Windows 10: Windows 10 Activated Automatically

Yesterday I brought home an old refurb computer and installed Windows 10 Home on it It's on Optiplex 960 using a USB that I created using the Media Creation Tool on my current PC.

Upon the prompt to enter a product key, I clicked 'I don't have a product key' as I didn't have a second product key, and I thought that if Unactivated Windows wouldn't work well, I could just install a Linux distro instead.

Anyways, Windows finished installing, and during the prompt to create an account, I signed in with my secondary email. My primary email is the one I use on my current PC, and it's the one my digital licence is tied to Windows is activated with a digital licence linked to your Microsoft account. My secondary email was connected to my current PC, although it was not the one I used to activate Windows and I only added it recently.

After setting up the account on my Optiplex, I switched to a local account, and as expected, Windows told me I had to activate in settings. I triggered Windows Update and restarted once it prompted me to, and to my surprise, Windows now reported that it was activated after the reboot.

I ran Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService'.OA3xOriginalProductKey in an elevated Powershell window, but it did not report a product key, despite the command working on my current PC.


So now I am wondering if my current PC will be deactivated I only ever had one Windows 10 licence, tied to my primary email, if it's a fluke and I shouldn't have had Windows activated on my Optiplex, or if this is totally normal behaviour.

TL;DR: Windows 10 licence is linked to email #1, and is installed on Computer #1. Email #2 is also linked to computer #1. I used Email #2 to set up Windows on computer #2. It said I needed to activate, I changed into a local account, ran Windows Update, and then restarted. Computer #2 now says it is activated, with a digital licence.

:)

 

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.

 

Windows 10 activation question

do the upgrade
it should activate automatically when online
if you want todo a clean install after that simply boot from your windows 10 installation media and when prompted for a key during install/post install select skip ..
it will re-activate within 5M of being online

 

Windows 10 activation question

Mine finally did although it was about 6 or so hours after as it was saying failed to activate.