Windows 10: Says my windows licence will expire.....I don't understand why?!!

Hi,
so i upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7 home, over a year ago. (full retail windows 7, NOT OEM installed)
a few months ago i upgraded my system, new motherboard, so decided to do a clean install of windows 10 - made the bootable USB tool via Microsoft site for windows 10 home, formatted my drive through the setup process and did a clean install.

now all of a sudden its saying the below. What the hell!
Am i going to have to reformat, install windows 7 again, then upgrade through that?
There's got to be another way, surely.

if i click on activate, it does nothing. If i click on change product key and type in my windows 7 key, it says its the wrong key for windows 10 home.





:)

 

my windows 10 is saying my licence expires on the 26th november

A few weeks after getting the free upgrade to windows 10, I got a messeage that says

Your windows licence will expire soon .,you need to activate windows in settings.

On going to settings it says it is activated, but there is another message saying, your windows licence expires on 22nd November 2015.

I do not understand this as It is a new computer running windows 8.1 , then I updated to windows 10 free.

Any ideas, I am not totally computer savvy so plain English please.

Thanks for any answers

Bob

 

Windows 10 pro licence expiry

Hello,

I got a message this morning that my Windows 10 pro licence will expire on 25-May-2016. This is from a commercially bought dell laptop that had windows 7 pro pre-installed and I have a windows 7 pro licence key (holographic sticker with the key at the back
of the laptop).

tried updating (no new updates were found), tried logging in with my MS account as well as the local admin account but under "settings" --> "activation" it says that Windows is Activated, but then right under that I get a red text saying that the licence
will expire on May 25th.

Any ideas on what could be wrong? Do I have to revert to windows 7 pro? I don't really want to do a fresh install...

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi hiohaa and welcome to Tenforums.

Upgrading a MB constitutes a new system, so unless your W7 key is a Full Retail Key, you need a new key.

Pre-installed OEM licenses do not have transfer rights and are linked to the original system.
OEM System Builder keys are the same as above, with regards transfer rights.
Full Retail Keys have transfer rights and will activate when you change the MB, as new system.

 

It is a full retail key. NOT a pre installed windows 7. I have changed mobo many times during my windows 7 years.

 

That's good. Maybe you need to run slui.exe 4 and activate by phone then? That's a generic key you have on the system right now.

 

Just a comment: the only times I've seen a date or time mentioned with Windows to activate was after a clean install, 30 days, a reinstall, 3 days, or with the Insider Preview that does give an expiration date. Is it possible the Insider Preview got installed by accident? Hold down the Windows key and press R, type winver to see what is installed.

 

I think you might be on to something

Over a year ago Win10 was still Tech Preview

A few months ago (3?) might equate to a 90 day evaluation install

This is an interesting thread. I don't have a solution, other than a phone activation as simrick suggested.

Double check your ISO / install media to make sure it matches your installed system (Home).

Command Prompt (Admin)

DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.wim /index:1
DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.wim /index:2

-- OR --

DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.esd /index:1
DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.esd /index:2
F: is only an example - change the drive letter to match your install media or mounted ISO

 

Running slmgr /dlv in a command prompt (admin) and posting the results here will help us figure out what is going on. You should get something like this:

 

Windows 10 Upgrades are only licensed to the machine it was installed on. Even though your Windows 7 was a retail, the Windows 10 has a digital entitlement that is limited only to that PC (ie motherboard).

In order to make this work, you'll need to either re-install Windows 7 and then upgrade on top of it (before July 29th, when the free upgrade offer ends) or you will need to get ahold of a recent (version 1511, not the original 10240) and do a clean install and enter your Windows 7 key (which I've never tried, but i'm told it's supposed to work).

 

There was a recent article referencing a change. First it is now Digital License not Digital Entitlement - ok it's just words - the lawyers got involved *Wink

But in that same article was changing out the motherboard did not invalidate your license. There wasn't much detail, so there isn't any valuable discussion on whether it was a replacement motherboard for one that failed or just a new motherboard.

The end result is that the user will have to phone in to activate.

Sorry, no citation, but it is on Tenforums somewhere. It might be related to the new Activation troubleshooter that ties your license to your MS account in 1607 or will it be 1608? Not sure if there were two articles or one discussed both things.
Just though I'd mention it.

 

It's still called a digital entitlement though. Regardless, that feature only works in the most recent insider builds (and of course the anniversary update when that comes). He has mentioned he was on 10586.420

 

i've tried finding the number to call microsoft for activiation.......i'll have to try harder to find the webpage with the info!
as for this suggestion above, sorry i don't follow *Sad
so i should put in the USB stick i used to do the install and then run the above for it? (With the drive letter corresponding)

 

If you have Windows 10 installed, just go to the start menu and scroll down to Contact Microsoft.