Windows 10 has been installed on more than 110 million devices. It can be said that the free upgrade strategy has helped a lot. But at the same time, there are a few unlucky users who have encountered problems that cannot be activated normally. How to solve it?
Windows 10 activation working mechanism
First understand that genuine Windows 7 or 8.1 will be after Windows 10 Automatic activation. This is because, in the original system, Microsoft called “Digital Licensing”, which ensures the smooth running of Windows 10 by activating the re-registration on the server. So what you have to do is keep the network open.
Of course, piracy can also upgrade the system first, and then purchase upgrades in the Windows store. If you are asked to enter a product key when installing the system, click Skip.
With a boxed disc or a digital download, you will need to enter the product key. The product key in these packages needs to be kept safe, because Microsoft will ask you to re-enter it when reinstalling the system, even if you have activated the system before.
If you are a member of the Windows 10 Insider project, the product keys that were previously used to activate the Technology Preview are now unusable and they cannot even be used to activate older system versions. If you are joining the Insider preview project now, you will need to upgrade and activate the official version of Windows 10, then choose to get the Insider preview version from the Upgrade Settings menu.
Pure installation problems (tutorial)
If you choose to clean the installation during the upgrade, you may run into activation problems. So when performing a clean installation, you need a little trick: you can perform a restore factory-installation before installing Windows 10—— instead of directly formatting the computer —— then there will be no problems with activation. You can also upgrade to Windows 10 by standard steps and then use the Windows 10 installation tool to perform a clean installation after the system is successfully activated.
If you are upgrading from an ISO or multimedia installation media, you can choose to "Upgrade this PC" instead of "Install Now", which ensures that the installed version of Windows 10 matches the computer currently running. system version.
Starting with Windows Insider Build 10565, Windows 10 can be activated directly using the keys for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. To do this, select Settings > Upgrade & Security > Activate, then click Change Product Key.
Processing activation issues
After upgrading to Windows 10, you should first go to Check Settings > Upgrade & Security > Activate to see if the system is successfully activated. If you can't click the activation button, you can wait a few days and most systems will be activated automatically in the background.
If you still can't activate, you can try a different network connection. It should be noted that if you are a VPN user, Windows cannot be activated.
If the system displays 0XC004E003, 0x8007000D, 0x8007232b or 0x8007007B, this error code indicates that Microsoft's activation server load is too high and the installer cannot verify your installation ID through them.
automated telephone activation
if you do not want to wait, you can try to automatically activate the phone the way. The specific method is to click the Windows key + R, enter "SLUI.EXE 4", select your country, and then you will see a free number and installation ID. You need to dial this number, enter your installation ID, and click the “Next” button. Subsequently, Microsoft's automated system will read an installation key to you, you need to enter it into the SLUI dialog.
If you want to reset the product key and force an upgrade, you can enter the "SLMGR.VBS –REARM" command in the "Run" window, click OK and restart your computer, then enter the product key as usual . You will then need to enter “SLMGR.VBS –ATO” for forced activation.
If you are unable to enter the product key, you can use the “SLMGR.VBS -IPK XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX” command (replace X with the product key) and restart.
If you see error code 0xC004F061, this means that you don't have a previous version of Windows to upgrade, you can install Windows 7 or 8 first, or use the corresponding product key to solve this problem.
Error code 0xC004C008 indicates that the product key you entered is already in use by another computer. If you are using a key that can activate multiple systems, this indicates that it has exceeded the activation limit.