Windows 10 Pro retail version - will not activate

Installed Win 10 Pro on a laptop that originally had Windows 8.1 and apparently was never updated to Windows 10 . I used the USB drive that came in the retail box to install Win 10 Pro.

When I enter the Windows 10 Pro product key It says:

"The product key you entered didn't work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one. (0xc004f050)

The Windows 10 Pro retail box was sealed and never used.

I re-entered the key several times, and ran the activation troubleshooter. Nothing is working. Any idea what is going on? I saw Microsoft was looking into activation issues (November 2023) but haven't found out if they resolved the issue or not.

idgat said:

Microsoft stopped allowing install upgrade with older keys a coupla months ago. For a while there were work-arounds, but unlike other things that MS threatened but had allowed to go on and on, they've really doubled down on this one.

However, can still ...
- install version to which key is valid (7/8.x)
- run in situ upgrade to 10, key is now registered
- wipe and clean install 10/11 (no key needed)

So apparently, I misunderstood what Microsoft has done. I thought they disabled Windows 7/8/8.1 keys from upgrading to Windows 10. WHY would they disable a retail boxed Windows 10 Pro key? That makes absolutely no sense at all. The machine I am attempting to activate Windows 10 on will not run Windows 11 because it doesn't meet the hardware requirements.

Not sure what you meant by "run in situ upgrade to 10, key is now registered"

Would you explain that please?

Thanks.

Put in the generic Pro key first.
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Give it a while and then try your retail Pro key.

It is possible win10 Home was previously on that machine which might add to the confusion.

idgat said:

OK. got a bit confused here. Misread your OP (or rather, misunderstood ... poor comprehension skills. I blame commercial television and the internet for my short attention span ). The mention of the 8.1 threw me, irrelevant now I re-read

No reason why what you say/do should not work, unless ... where did you buy the USB and key from?????

Try downloading Win10 ISO from Microsoft and creating a Win 10 Microsoft sourced/created installation USB. Then try the key/

Purchased retail Windows 10 Pro kit on ebay from a reputable seller. They sold a bunch of them and had all positive feedback including ones sold recently. The kit was sealed, and the label was over the USB drive that contains the software.

I guess it is possible the kit was opened, the key used previously, then resealed and sold. If that were the case, wouldn't activation tell me the key was already in use?

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SIW2 said:

Put in the generic Pro key first.
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Give it a while and then try your retail Pro key.

It is possible win10 Home was previously on that machine which might add to the confusion.

I tried this and got an error when entering the generic key, the error number was different than the one I received when entering the key from the retail Win 10 kit.

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idgat said:

OK. got a bit confused here. Misread your OP (or rather, misunderstood ... poor comprehension skills. I blame commercial television and the internet for my short attention span ). The mention of the 8.1 threw me, irrelevant now I re-read

No reason why what you say/do should not work, unless ... where did you buy the USB and key from?????

Try downloading Win10 ISO from Microsoft and creating a Win 10 Microsoft sourced/created installation USB. Then try the key/

I tried using a Win10 iso from Microsoft and using the software in the kit - both have the same activation error.

Most likely the key is a volume or Enterprise key.