Since now you are back to your earlier Windows version, you can run the utility from Windows Setup to get the activation token, as described here. Then you can just format your disk and clean-install Windows 10 and use the token to activate automatically. Just make sure the present Windows version is activated and is 7 with SP1 or 8.1
As said before when you upgraded you needed to be activated before you can do a clean install, i also gave you a link in a past post about doing a clean install without upgrade first. Now if there is some kind of issue with your original windows 7 being genuine then would be an issue either way, upgrade then clean install or clean install i linked without an upgrade. What is strange to me something i am not sure of maybe you said it was, after the upgrade were you sure Windows 10 was activated ever ?
Not sure can get by using method from link posted to do a clean install of Windows 10 without the upgrade if there is an issue now.
Need to have a Genuine copy of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 on PC first.
As i said do not use a Windows 7,8, 8.1 key to activate Windows 10, no key is needed you skip this in the clean install if ever done to.People who upgraded never used a key to activate Windows 10. Have you had Windows 10 for 30 days before this issue ?
Windows 10 had been installed less than 24 hrs. I am not yet back to Win7 as I have not had time to try anything further since my call to MS last night. If I can't restore an image file I will reformat and reinstall 7 and then call MS back as they suggested. No question that my Windows 7 is genuine as MS confirmed that (for the record it was purchased at Best Buy). The problem seems to be in the log file that Windows 10 uses to verify validity. That's why MS wanted me to revert to 7 and call them back.
Do you have a spare disk? If you do, install Windows 7 there, activate and produce the activation token as described in the link I gave you. Then connect your disk back and use token to activate Windows 10.
I'm confused.
If you ever had the Win10 upgrade activated on the machine, you should be able to do a clean Win10 installation on the same hardware and have it automatically activate online. No key is needed. (No key is available. Also, Win 10 can't activate using the key from the older OS.)
If your clean Win 10 installation wouldn't activate, that suggests that your upgrade install wasn't activated.
Some of this is supposed to change with the next major update to Win 10, sometimes called "Threshold 2", perhaps in November.
Yes it should activate, provided he has chosen the correct version when skipping the key. If he should install Home and he chose Pro by mistake (or vice versa) then it would not activate.
Confusion gets even worse when questions are asked and not answered as i have asked certain questions to understand it better myself. MS Support told me once when i had issues with clean reinstall of Windows 8.1 that my key was not genuine even though it was, same as what they are telling thread starter for part of the reasons. Moral to my story, sometimes support not helpful at all and after my second attempt it was fine as i knew it would of been.
I know! I have tried many times to get support from big companies like Microsoft, Adobe, HP etc. Most times they take ages to reply (IF they reply) and then they will tell you things you already know! They suggest things you have already tried, like they are reading some general troubleshooting instructions from a list and they do not fully understand what you have asked for! It's good that here in tenforums (and sevenforums and eightforums) reply is almost instant with a true will to help you! They always have something useful to say to help you with your problem and they truly care! Thank you everyone!
Issue now resolved but with much difficulty, but thank you all for your input and suggestions. I finished up by wiping and reformatting the drive and because my Win 7 was an upgrade I had to start by installing Vista and then "upgrade" to 7 but for some reason 7 would not update but it would, and did activate. However, updates would not install. In desperation I used the usb iso I had made earlier to upgrade to 10 and was able to accomplish this and also activate Windows 10. I am not now intending doing a clean install cos of the old saying of if it ain't broke etc., and the fact that I have spent hours getting to this point. I also copied the partition with Acronis prior to installing any of my programs. All the device drivers downloaded and seem to work as they should.
The basic problem was caused by Microsoft not recognizing the validity of the product key in 7.
Product keys can normally activate 2-3 times on the same hardware. If you change hardware or exceed this number, then you have to do it by phone.
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