Windows 10: Getting rid of Windows 10 "Activate Windows" watermark on fully activated laptop

The title says it all really. A couple of months back, the "Activate windows" watermark appeared on the desktop (bottom right hand corner) of my MSI laptop, which came with windows 10 preinstalled.


I did as it says and went to activation settings. The first few times, it let me activate windows again, or rather, it told me I was already activated and the watermark went away. It reappeared and I repeated this process several times, every few days. Eventually, it would no longer let me activate, and upon using the troubleshooter, I was told I had a "digital license" and that I had to update windows accordingly. Since then, the activation watermark is present, but when I go into the activation settings, it says I am activated and doesn't show the troubleshooter option.


I have tried linking the installation to my microsoft account (which means I will now get unwanted, invasive notifications about Skype and emails), but this did not help either.


Updating to version 1809 did not help and I have allowed all of the incoming updates to install. None have made any difference.


Any clues how to fix this, other than one of the more legally dubious methods (on my LEGAL INSTALLATION!!!)? The watermark is getting incredibly irriation and obscures important parts of some programs I use.


TL.DR: Microsoft is now penalising users for having legitimate up-to-date installations of their OS.

:)

 

Windows 10 Activation (Insider)

I did a full clean install of Windows 10 a while back and it will not activate. I didn't do a clean install from Windows 7/8/8.1 it was from Windows 10 (activated) so I expected it to activate just fine since it was fine before hand.

My Windows 10 license wasn't created from a previous Windows 7/8/8.1 key I got it from signing up to be an insider back in Nov of 2014. I installed a preview build on my laptop from the insider program and it worked just fine and it automatically upgraded to newer and newer preview builds and then to the full release automatically, fully activated and working fine. I did a full clean install not long ago (expect it to go through without issue since it was working before) and now it will not activate and I can't find any info on how to get it to activate and I can't seem to find the insider Windows 10 key.

Microsoft online support was useless and the gave me the toll free number to tech support.. I am currently on the phone waiting, they said it could be a 1hr 30min wait.. sigh.. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Activate Windows watermark - cant get rid of it!!!!!!!!!!!


I have had windows 10 since the free update and have had no problems with activating it. it has worked flawlessly with no problems (maybe a few but that's besides the point) and have never had to deal with this stupid "activate windows" watermark. Now out of the blue i have to activate windows (which i have already done like a year ago) and have to put up with this stupid watermark. Now im not sure if ive deleted some important files or if my product key has changed somehow but can someone help me asap, i need to get rid of this watermark, its so distracting

 

Can't permenantly get rid of "Activate Windows" watermark

I started on a clean install of Windows 10 on a new home PC build last year using one of the public keys available. Since then there have been several times that I've needed to reinstall Windows when I ran into problems and everything has been fine.

A couple weeks ago I needed to reinstall again and did as I have before. Only now there is the ever-present

"Activate Windows

Go to Settings to activate Windows."

watermark. I go into settings and click activate but I get red error text "Windows can't activate right now. Try activation later. If that doesn't work, contact your system administrator. Error code: 0x8007232B"

The only way to get rid of it is to go to Settings->Update & Security->Windows Update where I have a bulletin

"There's a problem with getting preview builds...

• Your preview build settings need attention. Go to Advanced options to fix this issue."

When I go to advanced options underneath "Get Insider Preview builds" and my microsoft account it says

"Your security settings need attention to get Insider Preview Builds" with a box saying "Fix me" beneath

Clicking the box displays a message box saying "Your security settings need attention. We need to change security settings on your device so you can get Insider Preview builds. We'll fix this right now, then you'll need to restart your device"

I confirm and restart the PC. When it reboots the watermark is gone! However after several hours the watermark will reappear and the cycle restarts which is very annoying. I've tried activating through command prompt and even get "Successfully activated!"
message but the watermark remains. How can I get rid of this watermark for good?