Windows 10: Activate Windows after installing Win11 from Win10 without activating beforehand

I downloaded the Windows 11 23h2 ISO from the website and created a PXE image with MDT and WDS. Once the install was completed and I tried to activate windows it says it "can not validate my Product Key". I did not activate Windows 10 Pro system before installing the new Windows 11 because I thought it was able to upgrade without doing that. I also bought an upgrade to Windows 11. I have tried the Generic Product Key but it failed. Currently my system is in Notification Mode and has changed from OEM_DM to WindowsR Professional Edition, Retail Channel.I need to be able to PXE this image out t

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Activation of Win11 Clean install with Win10 product key doesn't work

Hi,

I'm located in The Netherlands and running (licensed) Win10 Home English.

I have 2nd Hard drive on which I want to do a clean install of Win11. Just to get used to Win11 and migrate slowly, app by app, to Win11.
My PC meets all the requirements for Win11 and I had no hardware upgrade in between.

I used the MediaCreationToolW11 tool to create an USB boot drive ....2 different ones.

1. One USB boot drive for Win11 Home English
   
2. One with recommended settings for my PC (then I get Dutch, which don't want, I always use English)
   

• When I use the first one to install Win11 on my 2nd hard drive, everything goes well but I can't activate Win11 with my Win10 Activation key. Not a valid key or something went wrong. Why?
  
• When I use the second one, it looks like the installer wants to upgrade my current Win10 version. I do have a system image but still, I don't want that, it costs you always a lot of work and time to roll back.
  

Microsoft says on

Redirecting

Windows 11 is a free upgrade for Windows 10 users. As long as your current Windows 10 installation is activated, you can upgrade for free or perform a clean install using your existing Windows 10 product key. Just make sure you are installing the Windows 11 edition that currently corresponds with your Windows 10 edition.

What am I doing wrong? And...

How can I meet this requirement below is true?

Just make sure you are installing the Windows 11 edition that currently corresponds with your Windows 10 edition.

Is that possible only through using the second option of my USB boot drive?

With all respect but getting help in chats with Microsoft didn't work. Tried 2 times, but I gave up.

Please help.

Lex

 

Activation options for Win10 with instant clones

We have a secure (no internet access) lab environment setup to test and validate a VMWare VDI deployment of Win10 clients.

Our issue is activation of the Win10 clients as they require re-activation every time we logoff and back on because we are using instant clones.

Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to resolve this? Here are the options we are considering and issues as we understand them:

• Setup a KMS server
  • Requires a Volume license, which is doable
  • Documentation says we must have a minimum of 25 hosts, we don' have that in our lab
• Use our MSDN account
  • No support for Win10 KMS license
  • No support for MKS activation
• Manually activate each time
  • Gonna spend a lot of time on the phone
  • Win10 has no grace period so machines are crippled w/o activation

Anyone have a thought or suggestions? I'm hoping I missed something.

Thanks

 

Windows Vista Activation

I have 4 sytems in my home running vista(1 ult.-3 prem).The ultimate & 1 premium took SP1
wthout a hitch.1 premium required re-activation?,The other premium did not list SP1 in windows up-date,So i manually installed it without any re-activation required.
Also have to add that SP1 has increased performance in every comp.The ultimate machine actually got a 1,100 point increase in 3d 06 without any other changes at all.