Windows 10: "Activate Windows" Watermark Suddenly Appeared

So I noticed about a week ago my windows is suddenly not activated anymore. I bought this PC from someone who built it from scratch and installed windows pro on it themselves, I don't know the product key but it should be a full version and it worked fine up till now.I've tried restarting, and I've read this article but the causes for my error code don't really seem to apply to me unless something weird is going on.The only things I've changed on my PC in the past week or two is that I updated two group policy settings so that it doesn't auto restart after updating my PC is up to date thoug

:)

 

Activate Windows watermark suddenly appeared

No changes have been made to the hardware, and I've had this laptop for nearly two years. This morning, a watermark appeared in the bottom right corner of my screen telling me to activate windows.

On the activation page in settings it tells me I don't have a valid digital license or product key, with the error code "0xc004f012".

It also suggests that I try the troubleshooter below, which then tells me that troubleshooting was interrupted and gives the error code "0xc3f6501".

 

Activate Windows Watermark

Hi Duncan,

The Windows activation watermark is usually appearing if the activation servers detect that a device is not activated. For further help with activating your copy of Windows 10, visit this
link. If the same issue persists after performing the troubleshooting suggestions on the link, follow these steps:

• Using Cortana, type Notepad and then click on Notepad (Desktop app).
• Type the following commands in Notepad:
  • @Echo off
    
    taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
    
    explorer.exe
    
    exit
    
    
• 
  Save the file and name it as Activation.bat.
  
• 
  Change the Save as type to All files.
  
• 
  Locate the file, right-click on it and then choose Run as Administrator.
  
• 
  After running the file, restart your computer and then check if the same issue persists.
  

Let us know if further assistance is needed.

 

Activate Windows watermark suddenly appeared

Hello, I'm sorry to have wasted people's time, and I feel kind of stupid now, but I just reset my computer, and everything was fixed: the watermark disappeared, windows is activated again.