Windows 10: How to Recover an Activation Key from a Dead Virtual Machine

Hi,recently I've switched operating systems but couldn't get rid off all the dependencies that I had with Windows, so I extracted my Windows ISO and got my activation key at the time I was dual-booting but completely switched operating systems once I had the VM running and set up a virtual machine. The activation worked and I was able to use windows within the VM. But then some time later due to my inexperience with the new operating system I made some critical mistakes which were hard to revert and decided to reinstall the OS. I had thought that me wiping out the OS and reinstalling it woul

:)

 

Clean install of W10 not possible in Virtual Machine.


Please get a cup of coffee, lean back and think an answer for these two questions. Take your time, then check the answers below the questions:

Questions:

1. If you do a clean install of let's say Windows 10 Insider Build 10525 on a totally new computer which has never had an activated Windows 10 on it, does it activate?
2. If you do a clean install of Windows 10 Insider Build on a computer where the underlying Windows 10, upgraded from a qualifying old operating system has already been activated, does it activate?

Answers:

1. No, of course not.
2. Yes, of course.

Why do you think that a virtual machine would make any difference? You have tried to install Windows 10 on a totally new machine which has never had an activated Windows 10 installed, therefore the Microsoft activation servers block the activation due invalid machine ID. In the highlighted part in below quote you admit your mistake yourself, plain and simple, yet you when doing this wrong draw conclusion that even if done correctly it would not work:

What you have tried is essentially the same as if you took a brand new real physical PC without any operating system, which has never had any operating system, and then installed Windows 10 Insider Preview wondering why it does not activate! Virtual Machines behave exactly the same way; if you want to clean install Windows 10 Insider Preview and get it activated you must do it on an existing virtual machine, one which has already had an upgraded Windows 10 activated. This "computer", the virtual machine, its machine ID is marked on activation servers as valid and activated and it will of course activate.

Be it a virtual machine or a physical computer, you cannot activate a clean installed Windows 10 Insider Preview on a totally new machine. How difficult can this be to understand?

When clean installing Windows 10 Insider Preview on a computer which has already had a previous Windows 10 Insider activated, you do not use the product key! It will be asked twice, once before the installation starts and once after the last reboot to OOBE phase. In both cases you skip the product key and your Windows will be automatically activated.

 

Clean install of W10 not possible in Virtual Machine.


@Kari

You can do clean install with windows 10 but it won't activate on Virtual Machine at least it didn't on mine. I followed the proper steps to do that.

Again I will repeat what I did step by step with some additions.

Step 1 Installed windows 7 retail on a virtual box, it activated without issue.
Step 2 changed the virtual box description to windows 10
Step 3 upgrade to windows 10 and it activated without issue
Step 4 backed up (So I could go back to it later)
Step 5 Removed windows 10.
Step 6 created a new virtual machine
Step 7 Installed clean windows 10 and it didn't activate and did that error code see below.


@night-hawk had a similar issue and got the same error code

Error code: 0xC004C003 with the specified product key being blocked

Night Hawk does it make a difference on what version of Virtual box that you are using?

My testing was done on Xubuntu using VirtualBox Graphical user interface version 4.3.26-Ubuntu r98988

 

Activation fails on recovery of failed Win10 machine in virtual environment -- 8.1pro key already in use

I have been having the recovery from **** -- my Windows 10 pro (clean reinstall after upgrade from 8.1pro) had a motherboard failure. I had been backing it up through Win 2012 client backup, so did a bare metal restore to a virtual machine on my server using
VMware. Reactivated it with 8.1 key, then discovered that the server array had disk problems, forcing replacement of 3 of 4 drives. Rebuilt the VM and reactivated it -- but VMWorkstation 12 randomly hangs so VM is unusable. Removed vmworkstation, installed
current virtualbox -- which was able to launch the vmware disks with no further work. Windows 10 came up but refuses to re-activate, get message that 8.1 pro key is already in use on another machine so will not activate. (effectively, changing hypervisors
appears to this stuff like changing a motherboard). So the machine is recovered, but without being able to activate it is useless. Have talked to support, we have redone the enter key/fail/rearm activation/rinse&repeat several times with the same result. So
I appear to be stuck -- a difficult recovery is now compromised by an inflexible activation system. Am stuck, dead in the water. Fortunately I have a win7 virtual machine that went through the same process with no problems so with some further work I can redo
most of what I had. Pity, Win10 seemed to be an improvement.

ANy suggestions of what now? Having wasted my 8.1pro license this way and not in the mood to rebuy win10 for the same machine?