Windows Activation

Superfly · 28 Nov 2017

Runnerbean said:

Hang on a minute,..how can my original boxed version be OEM?? I purchased the full edition of W10 Boxed. The box is the FULL W10 Home Edition.

You guys are WRONG!!!!

The back of my retail box says:,..

This is a full retail version version of Windows 10. We recommend you back up your files before installing,.e.t.c, e.t.c.

I have two W10 PCs. My first W10 Boxed retail came from the same place - Amazon (UK). Both Full retail W10 Home Editions.

We are not wrong.

You may have purchased Retail media but it does not have the proper key.

OEM: DM keys are reserved for factory installed PC's.

MS may have messed up and included the wrong key.

Runnerbean · 29 Nov 2017

Yes,..it seems MS may well have messed up but one or two of you guys were on the cusp of making it look like I had purchased an OEM by mistake and not purchasing a retail version thereby giving the impression I didn't really know what I was doing.

Well MS have obviously rectified the situation by giving me a proper retail key now as is evidenced by the ShowKey screenshot with a totally different product number.

Perhaps this explains why the MS tech guy who took remote access had so much trouble trying to activate the original which failed after a clean re-install. He was on my PC for what seemed like half an hour. Like I said, in the end he went all-out and started doing the biz in Command Prompt and I was eventually good to go. He told me not worry and that from now on I'll be alright in case of future re-installs. It was only afterwards I realised he changed my activation number and that's what prompted this thread which turned out to be rather interesting.

alphanumeric · 29 Nov 2017

NavyLCDR said:

And, technically, it violates the OEM System Builder's license agreement to use it on a computer that you are keeping and using for yourself.

Yes, they are supposed to be resold. I sold mine to myself for a very good price.