Was running win 8 and updated to 8.1 through windows store. On 2 other computers I joined insiders and Win 10240 is running fine. Sooo I decided to load on this computer. insiders was closed so I found a clean download and installed. Problem is a activation is required. I have searched for product key and tried several with no luck. Should I go back to 8?
Did you click the Activate button? That did the trick for me. You'll find it in Settings > Update & Security > Activation. The button is only visible if Windows is not activated but you should find it there. Do not click Change Product Key or any other buttons, just click the Activate button.
Notice that this does not work on clean installs, it only works if you upgraded to Build 10240 from an activated Windows 8.1 or from an activated earlier build of Windows 10 Insider Preview.
Are you talking about where the install asks for the key? If you're logging on with a microsoft account, just click on skip this and finish the install; when you log on with your MS account, it'll automatically activate the installation. It just did that for me on a clean install on my PC.
After 2 or three days unactivated, after this boot-up, I am now apparently activated.
It is odd that at first I was unable to personalise things until yesterday - still unactivated - when it became possible to do so.
I first Installed 10166 on 16th - and it remained inactivated, received the upgrade to 10240 on the 17th, and the u/g was also inactivated, and without any tiles on start.
I decided to reset my PC, keeping my files, and went to bed. Today, It continued with Hi and then the screens just a few tweaks etc., and on finally reaching the desktop, I have tiles and all the rest.
I went through the same scenario as OP and had similar non activation issues. I had to use a different product key as found here: Activate Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums It activated immediately afterwards.
Last edited by voirin; 19 Jul 2015 at 18:44.
I had loaded one of the .iso installs on my laptop a few months ago and everything was activated through 10240. When I tested a clean install after wiping that drive, it would not activate.
I noticed that one system did not have a "FlightOwnerGUID" number listed in the registry key listed below. So I assume not registering that system correctly denied it some critical information... Since Microsoft is getting ready for the public release, such things might be more relevant. The situation might change after the 29th.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\Applicability
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