New
#111
Enterprise normally activates via a KMS server. Key Management Server. That is setup by a company to activate any PC's it has Volume Licenses for. It's not a one time activation, they have to reactivate at set intervals, every 120 or 180 days or something. That can only be done if the PC has access to that KMS server. The IT Pro sets it all up. If your PC was illegally activated and or modified to cheat this, the update could be replacing the illegal modified file with the correct normal file, thus breaking activation. In any case, unless that is a company owned PC, and managed by said company, your install is illegal. There is no consumer version of Windows Enterprise. Enterprise Licenses can not resold to Consumers, period.
The same applies to any edition (Home, Pro) illegally activated with a volume licence key. As you say it is a common scam to put illegal software on PC that fools Windows into thinking the volume licence key is genuine ie Windows thinks it has contacted a genuine activation server.
Upgrades often break this and it then becomes unactivated.
OP will need to buy valid licences. Most cheap ones are OEM licences, and strictly not on sale to end user either, but MS does not actively prevent this practice.
these keys generally do not get blocked unless MS detects multiple use etc. With digital licensing, you only need the key to work once to get the digital licence established. If key later gets blocked it does not affect the digital licence, so these OEM keys are not as risky as vlks.
Yeah Pro and Education can also be VL, not Home though., or 10 S. Several similar threads with 10 Pro kicking around here. It's the old buyer beware.