I have W10 installed for about a week and I want to know what'll happen after the 30 days grace period is gone. Does the system lock itself, does it go back to W7 (which seems impossible since I've done a clean install)??
BTW, I have genuine W7 before I installed W10.
It's not really a grace period as when a previous Windows install let you use it without entering a key for 30 days, after which it went into some minimal use mode.
There was a lot of fuss the first few days when the Activation servers were overloaded by the millions and millions of folks trying to activate their FREE Upgrades. But by now, if your install is still not activating, there is something different going on.
Did you do an Upgrade install? Or, did you do a Clean Install to a machine that never had an activated Win10 on it? IF you did the latter, sorry, it's never going to activate.
Take it for what it's worth:
Microsoft Product Activation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, the 30-day grace period has been removed. If the operating system is not activated, there is a watermark showing the edition of Windows (although it does not show to activate) on desktop, personalization features in PC Settings like changing the lock screen is disabled. Entire Screen notification appears periodically, roughly once in 6 hours. However, the operating system otherwise functions normally.
Well, my computer couldn't boot to W7 due to a hardware issue. So, I had to upgrade through a clean install using the boot-menu installation with a DVD. Surprisingly, not only did the installation succeed, but the hardware issue is gone too.
What I am planning to do in the near future is backup my files that I have now on W10, downgrade back to W7, activate W7, and upgrade back to W10. That is the same thing Microsoft told me when I called them.
I did a test upgrade from win 7 ultimate unactivated to win 10 pro using the media creation tool and left it unactivated.
Then I advanced the system date to 2018, within a few hours a white text watermark on right lower corner appears on the desktop telling me windows is not activated. This telegraphs through all apps, although in VLC the watermark is dimmed so as to be less obtrusive. And personalization like changing the background is not possible.
So I set the system date back to 2015, rebooted , and watermark is gone away.
Hi. It can't have been a hardware issue as the problem would not have disappeared in Win10. It is a software issue, incorrect settings or something similar in Win7
Exactly. The Win7 software issue needs to be resolved first.
@harvard, the following is my suggestion:
- Can you do a clean install of Win7.1 on your pc please.
- Disconnect all unnecessary peripherals/components before doing the reinstall including secondary drives etc. IE. Just have the Win7.1 system working for the essential components only.
- Don't worry about downloading or installing latest drivers
- Don't bother installing any other software
- Don't install any Antivirus, firewalls or any other protection software
- Only when that is done and successfully activated you can upgrade to Win10.
- If Win10 successfully upgrades and activates you can reinstall all the other components/hardware.
Yes, that actually is what is needed in cases like yours: Windows 10 must once have been installed as a real upgrade of an activated Windows 7/8.1. Not as a clean install, but as an upgrade. Afterwards you can do clean installs as you like, but if you have not at least once done an upgrade, your copy of Windows 10 will not activate. That is annoying, if you ask me.
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