sudden demand for activation  

Greetings
I upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate (bought in Microsoft store) to Windows 10 Pro two years ago, on July 18 2016. This was almost the last moment for free upgrade.
Everything was OK until last updates: KB4465663 & KB4467702 defined as security updates. Updates came yesterday afternoon.
Today I find on the bottom-right desktop "Activate Windows".
I re-entered my product key (as I did when I installed windows 7 ultimate and when I upgraded to windows 10 pro) and it was activated for more than two years (according to control panel --> system or settings --> update & security --> activation.
in settings --> update & security --> activation I find the bizarre line: unable to reach windows activation servers
What happened?
What can I do?
(I didn't make any hardware changes except replacing my dvd writer with the same LG model)
winver version 1803 build 17134.345
Please help
thanks

zivshosh said:

...Today I find on the bottom-right desktop "Activate Windows".... I find the bizarre line: unable to reach windows activation servers
What happened?

Looks like the activation servers may be unreachable (again). There was a problem similar to this last week....

MSFT acknowledges some Win10 Pro licenses being mistakenly deactivated - Windows 10 Forums

....What can I do?

Wait patiently for the activation servers to come back? That's what I had to do last time. Last week some of those affected mistakenly went and bought a new Pro licence to try and fix this (without success). Apparently MS are having to refund them all.

Your Pro will still work while deactivated. At intervals, try running the command slmgr /dlv from an elevated command prompt, if this is a problem on the activation servers (again) then you should find yourself reactivated shortly.

thank you so much Bree
you really restored my tranquility
but can I take updates? is it wise to take updates now?
did you mean slmgr /dlv or slmgr /ato?
thanks again

after slmgr /dlv I got the following window: (attached)
is that OK?

No, it's not OK. "Licence Status: Notification" means you are not activated yet. That was the same message I was seeing on a Pro machine last week.

Your partial product key is for the generic Pro key (that's normal, so is mine). If the activation servers are working properly then slmgr /ato should activate you. Last week when the activation servers were 'broken' it said for me 'Error 0xC004C003 The activation server determined the specified product key is blocked'.

The activation Troubleshooter would also (incorrectly) say that a Pro licence couldn't be found for this machine, but that it did have a Home licence.

MSFT acknowledges some Win10 Pro licenses being mistakenly deactivated - Page 3 - Windows 10 Forums

Having said all that, my Pro machine is currently activated and slmgr /ato works. The activation servers may not be broken at the moment, but the same symptoms would be seen if for some reason you cannot contact them. Check any third-party AV or firewall you may have in case it is inadvertently blocking access.

The command you want to run to activate Windows is:
slmgr /ato

ato attempts to activate Windows and will tell you why it failed.
dlv only tells you the current state and the method being tried for activation.

I still don't know if it is wise to receive windows updates untill the activation servers problem is resolved
thank you

zivshosh said:

I still don't know if it is wise to receive windows updates untill the activation servers problem is resolved
thank you

Nobody is talking about receiving updates. We are talking about activating Windows. And it's working fine here in Oregon:



In the past many people have had issues with activating Windows via the Activation screen in Settings, and slmgr /ato has worked. If it fails, it will at least tell you why it failed. slmgr /dlv will not tell you why it failed.

zivshosh said:

I still don't know if it is wise to receive windows updates until the activation servers problem is resolved

It should make no difference. An un-activated install will still get updates automatically through windows update, even if it is genuinely not entitled to be activated.

Activation and updates are handled by completely separate servers.