Did A Clean Install Before Upgrading Now Win 10 Won't Activate

Ever since upgrading I've been running into issues such as not being able to install updates and not being able to customize my desktop. After doing some research, it seems that this is because my copy of Win 10 is not activated.

As the title states, not knowing better, I did a clean install of Win 10 from Win 7 without doing the upgrade first. Because of this my copy of Win 10 is not activated and whenever do I attempt to activate it i get an error saying that it is unable to active at this time. When I click the Get Error Code prompt it bring up a box, there is no error code. FWIW, I have Win 10 installed on two laptops (the first upgraded just fine, though I didn't do I clean install on that one). Also, if I go to my Microsoft account, it shows both laptops under the device screen.

I read elsewhere that Microsoft might be having sever issues and that if I wait the problem will correct itself?

If anybody has any insight into this issue or advice as to what I should do it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Carl said:

I read elsewhere that Microsoft might be having sever issues and that if I wait the problem will correct itself?

If anybody has any insight into this issue or advice as to what I should do it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You must do an upgrade first - that gets activated - before doing a clean install. You have two options at this point - re-install Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 and let it fully activate, then do an upgrade.

Or purchase a Windows 10 retail license which comes with a unique license key.

Installing Windows 10 using the media creation tool - Windows Help


Click on the "If you choose to create installation media" link at the bottom.

Then click on the "How to perform a clean installation of Windows" link at the bottom.

Warning

If you want to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, you need to use the Upgrade this PC now option. If you haven't upgraded to Windows 10 yet and perform a clean installation, you'll need to enter a product key or buy a license in order to activate Windows 10.

If you format a drive partition during installation, any data on the partition will be erased. Be sure to back up any data you want to keep before you begin.

Also:
Entering a Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 product key during a clean install of Windows 10 WILL NOT WORK.