Cannot activate Win10 Pro after Microsoft Store app purchase

krollo · 28 Oct 2021

Hello guys,

My laptop came pre-installed with Win10 Home 64bit and I recently purchased a Win 10/11 Pro licence from the Microsoft Store app. Unfortunately, having some issues activating the digital licence for Win10 Pro.

Here is the situation:

Logged into Microsoft account used for the purchase (also received the email receipt of the purchase)
Already connected to stable internet

What I tried so far:

Entering the Win10 Pro generic key:

Received error 0x800700005:

Cannot activate Win10 Pro after Microsoft Store app purchase-annotation-2021-10-29-043622.png

Clicking Close returned another error 0xC004F034:

Cannot activate Win10 Pro after Microsoft Store app purchase-annotation-2021-10-29-043726.png

Clicking Troubleshoot re-activated my Win10 Home so still not on Pro.

Thanks for any help.

[FIXED]

Win 10 Pro suddenly became Win 10 Ent from MS Store app:
Jump to solution - Cannot activate Win10 Pro after Microsoft Store app purchase

Sources:

steve108 · 28 Oct 2021

Hi Kat,
Were you following Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro ?

krollo · 28 Oct 2021

@steve108 Yes, to a T to my best knowledge. Even did the same purchase procedure too. If I try to go back to Microsoft Store app and click Install, it returns Try Again error:

Cannot activate Win10 Pro after Microsoft Store app purchase-annotation-2021-10-29-053932.png

Any other things I can try?

steve108 · 28 Oct 2021

krollo said:

.......

Any other things I can try?

Maybe @Bree or @NavyLCDR will be able to help when they're available as you already tried the generic key and that didn't work either.

In the mean time you can try the Windows Activation Troubleshooter and How to fix Windows 10 activation error code 0xC004F034? and let us know if that resolved it.

sygnus21 · 28 Oct 2021

krollo said:

My laptop came pre-installed with Win10 Home 64bit and I recently purchased a Win 10/11 Pro licence from the Microsoft Store app. Unfortunately, having some issues activating the digital licence for Win10 Pro.

The key you're trying to input is a generic key for the free OS upgrade of Windows 10. If you "purchased" a copy of Windows 10, you need to input the key that came with the purchased copy of Windows 10 Pro.

krollo · 28 Oct 2021

Hi @steve108, Thought I'd do a reboot (nothing else) before trying out your article. Windows did some updates during the restart which I thought was normal. To my surprise, now, I am on Win10 Enterprise and also de-activated. My Home suddenly became Enterprise - I didn't even buy Enterprise.

Cannot activate Win10 Pro after Microsoft Store app purchase-annotation-2021-10-29-061505.png

What is this sorcery hahaha

- - - Updated - - -

sygnus21 said:

The key you're trying to input is a generic key for the free OS upgrade of Windows 10. If you "purchased" a copy of Windows 10, you need to input the key that came with the purchased copy of Windows 10 Pro.

Hi @sygnus21, my MS store purchase didn't come with a product key because it was a digital licence. Here is the order details from the MS Order History:

Cannot activate Win10 Pro after Microsoft Store app purchase-annotation-2021-10-29-062145.png

I checked my email receipt of the purchase but no product key there either.

steve108 · 28 Oct 2021

krollo said:

Hi @steve108, Thought I'd do a reboot (nothing else) before trying out your article. Windows did some updates during the restart which I thought was normal. To my surprise, now, I am on Win10 Enterprise and also de-activated. My Home suddenly became Enterprise - I didn't even buy Enterprise.

What is this sorcery hahaha

Oh dear

There's this: Downgrade Windows 10 Enterprise to Windows 10 Pro - but maybe try another reboot first.

And this is there too: Downgrade from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Home

sygnus21 · 28 Oct 2021

krollo said:

Hi @sygnus21, my MS store purchase didn't come with a product key because it was a digital licence. Here is the order details from the MS Order History:

I checked my email receipt of the purchase but no product key there either.

Well that's a bit of a mystery to me. If this was a legit purchase, I suggest you call Microsoft and find out what the issue is. Something doesn't sound quite kosher here. Not saying you've done something wrong, but something doesn't seem right to me.

And I've never bought an OS from the Microsoft Store, but I'd think you'd still be emailed a license key. You might also check your Microsoft Account to see if the key was posted somewhere there.

Good luck.

krollo · 28 Oct 2021

By the way, I can always get my Home activated via the factory reset using the manufacturer's Recovery USB so there's that. But I would be sad if I can't use the Pro licence I just bought for A$169.

Meanwhile, I'll reboot again and read up the tutorial first before I attempt an Enterprise downgrade. I'm not even sure how it became Enterprise. My purchase is clearly Pro.

Other suggestions also welcome.

steve108 · 28 Oct 2021

krollo said:

By the way, I can always get my Home activated via the factory reset using the manufacturer's Recovery USB so there's that. But I would be sad if I can't use the Pro licence I just bought for A$169.

Meanwhile, I'll reboot again and read up the tutorial first before I attempt an Enterprise downgrade. I'm not even sure how it became Enterprise. My purchase is clearly Pro.

Other suggestions also welcome.

I've seen this happen to others in the past. I'm sure Microsoft customer service will help you out if you don't get it sorted here, so don't worry

. Do you have a recent Windows 10 full backing image you can restore if necessary and to avoid a factory reset?