Windows 10: Activation Troubles

Hello friends. I have been having some problems activating Windows 10. Here is how it went.

• Windows 7 (unactivated)
• Windows 10 (Preview 10240 unactivated)
• Debian (was just trying this out a couple days before Windows 10 officially released)
• Windows 8 Pro (Activation from my genuine key worked)
• Windows 8.1 Pro (" ")
• Windows 10 (via installation program, thumb drive setup)

I am now on Windows 10 Pro, it asked me for a product key during installation, I used the Windows 8 Pro key that I used previously and it wouldn't activate. I have also tried the key post installation but it still doesn't want to activate. Is there anything I can do? I thought this was meant to be a free upgrade - and Windows 10 Pro says it isn't activated and won't accept a Windows 8 Pro key for activation.

Long story short, Windows 10 Pro won't activate / accept my Windows 8 Pro key.

:)

 

Windows 10 Activation Troubles

You likely bought a non-genuine key from a rip off site. Only Microsoft and Amazon.com can sell digital download (product keys). You will either have to try and get a refund or cut your losses then purchase a genuine license from Microsoft.

The seller might try to send you another key if you get in touch with them, that will be non-genuine too.

Purchase directly from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US...

 

Windows 10 Activation Troubles

Oh well

Thank you for the quick reply and clarifying the situation. I was unaware that only Amazon and Microsoft could sell digital downloads, guess I should've done more research. Think I'm going to purchase directly from Microsoft this time.

 

For the Win 10 free upgrade to be activated, you have to install it as an upgrade over the qualifying OS (8.1 here). I found by experiment that the upgrade has to be set to keep everything for the result to be activated.

After you've done that once, you can do a clean install (from the thumb drive) on the same hardware, and the result will activate.

I checked this by (very limited) experiment.

brief Win 10 install from ISO notes - Windows 10 Forums

 

Ok thanks for the information, I guess I will be reinstalling again today - I couldn't seem to be able to acquire the "get the Windows 10 app" even though I was up to date on the Windows update program. It is good to hear that it works via the iso program.

 

Installed via Windows explorer and running the setup.exe on the thumb drive instead of BIOS booting onto the thumb drive, everything working and activated - I went via the keep everything option.