Activation troubleshooting

alphanumeric said:

What does Settings > Update & security > Activation say or show?

I will look as this is my other system. I believe that after I run the backup of the activation it DOES show it is ACTIVATED.

hawkman said:

Hi MPSAN,

run the tool from the first page of this thread, post the output, then we can give you a better analysis

Roy

OK, I will look for the tool.

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.

alphanumeric said:

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.

alphanumeric said:

@Superfly Have you seen this, Upgrade Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
The interesting part is the "You can no longer use the default key to switch between editions until we verify you will be activated on the target edition".

I haven't gotten to grips with that edition yet, TBH.. , but I'll look into it - the key change seems merely a switch rather than an upgrade.

MPSAN said:

OK, I will look for the tool.

Yep we need to see what's under the hood.

MAK's are distributed illegally over the Net, once it's activation count has expired, they can be phone activated for a certain of times on different hardware, until that gets blocked as well from over-use.

Superfly said:

Yep we need to see what's under the hood.

MAK's are distributed illegally over the Net, once it's activation count has expired, they can be phone activated for a certain of times on different hardware, until that gets blocked as well from over-use.

Ah, didn't know you could phone activate a MAK key install. Will have to try and remember that. I guess it makes sense, its sort of a Retail key. I still think MAK keys shouldn't get a DL, but that's not up to me.

MPSAN said:

I will look as this is my other system. I believe that after I run the backup of the activation it DOES show it is ACTIVATED.

Want to know how its activated. With a Digital License or through your Corporations activation server. I forget the exact wording for what's shown if its KMS, but its something like that.

Superfly said:

I haven't gotten to grips with that edition yet, TBH.. , but I'll look into it - the key change seems merely a switch rather than an upgrade.

Yeah its a switch all right, it goes from 10 Pro to 10 Pro for Workstations in the blink of an eye. While the Home to Pro actually says upgrading and takes a bit of time to complete.