Clean Install Windows 10  

Great news Archquark.

I'm glad it could help. :)

July 29th, Windows 10 was released. I used the Media Tool to upgrade my Win 8.1 version to Windows 10. Within a few days, this product was activated.

August 22nd, I decided to do a clean install. Followed the steps from the tutorial and the installation was flawless. I was expecting the activation to occur shortly after that since I had a valid, activated copy from the July 29th upgrade.

As of today it still hasn't activated. I used the nifty tool in Win 10 called Contact Support and chatted with a tech for 45 frustrating minutes. Bottom line, they couldn't grasp the fact that I upgraded and activated at the end of July. They couldn't help me since I did a clean install. They recommend to go back and reinstall Win 8.1 and start over.

I've tried to get the attention of a MS Engineer on the MS Community page but no luck.

Will waiting more time get this activated or is there an issue? Is there a way I can force the activation? Or am I a victim of a bad installation?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Greg

Hello Greg, :)

Sorry to hear that you are still not activated yet. I have a couple of questions to check possible issues with.

When you clean installed Windows 10, was it the same language, version (32/64 bit), and edition as the previous activated free Windows 10? If not, then that would be why it's not activated.

When you did the clean install, did you click on "Skip" when asked to enter a product key? If not, then it would mess up the registered activation of the free Windows 10 on the PC.

Brink said:

Hello Greg, :)

Sorry to hear that you are still not activated yet. I have a couple of questions to check possible issues with.

When you clean installed Windows 10, was it the same language, version (32/64 bit), and edition as the previous activated free Windows 10? If not, then that would be why it's not activated.

When you did the clean install, did you click on "Skip" when asked to enter a product key? If not, then it would mess up the registered activation of the free Windows 10 on the PC.

Brink,
I upgraded from Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit (English) to Win 10 64 bit (English). I doubled checked the information on the machine.

And yes, I did skip the step to enter a product key. I have entered no product key during or after the installation.

Your thoughts?

I don't understand why it didn't activate either then.

If you haven't already, you might see if running the slmgr /ato command in an elevated command prompt may help. The command calls to activate Windows. Some folks have reported that it had worked for them, but not all. If it doesn't work for you, then you may need to start from scratch to install and activate your 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro, and upgrade to 10 again.

Brink said:

I don't understand why it didn't activate either then.

If you haven't already, you might see if running the slmgr /ato command in an elevated command prompt may help. The command calls to activate Windows. Some folks have reported that it had worked for them, but not all. If it doesn't work for you, then you may need to start from scratch to install and activate your 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro, and upgrade to 10 again.

This is the result from using the command. Looks like I may have to start over again....sigh....

It looks like you need to start over again.