidence? Thx!

:)

 

Windows 10 Activation (Insider)

How long did you wait for activation?
When I re-installed with a fresh install... it took a few hours to sync and activate.
However, it did, finally, activate.

 

Windows 10 Activation (Insider)

I did a full clean install of Windows 10 a while back and it will not activate. I didn't do a clean install from Windows 7/8/8.1 it was from Windows 10 (activated) so I expected it to activate just fine since it was fine before hand.

My Windows 10 license wasn't created from a previous Windows 7/8/8.1 key I got it from signing up to be an insider back in Nov of 2014. I installed a preview build on my laptop from the insider program and it worked just fine and it automatically upgraded to newer and newer preview builds and then to the full release automatically, fully activated and working fine. I did a full clean install not long ago (expect it to go through without issue since it was working before) and now it will not activate and I can't find any info on how to get it to activate and I can't seem to find the insider Windows 10 key.

Microsoft online support was useless and the gave me the toll free number to tech support.. I am currently on the phone waiting, they said it could be a 1hr 30min wait.. sigh.. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Windows 10 Activation (Insider)

This kinda sucks. However, if one is upgrading from a retail W7/8, then it should activate on different hardware, with possible phone activation required if it's been over 120 days or whatever the timeout period is now since the last activation. Remember to erase the copy on the old hardware, of course.