Windows 10: My windows 10 has an activation expiration date, what to do?

It is strange as to September 13 when Windows 10 was official on July 29, did you do your upgrade on Aug. 13 ?
Guess you can wait till then to try the command slgmr and see. If you try either one posted from here and does not work, try calling Microsoft. Yes, can always go back to Windows 7, don't change anything yet.

 

If he doesn't have a spare, but has a big enough hard drive installed, he can use a partitioning tool to shrink the existing windows partition and make 50gb or so of empty space. Install Windows 7 on the empty space, upgrade that. Make sure everything activates permanently. Then wipe it out and expand his original partition and it should activate permanently.

 

It sounds as though you mistakenly clean installed Windows 10. It's probably going to be a common mistake.

The Insider's program opened up again recently and the expiry for the Preview 10.0.240 has been updated - or as another member stated, the 30 day trial. This might not have shown up until the Retail 240 and Preview 240 no longer matched (Preview 525 is available now on the fast ring)

The best advice I can offer is

• Boot to the Windows 7 install
  create a system image of your Windows 7 install
  Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup - Windows 7 Help Forums
  
  if there is not a separate Windows 7 install (you mentioned deleting your Windows 7 files - which could be windows.old), then create a system image of what is installed (Win10?)
  System Image - Create in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
  
  
• Go back to the previous version
  Windows 10 - Go Back to Previous Windows - Windows 10 Forums
  
  
• Do a proper upgrade. You already have the install media, so basically you just run setup on the install media from inside a running Windows 7
  Windows 10 - Upgrade Installation - Windows 10 Forums

I could have asked a bunch of questions, but this thread is closed, so I just offered a quick and dirty based on what I read on the thread.

The Thread Starter's install is most likely a standard 30 day trial.

 

Did not realize this, seemed as though talking like Windows 7 was still there from an upgrade.

 

If you updated, you should have a perm activation. But you should have Windows 7 backed up, you can restore. do that for now, you can always try the update again later.

I've seen this happen on computers bought in stores, they are activated, then suddenly, they are in 30-day grace period, then they de activate. I would simply call MS and get a new activation, all they need is the product key from the official certificate on the side of the PC.

I've even seen it happen to my PCs, from one reboot to the next, I would lose my activation. There should be a number to call where you can get re-activated.

 

Yah, that's what his post clearly implies.

 

True, i wonder if i will have any issues as when i did my upgrade it was on July 29. After upgrade many like me had no activation yet, due to server overloads at MS. What happened to me and reasons i say this is, after the upgrade i had an issue with an installed driver and PC was stuck after a restart. As i tried a repair disc from disc i made before the Windows 10 upgrade and there was no restore points to go back on. Figured had only 2 choices, do a reset, refresh or try a clean install. Figured reset or refresh might not get rid of the driver as was for a IDE ATA/ATAPI controller.

Did a clean install of Windows 10 and it worked fine, booted and restarted fine. Only issue still was no activation and it told me my key was blocked. When i tried the slgmr command and still is activated since then. This has been since July 29, today is August 20, have 9 days to know if this holds any truth to a 30 day.

 

I didn't clean install my system, it was an upgrade. I upgraded on the 29th, and yeah, I guess I could always wait until that date to see what happens. I've been researching stuff for a while, and it appears that my product key is a generic one. I wonder if I should've waited, I probably would have received an activation code or something via email from Microsoft, or it would've probably been activated already and I would've been ok. My C drive doesn't have enough gigs to shrink the space, so that's out of the question, and I do not have a spare hdd lying around. So.. If I roll back, will I still get that Windows 10 taskbar icon?

 

Not sure what you meant by it appears be a generic key. Did not think you did a clean install either as i said recently. Seemed you activated like many others on 29th or day after, reasons why it is showing this i am not sure. Yes if roll back good possibility from certain windows update that you would get this icon again, just would not reserve it and ways to remove it. I personally would either wait and if it fails then try slgmr command or call MS now or then if it fails to stay activated.

 

That sounds like a plan, jds *Smile

 

Fresh out of ideas,MJD

This might interest you on rolling back to Windows 7 Rolling Back From Windows 10 To Your Older OS Appears Problematic

 

Everybody who upgraded from Windows 7/8/8.1 got the same product key for Windows 10. Windows 10 activates based upon hardware configure stored on Microsoft activation servers, not a product key - unless you purchase a retail version, then you get a unique product key.

 

Does anyone have a clear ideal of what hardware this is? What is able to be changed without causing issues for a new clean install? Is it the cpu or motherboard or is it something stupid like the hard drive?

 

Lots of people have already upgraded hard drives with no issues. CPU or Motherboard will cause Windows 10 to deactivate. Memory upgrades are OK as well as video card upgrades. Some people have claimed that LAN MAC addresses are part of the equation so new LAN or WiFi cards might be a problem.

 

Rolled back to Win 7, and it shows as genuine:





So I don't get it. The icon for getting Win 10 is still there, but it doesn't tell me that my upgrade is ready or anything, just the first screen about reserving an upgrade. I think that I might just stick with Windows 7 for awhile longer on my machine.