Now that I have a new mobo and Ryzen processor, Windows 10 will not Activate....

[DeathtoGnomes]

and people wonder why m$ gets bashed so often...

 

[Ferrum Master]

My question was actually directed at ferrum, but the lockdown of those settings is consistent with unactivated Windows.

Well... dark option lingers for a while... better for eyes. It does not matter insider or not.

Now input account. Verify it also in settings. It should bind with your key and change to the activation type like I do.

Here is the same. Try to insert the key again btw... any even win 7 keys do work still btw... it may give an error, but reboot and it becomes active usually.

https://www.google.lv/amp/s/www.win...-windows-10-product-key-microsoft-account?amp

 

[NdMk2o1o]

I'm using a gifted MSDN Win 7 key I got years ago and still activates Win 10 without calling even though there are multiple machines with this same key still in operation

 

[qubit]

Well... dark option lingers for a while... better for eyes. It does not matter insider or not.

Now input account. Verify it also in settings. It should bind with your key and change to the activation type like I do.

Here is the same. Try to insert the key again btw... any even win 7 keys do work still btw... it may give an error, but reboot and it becomes active usually.

https://www.google.lv/amp/s/www.windowscentral.com/how-link-your-windows-10-product-key-microsoft-account?amp

From your link:

Starting with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, your product key is no longer only attached to your hardware — you can also link it to your Microsoft account. This new change allows you to re-activate Windows 10 without having to contact Microsoft when you make significant changes to the hardware on your PC, including replacing the motherboard, processor, or hard drive.

Cool, I didn't know that.

I agree that the dark option is nice. I typically like to have a dark grey if possible, rather than jet black.

 

[Solaris17]

meh...

Oem = tied to the board/system
Retail = not tied to a board(?)

That said, on both you can call MS (automated or a human) and see if they will activate it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they dont (assuming you are telling them the truth).

No, as someone that literally touches hundreds of formatted systems a year. it has to do with how windows 10 activates. The activation is bound to the board. When you format a system that has been bound by 10 it will activate automatically since the serial, mac, and other components have generated a unique ID that identifies that board.

If you sell this board to another person, they could install the same version of 10 and it would activate.

New boards not refurbished and not new to you but fresh off the plant new have never been "touched" these boards are not in the MS system. They must have a key entered and manually activated. Afterwards they are "marked" for lack of a better word, not physically modified or changed but there representation in a digital space has been saved by MS allowing automatic activation of subsequent OS reinstalls of the same OS type IE: 10 Pro.

Please let me know if I can make this any more clear.

Now LEGALLY. You are NOT supposed to do this via MS EULA. Which is why in these topics there is so much difference. It depends on if you are talking legally or technically.

Now ALSO technically, once a board has been "Marked" you can OS reinstall as many times as you want and the unit WILL activate.

HOWEVER, using the "KEY/SERIAL/COA" sticker again on multiple units will stop activating around 3.

Source: I currently work as the CIO and my the retail chain I manage PXE installs machines ALL the time. I literally touch hundreds of units during testing phases and the techs that I oversee touch even more.

 

[purecain]

I had to buy another copy after Microsoft said the upgrade copy wasn't transferable. complete lies.

 

[EarthDog]

No, as someone that literally touches hundreds of formatted systems a year. it has to do with how windows 10 activates. The activation is bound to the board. When you format a system that has been bound by 10 it will activate automatically since the serial, mac, and other components have generated a unique ID that identifies that board.

If you sell this board to another person, they could install the same version of 10 and it would activate.

New boards not refurbished and not new to you but fresh off the plant new have never been "touched" these boards are not in the MS system. They must have a key entered and manually activated. Afterwards they are "marked" for lack of a better word, not physically modified or changed but there representation in a digital space has been saved by MS allowing automatic activation of subsequent OS reinstalls of the same OS type IE: 10 Pro.

Please let me know if I can make this any more clear.

Now LEGALLY. You are NOT supposed to do this via MS EULA. Which is why in these topics there is so much difference. It depends on if you are talking legally or technically.

Now ALSO technically, once a board has been "Marked" you can OS reinstall as many times as you want and the unit WILL activate.

HOWEVER, using the "KEY/SERIAL/COA" sticker again on multiple units will stop activating around 3.

Source: I currently work as the CIO and my the retail chain I manage PXE installs machines ALL the time. I literally touch hundreds of units during testing phases and the techs that I oversee touch even more.

i feel like i said half of that.

So in a long winded way, you are saying borh versions not the board/mac/unique hardware identifier?

 

[cat1092]

A helpful hint to keep in mind when calling the activation center.......answer 'one' upon first question asked by the automated assistant, this time & when needed in the future.

9.9 out of 10 times, Microsoft will reactivate Windows w/out any human intervention, just be at the activation window & follow the instructions closely. You'll have about eight (maybe 10) blocks with numbers, when prompted, using your keypad on phone, enter each group, one at a time. When finished & all is good, then you'll be given a different set of numbers to type in the empty blocks, one at a time. If needed. you can ask to repeat a group. When finished, press the key to activate & normally activation is automatic. That's why I say 9.9 out of 10 times, there's always the slim chance it'll fail, yet never has on me, even with OEM licenses (although not tied to a computer brand).

You have zero to lose at this point & everything to gain, except for 10-15 minutes max on the phone with an automated agent, so I say go for it & see what happens.

In the event of such failure, then follow the advice of others who has posted, be polite as possible when speaking with a rep & chances are tilted in your favor for human activation.

Note that this can also happen even if not swapping the MB, example, a CPU, SSD/HDD, GPU & RAM swap within a specific timeframe often triggers activation & has with me more times than I can recall, the last event was late last year. That same original Windows 8 Pro promo license purchased for $15 back in 2012 has been on at least 5 different computers & has never failed activation as instructed above. Same with MS Office 2010 Pro Plus, although according to the EULA, we can have it on both a desktop PC at home & a notebook for work/school. Still, the activation center wants to hear 'one' when asked how many computers has been installed on. It doesn't deactivate the extra on the second computer.

Please let us know how things goes, hopefully what I provided above is all you need to be back in the saddle again.

Cat

 

[Solaris17]

i feel like i said half of that.

So in a long winded way, you are saying borh versions not the board/mac/unique hardware identifier?

it is the mac and a combination of other factors retrieved from the board that make the unique ID used by MS to activate the specific board.

 

[EarthDog]

Thank you for the clarity.

PS - I submit and fix more PXE (linux) installs in a week than i ever cared to shake a stick at..

Amazon. Web. Services.

 

[Solaris17]

Thank you for the clarity.

PS - I submit and fix more PXE (linux) installs in a week than i ever cared to shake a stick at..

Amazon. Web. Services.

We should compare scars someday would probably be fun.

I can safely say the MAC is a massive component, I had an older biostar board that was 10 activated. I used an eeprom flasher to scew the reading of the mac address and after an OSR the unit would not activate.

 

[cat1092]

I had to buy another copy after Microsoft said the upgrade copy wasn't transferable. complete lies.

Yes I know they are, that's how I learned whenever possible to activate Windows & MS Office the way described in my prior post above, this way, 9.9 out of 10 times, we don't have to listen to their BS, as long as the magical word 'one' is stated at the first question.

Somehow or the other, I believe they generate another activation & this is why another is read back. Actually, one's encouraged to copy, or take a snip of the window to try themselves in the future. There's also a way, am not sure how to (as I've never had to use it), where this long string of numbers can be pulled from the registry before reinstall If successful, the same activation key may be reused. I'm sure that the automated assistant didn't advise me to copy the screen for nothing, or was simply a pre-programmed idiot.

Upgrade copies of Windows are perfectly transferable, as long as it's been removed from the prior machine, and #2, the qualifying OS to be activated is on the drive prior to upgrade. I have two Windows 8 Pro w/Media Center promos, as well as two Windows 7 Pro Anytime Upgrade COA's (from Home Premium), and they've worked every time used. So Microsoft is stuffed full of BS, wanting to get you off the phone, only to lie to the next waiting, they simply want as many of their users on W10 as possible.

BTW, there's still a legal hidden way to still get Windows 10 for free, under the disguise of needing assistive technologies (no proof required) & it even says in the Q&A's that one's not required to use these technologies (3rd Q&A on list).

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

It's just that their original plan, hoping that most everyone would ditch Windows 7 & 8.1 failed badly, so they left this wide open backdoor for those who wants in & how I obtained over half of my upgrades, as well as lots more for others. Of course, half of my computers that were upgraded to W10 in this manner were downgraded right back to W7, using the backup image taken just before upgrade. No way would I consider a upgrade w/out backup, plus I perform these weekly anyway. Anyway, should W7 & 8.1 hits EOL, I have proof of upgrade, these machines were on W10 for a week, and two backups were taken & saved for each. So there's no way to deny my revert to W10 once EOL hits home with me. W8 onwards are activated as soon as connected to the Internet.

Cat

 

[Ferrum Master]

We should compare scars someday would probably be fun.

I can safely say the MAC is a massive component, I had an older biostar board that was 10 activated. I used an eeprom flasher to scew the reading of the mac address and after an OSR the unit would not activate.

There a a lot of strings actually, I've have broken activation even while changing intel SATA drivers and bios version upgrades.

Like I said, if you do it right... there just a bunch of paranoid people, and seldom who actually activates microsoft account and features, thus not a surprise even @qubit missed it. I have nothing to hide, so I don't care, I am also on the beta builds since Longhorn NT5 times also, it gives me experience to play around with new features slowly and test things around for my daily job also.

MAC isn't a good thing... you disable LAN... and void the activation, it doesn't work like that it forgives... the process is so fragile... I even suspect there is a deviation of two or three changing factors to screw activation status.

There are a load of boards that went through the "free" upgrade, yes they have valid ID cert on M$ servers, yea that's the casual daily routine. Laptops have OEM cert signing and activation part is done via their servers not M$(certificate generation), know the stuff because of Samsung Windows based tablets like W705 etc changing motherboard is a pain in the arse due to the legit part. Then it only sends the cooked cert to M$ and their servers treat it as a allies. Microsoft still allows us to cheat using old keys for many times and using the pretend to be disabled exploit. They are completely aware of that yet they remain silent.

Also play around with SLUI.exe options in cmd to force activation. It is hard to blame M$ for that, hardware/bios variety is so huge and making it work flawlessly is impossible... we have to thank that it actually works at such relatively low failure rate at all actually. And actually we should thank M$ sometimes too...

It would be great if someone tries and binds a key to his account and share us the experience. I just did it so long ago, that I have forgotten the bits.

 

[OneMoar]

the activation sub system takes various read-able serial numbers such as the MAC proc motherboard ram and hashes them and uses that to create a 'machine id' which is then used to activate windows

usually you can just call and say 'yo my motherboard died I replaced it' I need to reactivate
the support reps can override any preexisting machine id tie

but in my experience if you do that your key is burnt and you won't be-able to use it again and support will tell you to fawk off next time you call

Microsoft does not care so long as your have proof of purchases

 

[Vario]

I've used my oem keys many times on several different boards, you call windows and tell them that its the same physical computer (box) but your old motherboard was replaced and they will activate it.

This might be a possibility to try, I have not used it myself because I prefer Win 7:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Win 10 pro keys are $8...
I've bought 3 keys all legit off of Bonanza..
Just find a legit site and pay $8 and move on.

 

[OneMoar]

Win 10 pro keys are $8...
I've bought 3 keys all legit off of Bonanza..
Just find a legit site and pay $8 and move on.

got news for you none of those keys are 'legit' they may work but they are not legit

 

[Deleted member 67555]

got news for you none of those keys are 'legit' they may work but they are not legit

Meh...Activation is legit enough.

 

[RejZoR]

They've reactivated it for me because my motherboard died and I was forced to replace it. It's just annoying, but MS tech support was really friendly. I've used chat option instead of phone.

 

[erixx]

After Creators update the terms changed and last month I could not activate after mobo and cpu switch without reinstalling Win10, so I talked endlessly on the phone, he suggested as only solution: reinstall your legit Win 8 and start the upgrade proces. (I had another license at home, so I used that one.)

So it's is (was) "Free" but with conditions...

 

[jboydgolfer]

I still get emails from the insider program so I'm assuming that people are still able to get free windows from that still , aren't they?

I know the key that's linked to my insider account still activates just fine. That was the whole reason I signed up for it ,to have a free copy of windows