No "Valid Digital Entitlement Or Product Key'

W7 tower that was upgraded to 10 over a year ago. Got a TM.sys error (Tm.sys - 0xc0000221 Error - Windows 10 Forums) necessitating a reinstall.

Everything went fine except for my desktop picture that was about 40% bigger than it used to be. I shrunk it down using MS Paint, but when I tried to set it as the new background I got a message about not being able to customize the desktop because Windows had not been activated.

This is my brother-in-law's computer and unfortunately his 6 year old had peeled off the COA sticker from his tower. But I didn't think that would be an issue since it was upgraded to 10 without incident.

These are 2 of the pertinent screens we're getting.

We ran Magic Jelly Bean and tried to activate with the key it found, but were told that it was not valid for this installation.

Any suggestions?

Did it have Windows 10 Pro on it before? If yes, then open a command prompt (admin) or powershell (admin) and run:

slmgr /ipk VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
slmgr /ato

You do have to be connected to the internet.

NavyLCDR said:

Did it have Windows 10 Pro on it before?

Unfortunately, I do not know. My brother-in-law updated to 10, and he has no idea what version of Windows 10 he had. I assume that if he had Windows 7 Pro, the PC would have upgraded to 10 Pro, but without the COA sticker his original version of W7 is a mystery. I lent him a Windows 10 DVD I'd previously downloaded and burnt (from a link on this forum). If I remember correctly, the disk contained both W10 Pro and Home and it prompted you to select the OS before installation. If he installed 10 Pro and his original OS was 7 Home, would that explain the activation issues?

NavyLCDR said:

If yes, then open a command prompt (admin) or powershell (admin) and run:

slmgr /ipk VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
slmgr /ato

You do have to be connected to the internet.

So, do you think I should just do another install - and make sure it's Home? Additionally, I'm unfamiliar with Windows NOT displaying an activation countdown - 30 days, 29 days, etc. If it had originally been upgraded to W10 Home, what will happen if he does nothing? And when?

Try the commands in my post. If it does not activate, then he probably had Home installed and that is what you will want to re-install. It should activate automatically then with no product key. It violates the End User's License Agreement (EULA) to run Windows 10 without activation. It will keep nagging for activation and some features, such as personalization, will remain disabled.