Windows 10: Windows Deactivation After Recent Hardware Upgrade

So i bought a prebuilt PC about a year ago, and recently decided to upgrade it because the hardware was outdated for the games i play. I upgraded my motherboard, cpu, and ram. When i first booted i had a blue screen (which is irrelevant because it was a bad app) so i decided to fresh start my pc but keep my files. Once it finished, Windows booted up with my Microsoft account and files with no apps. But i noticed that in the bottom right corner of my pc has a watermark on it, even when i played games, that read:


"Activate Windows

Go to Settings to activate Windows"


So i followed the directions and went to the activate Windows screen. Once there, I clicked "troubleshoot" and it got me all the way until i clicked my pc name when it came up with a message that read:

Unable to activate Windows
We can’t reactivate Windows on this device. Try again later.


For reference I clicked "I changed hardware on this device recently."


For anyone that can help, my error code is "0xC004C003"


All I can see is my product ID meanwhile my product key is covered my X's with the last 5 digits revealed.




Yes, I have looked at the Microsoft Help Pages, and talked to tech support and nothing helped.


If ANYONE can help me with this problem, it would mean the world to me. Thanks in advance.


<-Some pictures below>




:)

 

Windows deactivated after hardware upgrade.

I recently upgraded my CPU and Motherboard, and now my copy of Windows 10 Pro is no longer activated. I already followed the steps on here, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change.

None of the steps seemed to work, as I'm still getting error code 0xC004C003 and the troubleshooter is failing. I do not have a product key code, as this PC had windows 8.1 pre-installed and then I did the free upgrade.

 

Recent File List

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file1

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file2
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file3
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file4
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file5
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file6
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file7
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file8
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file9
...

you get the idea. ( too lazy to put it in a for loop and test it.

or just open regedit and remove all the fileX from that key.

 

Need to repurchase Windows 10 after upgrading hardware?

I recently upgraded my motherboard because of hardware issues and Windows got deactivated. Support told me that I would have to downgrade to 8.1 and then reupgrade to Windows 10 to activate on the same key or pay 120$ for a new key. This has to be the
stupidest method I have seen to activate Windows. Any suggestions on how to move forward to activate Windows without reinstalling Windows or re-buying product key?