Windows 10: After the 30 days of no activation, what'll happen???

I have W10 installed for about a week and I want to know what'll happen after the 30 days grace period is gone. Does the system lock itself, does it go back to W7 (which seems impossible since I've done a clean install)??

BTW, I have genuine W7 before I installed W10.

:)

 

After the first 30 days of using Windows 10 had passed, how could I revert to my old Windows 7 Pro (SP1)? Here is My Solution.

11/2/2015



After the first 30 days of using Windows 10 had passed, how could I revert to my old Windows 7 Pro (SP1)?
And prevent Microsoft from bothering me ever again with automatic attempts to upgrade?



----------------------------------------------------

Summary:

I reserved my upgrade to Windows 10 via the “Get Windows 10” icon.
Soon after receiving the notice that the upgrade was now available I upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 Pro.
After TWO months of successful operation Windows 10 developed a “Critical Error – Your Start Menu Isn’t Working…” and while I attempted several solutions, none was successful for me, other than the one to revert to my tried-and-true Windows
7 Pro and to stick with that. I wanted Windows 10 never again to be installed on this PC.
So I also wanted the “Get Windows 10” icon gone.

The automatic reversion capability that came with the Windows 10 upgrade had expired for me.

So what to do?

• I reinstalled Windows 7 from an external backup I had taken just prior to the Windows-10 upgrade.
• I restored my *current* user files, too.
• But in my case I was still left with the “Get Windows 10” icon in my taskbar.
  It and other Windows updates that had paved the way for the Windows-10 upgrade were still installed in my restored Windows 7 environment.
  Simply uninstalling these proved ineffective in preventing Windows 10 from trying repeatedly to automatically install again, and, further, uninstalling all these updates turned out to be detrimental to the operation of my Windows-7 PC.
• So then I hit upon a new plan: I invoked the Windows-10 upgrade again, thus giving myself 30 days to take advantage of the included feature of uninstalling Windows 10 and reverting to my prior
  version of Windows.
• I invoked the provided Windows-10 back-out feature and let it revert my PC to Windows 7.
• Now once again running under Windows 7 Pro, from the list of installed updates in Windows Update I uninstalled the update that had installed the “Get Windows 10” icon in my taskbar.
• Also in Windows Update, I *hid* that “Get Windows 10” update (and one other related to the Windows-10 upgrade) so that they would never again be installed on my Windows-7 PC.
• I then used the Group Policy Editor to set a control value governing Windows Update:
  I ENABLED the setting that prevents Windows Update from trying to upgrade my PC to a newer version of Windows.
• Finally, I ran Windows Update and successfully applied the 50 or so Windows-7 updates that I had missed over the preceding two months while I had been on Windows 10.

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Windows 10 is gone from my PC. It will not be downloaded again by Windows Update.
And there is no “Get Windows 10” solicitation popping up to annoy me every few days.
I’m back on Windows 7 and perking along nicely again.

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Synopsis of what happened to me:

• My PC is from 2010 and runs Windows 7 Pro (SP 1).
• I took the bait on Win 10 and reserved my free upgrade using the “Get Windows 10” taskbar icon installed by Windows Update.
  (Update KB3035583.)
• The Win-10 upgrade went pretty smoothly. Only a couple of glitches that I had to work through in the first week.
• Win 10 ran well for two months. I was pleased with it.
  Then my PC developed a Windows-10 “Critical Error –Your Start Menu Isn’t Working…” problem.
  
• The problem defied resolution. I tried several means to resolve it.

a. Running the DISM and SFC commands to find and fix corrupted system files.
None were detected. (See Windows 10 start menu critical error issue)

b. I booted into Safe Mode (How to boot into safe mode in Windows 10) and then ran CHKDSK from the command prompt (with Admin privilege). Nothing was reported as
found/fixed, and there was no change in my situation.

c. I consulted several tech forums and discovered (1) other users had already had this same problem, (2) Microsoft had not published a solution and, moreover, appeared not to have diagnosed
the problem yet, (3) users had developed a workaround for a corrupted user profile, a workaround that seemed to get the user back in business, and (4) that I wasn’t satisfied with that workaround:
not only did it involve a depth of techie savvy with which I was uncomfortable, it offered no assurance that the Critical Error would not resurface and afflict the user’s replacement profile.

d. I reinstalled Windows 10.
The problem disappeared, but came back 3 days later.

e. So I resolved to abandon Windows 10 and revert to Windows 7 Pro.
And to steer clear of Windows 10 on this PC for no less than a year.

6. The Windows 10 upgrade came with the built-in ability to revert to one’s prior version of Windows easily – FOR 30 DAYS.
I was a month past that, and that feature had been taken away.

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Deeper details of my successful quest to (1) back out of Windows 10 and (2) kill off the “Get Windows 10” icon that would continue to try to upgrade me again to Windows 10, even when my back was turned:

1. I found three Windows-7-related updates that Windows Update had provided to pave the way for the Windows-10 upgrade (I found these listed in several user-forum postings, such as this one – Does the upgrade still download even if I haven't "reserved"?):

a. KB2990214.
(https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2990214)
This one was installed first, months before the next one.

b. KB3035583.
(https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3035583)
This is the “Get Windows 10” icon that sits on the taskbar.
It is where one makes one’s reservation for the free upgrade, and once the reservation is made it then bugs you every few days to schedule the upgrade.
And if you’re away from your PC when this solicitation is made, after one hour of waiting with no reply the upgrade begins right then.
This is an update that I simply had to be rid of.
My solution included uninstalling this one and Hiding it from Windows Update so it would never be downloaded again.

c. KB2952664.
(https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2952664)
This one was installed by Windows Update shortly after the previous one.
I Hid this one in Windows Update, too, so it would never be downloaded again.
But I’m not sure I had to do this.

2. I first reverted to Windows 7 by way of a full-image external backup I had taken of my PC just before upgrading to Windows 10.
But this restored environment still had all the Windows-10 preparatory Updates installed and the Windows-10 upgrade repeatedly tried to reschedule itself to happen again. Moreover, no Windows-7-related Updates were being permitted by the
Windows Update service – the Windows-10 update was in the queue, so that was the sole update that the service would henceforth deliver to me.
I was stuck – how could I get rid of that Windows-10 upgrade in my queue and resume receiving Windows-7 updates?

I contacted Microsoft support for assistance. The Answer Tech advised me to try resetting my Windows Update Components via KB971058 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058).
Again, no change.

I was still stuck with a Windows 7 that was frozen in the past.
And Windows 10 still wanted to download and install.

3. So I let it install again.
What I wanted was that 30-day automatically-provided way to revert away from Windows 10 back to my previous version of Windows.
I hoped it would clear out the Windows 10 download and let me resume Updates to my old Windows 7.
This worked!

a. After the Windows-10 upgrade installed I ran the computer for several hours, doing multiple periodic restarts.
I applied all the Windows-10 updates that Windows Update supplied.
I restarted a couple times more just to ensure a fully stabilized system.

b. I then, at last, executed the Windows-10 Uninstall process that had been provided with the upgrade.
It took me back to my Windows 7 just fine.

c. I took a Restore Point.

d. I then went into Windows Update and took care of my issues there:

1) The Windows-10 upgrade was no longer in my queue of Updates awaiting installation, but I still had the “Get Windows 10” icon in my Taskbar.

2) So I uninstalled update KB3035583.
This removed the “Get Windows 10” task/icon from my PC.

3) I examined my list of queued updates awaiting installation and found two pertaining to downloading Windows 10 again:
KB3035583 (the “Get Windows 10” task/icon) and KB2952664 (preparations to ease the upgrade to Windows 10).

I hid both of these pending updates so they would not be installed.

4) I enabled a control value for Windows Update that prevents Windows Update from delivering the Windows 10 upgrade to my PC.
Since I use Windows 7 Pro, I have access to the Local Group Policy Editor function.

See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351 for how to block the Windows-10 upgrade from ever happening via Windows Update.

See Local Group Policy Editor - Open - Windows 7 Help Forums
.

To add my own elaboration to that tutorial:

(a) Use the Windows Key + “R” to open the Run dialog.

(b) Type “gpedit.msc” (without the quotes) and press the Enter key.
This opens the editor.

(c) From the folder tree in the left pane of the editor,

- select “Administrative Templates”, then

- select “Windows Components”, then

- select “Windows Update”.

(d) Now, in the right pane of the editor, find the line “Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update”.
We need to set this line’s State to “Enabled”.

- To do so, double-click on the “Turn off the upgrade…” line.

- Select the “Enabled” radio button.

- Then click on the “Apply” button and then the “OK” button.

- Back on the previous screen, the “Turn off the upgrade….” line should now have a State of “Enabled”.

(e) Exit the editor.

5) I restarted my PC for good measure.

6) Then, back in Windows Update, I invoked a check for new updates and I double-checked my list of queued updates to be absolutely certain none pertaining to Windows 10 needed to be manually
hidden.

7) At long last, I ran Windows Update and installed some 50 updates that all pertained to Windows 7.

And now, finally, my problem was solved.

 

Win 10 Activation Error Key Blocked Error code: 0xC004C003

Jst tried phone qactivation with install id was told to wait 48 hours which i replied ive been waiting since wednesday which i was told you dont need to activate for 30 days when you cant use it after 30 days retry activation

 

It's not really a grace period as when a previous Windows install let you use it without entering a key for 30 days, after which it went into some minimal use mode.

There was a lot of fuss the first few days when the Activation servers were overloaded by the millions and millions of folks trying to activate their FREE Upgrades. But by now, if your install is still not activating, there is something different going on.

Did you do an Upgrade install? Or, did you do a Clean Install to a machine that never had an activated Win10 on it? IF you did the latter, sorry, it's never going to activate.

 

Take it for what it's worth:
Microsoft Product Activation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, the 30-day grace period has been removed. If the operating system is not activated, there is a watermark showing the edition of Windows (although it does not show to activate) on desktop, personalization features in PC Settings like changing the lock screen is disabled. Entire Screen notification appears periodically, roughly once in 6 hours. However, the operating system otherwise functions normally.

 

Well, my computer couldn't boot to W7 due to a hardware issue. So, I had to upgrade through a clean install using the boot-menu installation with a DVD. Surprisingly, not only did the installation succeed, but the hardware issue is gone too.

What I am planning to do in the near future is backup my files that I have now on W10, downgrade back to W7, activate W7, and upgrade back to W10. That is the same thing Microsoft told me when I called them.

 

I did a test upgrade from win 7 ultimate unactivated to win 10 pro using the media creation tool and left it unactivated.
Then I advanced the system date to 2018, within a few hours a white text watermark on right lower corner appears on the desktop telling me windows is not activated. This telegraphs through all apps, although in VLC the watermark is dimmed so as to be less obtrusive. And personalization like changing the background is not possible.
So I set the system date back to 2015, rebooted , and watermark is gone away.

 

How do you plan to "downgrade" to Windows 7 if you couldn't boot to Windows 7 to begin with?

 

Hi. It can't have been a hardware issue as the problem would not have disappeared in Win10. It is a software issue, incorrect settings or something similar in Win7

Exactly. The Win7 software issue needs to be resolved first.

@harvard, the following is my suggestion:

• Can you do a clean install of Win7.1 on your pc please.
• Disconnect all unnecessary peripherals/components before doing the reinstall including secondary drives etc. IE. Just have the Win7.1 system working for the essential components only.
• Don't worry about downloading or installing latest drivers
• Don't bother installing any other software
• Don't install any Antivirus, firewalls or any other protection software
• Only when that is done and successfully activated you can upgrade to Win10.
• If Win10 successfully upgrades and activates you can reinstall all the other components/hardware.

 

Yes, that actually is what is needed in cases like yours: Windows 10 must once have been installed as a real upgrade of an activated Windows 7/8.1. Not as a clean install, but as an upgrade. Afterwards you can do clean installs as you like, but if you have not at least once done an upgrade, your copy of Windows 10 will not activate. That is annoying, if you ask me.