WAB.EXE and windows Activation Problem are they related ?

On a windows 10 os build 17143.950 installed on a dell e6510 dell laptop.
I have a Windows activation Problem
When I go to activate windows I get this:

0xC004F074 activation expires This laptop is a dell and should at least have windows 7 licence. I thought that if the Dell E6510 should have a legitimate liceince. I puchaced this machine off of ebay so I am wondering if when they at the pawn shop just used the wrong win 10 install files. I may need to re-install windows. I have WAB.exe running so this might complicate matters. I am willing to run the november update but want to let them work out issues before they just do it.

I did make a clone of this computers HD when I purchased it so could go back to that but it just seams safer to do a regular clean install install.
Again because its a dell and It still has the windows licence COA sticker on it.
When I try to change the settings here I get this:

I installed WAB.exe about a 2 months ago. So I wonder how this might effect this. I am not sure how WAB.exe works. It does not show as a installed program. I read that it might be automatically loading each time I boot. ?
Thank you

The wab.exe file I'm familiar with was the old Windows Address Book associated with Outlook Express. In Win10 I find 4 instances of the file:

DonMurray said:

This laptop is a dell and should at least have windows 7 licence. I thought that if the Dell E6510 should have a legitimate liceince. I puchaced this machine off of ebay so I am wondering if when they at the pawn shop just used the wrong win 10 install files...

If it was from a pawn shop, it probably was an ex-business machine which came into the shop with a corporate Windows 10 Pro image on it. They probably just cleaned it for possible viruses, removed personal information and sold it on. They probably didn't have it long enough to realise that the corporate image needed the corporate KMS server to keep it activated.

Pawn shops don't generally reinstall Windows, they take the easy route and just clean up what's there - usually with software like this:

Pawn Shop Software - WhiteCanyon Software

... because its a dell and It still has the windows licence COA sticker on it.

If you can read the key, type the key into ShowKeyPlus to see which edition it's for.

ShowKeyPlus

If the W7 key is for W7 Pro or Ultimate you may be able to change your key to the one from the CoA and activate your installed Windows.

A W7 Home or W7 Home Premium key cannot activate Pro, and W10 Pro cannot be downgraded to Home. In that case, you should be able to install and activate the Windows 7 edition that your key is for, then upgrade that to Windows 10.

Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free



Edit: or you could just ask for your money back (or a W10 Pro licence). If it was a corporate KMS install then that cannot legally be sold on to another user. If it was advertised as coming with W10 Pro then it was misdescribed - it did not have any OS that could legally be transferred to you.

They probably didn't have it long enough to realize that the corporate image needed the corporate KMS server to keep it activated.

It's also possible if the boot-up asks for a password that someone removed it from the company network before logging off from the network and the password can't be verified if not connected to the server.

Our church was given 4 Dell Notebooks then later got 3 ThinkPads [1 IBM and 2 Lenovo] [Lenovo was spun off from IBM]. I had Dell OEM software that worked on the Latitudes using the COA stickers' Product Key on them but nothing for the ThinkPads without spending money so they "left the building".