Fully Activated as Insider until reformat

Lockeskidney said:

Would deleting the duplicate PC (the Asus) solve my activation issue

I had to reformat and the new one (on top) has yet to activate even though it was activated before

Maybe a too obvious question. Are the two ASUS's above one and the same machine? It would have been renamed to something like the top name by default in a clean install. Maybe you just need to remove the obsolete one named "Gaming"?

Word Man said:

Maybe a too obvious question. Are the two ASUS's above one and the same machine? It would have been renamed to something like the top name by default in a clean install. Maybe you just need to remove the obsolete one named "Gaming"?

Yes, they're one and the same, Word Man; however, I've gone into my "devices" and have found way, way more listed than I actually have, so I don't think that's a real solution, since I've done numerous clean installs.

Wynona said:

Yes, they're one and the same, Word Man; however, I've gone into my "devices" and have found way, way more listed than I actually have, so I don't think that's a real solution, since I've done numerous clean installs.

OK. Just thought it may have been tracking number of outstanding devices activated and limiting OP to two activations.

There are possibly two ways to go at this now, Lockes. First I might go with what Word Man has suggested . . . remove the Gaming machine.

Secondly, since Gaming was originally activated, it could be that it should be the one left standing and the other one removed.

What do you think, Word Man?

Edit: A third solution might be to remove both of them and do a clean install of RTM/GA Build 10240. The reason this might be an option is that Microsoft already has activation information from your previous Insider Program installations and may then activate.

Wynona said:

There are possibly two ways to go at this now, Lockes. First I might go with what Word Man has suggested . . . remove the Gaming machine.

Secondly, since Gaming was originally activated, it could be that it should be the one left standing and the other one removed.

What do you think, Word Man?

Edit: A third solution might be to remove both of them and do a clean install of RTM/GA Build 10240. The reason this might be an option is that Microsoft already has activation information from your previous Insider Program installations and may then activate.

My simplified view was just that MS thinks there are 3 machines when there are only 2. Along that same line of thinking, OP may be better off with dropping the one that no longer exists with that name. i.e., "Gaming" (if I interpret OP correctly) and getting the one that currently has the listed name (DESKTOP-M393TLU) activated. OP could change name to whatever after activated.

Seems third option would serve the same purpose and, in case of any confusion on the activation (some tracking mechanism aside from machine hash on activation server?), could turn out cleaner for getting the "third" named computer activated.

Word Man said:

Seems third option would serve the same purpose and, in case of any confusion on the activation (some tracking mechanism aside from machine hash on activation server?), could turn out cleaner for getting the "third" named computer activated.

Yeah, that was kind of my thinking too.

So, Lockes, why don't you go with Option 3 and let us know how it turns out.

I don't know if either method will work. I had a similar issue with 10 rtm, saying I had to many devices activated.

Before trying the hardway below which may not work.

Make sure you have verified you Microsoft Account.

Verify Microsoft account windows 10 in settings under user accounts. Nothing listed under your user name, then you are verified.

If you aren't verified verify your account. After that done, wait for about 15 to 30 minutes see if you get activated.


Now the hard way

This may not work but here is what I did. (I left a couple of things out that doesn't apply to the problem)

Don't leave the insider program.

Delete all the devices in https://account.microsoft.com/devices

Don't follow instructions the website gives you after you delete the devices

Reboot system


Open one-drive via taskbar, sign into with your Microsoft account it should ask you for that

Verify Microsoft account if needed

Wait about 15 to 30 minutes

Check to see if your activated

If not
Reboot again a check if the insider build has a fix button.
Click on the fix button if any and wait. Reboot when it done
Now see if it is activated.

Good luck

groze said:

I don't if either method will work. I had a similar issue with 10 rtm, saying I had to many devices activated.

Do you still have that notification, Groze. Because I have seven devices activated (3 dual boot systems and 1 single boot system) and have never been notified of this. Also, when I go to https://account.microsoft.com/devices, there are many more devices than I actually own listed, which means, basically, that there are about 12 devices activated, when I only have seven.

groze said:

Before trying the hardway below which may not work.

Make sure you have verified you Microsoft Account.

Verify Microsoft account windows 10 in settings under user accounts. Nothing listed under your user name, then you are verified.

If you aren't verified verify your account. After that done, wait for about 15 to 30 minutes see if you get activated.

I just reverified myself; however, I've never been denied activation because of this! In fact, I've verified myself several times, but this time, Microsoft didn't even tell me I needed to verify.

But, here's the kicker! Lockes' account should already be verified because he can get into https://account.microsoft.com/devices and check things out.

groze said:

Now the hard way

This may not work but here is what I did. (I left a couple of things out that doesn't apply to the problem)

Don't leave the insider program.

Delete all the devices in https://account.microsoft.com/devices

Don't follow instructions the website gives you after you delete the devices

Reboot system

That's what Word Man and I have already suggested to Lockes, so at this point, your instructions will only muddy the waters for him. The only difference is that since his laptop is activated, there's absolutely no need to remove it.

Also, even if a device is removed, there's no guarantee that the remaining unactivated device will activate.

groze said:

Open one-drive via taskbar, sign into with your Microsoft account it should ask you for that

Verify Microsoft account if needed

Wait about 15 to 30 minutes

Check to see if your activated

OneDrive has nothing to do with activation or non-activation of Windows. Not only that, if Lockes should have Office 365 on his computer, there could be issues with doing this. Once set up, OneDrive does not require signing in.

groze said:

If not
Reboot again a check if the insider build has a fix button.
Click on the fix button if any and wait. Reboot when it done
Now see if it is activated.

Good luck

I believe you're referring to "Repair" rather than "fix". Generally, to get to Repair, you must first start an installation and when "Repair" is shown, you then click on that. At this point, it's much easier for Lockes to go with what Word Man and I have suggested rather than to run all over the place doing things that may have no bearing on the issue.

Charlie said:

Lockes
Ok I see. Yep when I upgraded my insider rtm 10240 it was claiming it to be full activated. Then the 10520 come with an expire date. I am about to roll back and see what happens. But I want to try this new build today first. If you have an insider rtm that says active maybe you should hold on to it

It will go back to being fully activated when you roll back.