Windows 10: Windows not activating after clean re-install on laptop

Hi.


I bought this laptop 8 years ago with a legal Windows 7 key. When Windows 10 came around I accepted the upgrade and everything has been just fine. In all these 8 years I never formatted and reinstalled windows, but seeing this laptop deserves better for lasting so long, I did a format and reinstalled just now.


Due to this being a laptop with already a windows installed, there is no such thing as a product key. Before the format I looked into that and it told me to link my microsoft account to my digital license, which I did. I went to buy a USB drive to use for the install and downloaded the latest ISO of windows 10. I finished the format and reinstalled windows 10, but now it says my Windows 10 has not been activated.

"Windows reported that no product key was found on your device. Error code: 0xC004F213"


The same place that told me to link my account to my digital license told me step 3:

Once you confirm that you’re an administrator and using your Microsoft account, go back to the Activation page, select Add an account, enter your Microsoft account and password, then select Sign in.

But in the activation page, there is no "add an account" button to then sign in with.


When I went to look into my microsoft account just now, I see my laptop showing up twice under "devices". The same laptop, but one is the one before format, and the other one is this current reinstall.


I've tried the whole online help, hell I even waited for a long time on skype to get a hold of a real person, but for some reason that phone call was ended without ever getting to speak to someone.

Please advice.


Kind regards,

Jeroen

:)

 

Clean Install Workaround for Vista

You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:

• Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
• When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
• Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
• When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
• This time enter your product key
• When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
• Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it

Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

Source: DailyTech

 

Cleaning off a Mac Laptop

cleaning it?

Step 1: buy about a half gallon of gasoline.

Step 2: douse laptop in gasoline.

Step 3: toss a burning match onto laptop.

Step 4: watch the fire clense your laptop.

 

No More Clean-Installs for Vista Upgrades

When users were upgrading to Windows XP, the procedure was that users could simply insert their old Windows 98 or Windows 2000 CD at the appropriate time during a clean install without the need for the old OS to be installed at the time. However, Microsoft has decided to change this for Vista, and now requires a fully installed and activated version of your old OS already on the machine. This comes as an attempt to prevent illegal use of upgrade CDs, but could be inconvenient and time consuming when the time comes to reinstall. The new procedure for a reinstall is as follows:

• Install your old copy of Windows XP
• Activate it either online or over the phone
• Install Vista

Source: DailyTech