Windows 10: Activation Troubles after Reinstall Windows 10

I had a working activated copy of Windows 10 on my laptop, however, I had a problem with it within the last couple months with Windows Explorer restarting every few seconds so I was ultimately forced to reinstall Windows 10.


I think I had Windows Home edition on it before but I installed Windows 10 S and am having issues activating it. It asks for a product key, but my Windows 10 version I had before was an upgrade version from upgrading from Windows 7.


They say you can activate digitally, but I am not finding where I can do that. If my earlier version was a home edition, or what ever edition it was, if I was to digitally activate it would I be able to upgrade the version that I installed on it?


This laptop is a banged up 9 year old machine, it is hardly worth putting another $140 or $200 OS on it if I don't have to.

:)

 

[Solved] Windows 10 keeps reinstalling KB3119142

I noticed quite some time ago that KB3119142 (Update for Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Update 4 Redistributable Package) kept reinstalling itself for some reason. At least once daily. Sometimes up to several times a day. I just ignored it. It didn't seem to be doing any harm. And I figured they'd eventually fix it. Well...days turned into weeks, weeks into months, with no end to the problem in sight. It dragged on unsolved for at least the last few months. Literally reinstalling itself hundreds of(at least a hundred, felt like more) times in that period of time.

So I finally googled it a couple days ago. And just got around to fixing it today. Which appears to have worked. And it couldn't have been easier to do. I feel so stupid to have let it intimidate me for so long.*Oops!

Below are links to the thread that I got the fix idea from, and the official MS support info page for KB3119142(from which I quoted the above).
http://www.tenforums.com/windows-up...-windows-10-keeps-reinstalling-kb3119142.html
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3119142

 

Can't activate windows after clean reinstall

It sounds like you did this:

• Install Windows 10 as upgrade from previous version
• Clean install Windows 10 again

The clean install will not activate if the original "upgrade install" didn't get activated prior to the clean install. What needs to happen is this:

• Install Windows 10 as upgrade from previous version
• Activate Windows 10
• Now you can clean install anytime without activation problems

I believe that step 2 got skipped. It should activate on it's own after several hours/days, but if you do a clean install before that's done (or don't manually activate yourself first), you will have to go back to step 1 and upgrade from inside your previous
qualifying version (yes, that means re-installing Windows 7 or whatever you had before).

Please don't shoot the messenger

 

Windows 10 Technical Preview is not activating after reinstall.

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community. We understand the inconvenience caused and will assist you.

I suggest you to activate the copy of Windows via phone by following the steps provided below:

• Press “Windows key + R” and type “slui 4” and press Enter.
• Select the Region from the list and click Next.
• Call the Toll-Free number provided on top and can activate via phone.

Also, refer the post by Rohit Siddegowda from the link provided below for information regarding activation issues after changing hardware.



Do hardware changes affect my Windows 10 activation?

Hope this helps. Keep us posted on the status for further assistance.