Windows Activation

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skusku

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So I know Microsoft turned off the Windows 7/8 Servers about last week.
We have laptops/pc's coming in with an already activated Windows 10 which was upgraded with a Windows 7 key a while ago.
They come in for replacing of SSD and when that happens we reload a clean Windows 10. Only change is HDD to SSD and clean OS and windows refuses to re-activate. Happened on multiple laptops now.
I am reading elsewhere that because it was already updated/activated previously that it should be fine, but apparently not.
You guys have any experience?
 
skusku said:
So I know Microsoft turned off the Windows 7/8 Servers about last week.
We have laptops/pc's coming in with an already activated Windows 10 which was upgraded with a Windows 7 key a while ago.
They come in for replacing of SSD and when that happens we reload a clean Windows 10. Only change is HDD to SSD and clean OS and windows refuses to re-activate. Happened on multiple laptops now.
I am reading elsewhere that because it was already updated/activated previously that it should be fine, but apparently not.
You guys have any experience?
Click to expand...

Have you tried using a Windows 10 default key?

Have you called MS?
 
Havent tried the GETCID website with these ones yet. Will give it a shot.
 
I have something similar. Updated my BIOS, now it won't activate, even if I select change hardware:mad:
 
The key is embedded as part of the BIOS. Are you using the bootable media creation tool from microsoft for windows 10?
 
So just something I recently discovered.

I had a windows 7 key that I activated with windows 10 and then recently I re-installed windows 11 after a hardware change. It failed to activate. I just re-entered that same key after the install and it asked me to login to my Microsoft account i used on my previous desktop and when I did that "Activated Windows 11 with key from Microsoft account successfully" and windows 11 pro is now activated. This is worth a shot because they even list your old computers that you signed into with the Microsoft account.

Can save you some money to have a genuine Windows 11 version.
 
You can find the number and phone them. I did this for my laptop they then remove the block on your key and allow you to reactivate it. They have a South African number and it took about 10min to clear up.
 
supersunbird said:
Depends on the age of a laptop, a 2013 HP Probook 6570b would not have imbedded BIOS key.
Click to expand...
Correct! And good luck to using the license key on the bottom panel. However, that said, one of the laptops I worked with, was a late 2013 model (or so says Google) and that one had a Windows Pro sticker on it, which meant that I was able to upgrade and activate Win10 on the thing
 
I have Windows 8.1 and I received an error when trying to upgrade to Windows 10 from a USB.

Error code: 0xC1900101 - 0×30018
The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with the error during
SYSPREP operation.

I have tried:

1. Navigate to the following registry key:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade
Look for AllowOSUpgrade and set value to 1

2. SFC /scannow. Received an error, “Found corrupt files but was unable to fix them in Windows.”

3. Ran “Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth” and received an error “File source could not be found.” DISM error message.

Not sure what to do next.
 
Hero4663 said:
I have Windows 8.1 and I received an error when trying to upgrade to Windows 10 from a USB.

Error code: 0xC1900101 - 0×30018
The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with the error during
SYSPREP operation.

I have tried:

1. Navigate to the following registry key:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade
Look for AllowOSUpgrade and set value to 1

2. SFC /scannow. Received an error, “Found corrupt files but was unable to fix them in Windows.”

3. Ran “Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth” and received an error “File source could not be found.” DISM error message.

Not sure what to do next.
Click to expand...

 
So this is kind of interesting.
There are people on this very forum selling keys for Win10 and Win11 (some people like myself suspect it's VLK abuse but without proof it's just a suspicion).

I would expect those people to be able to know more about this but ja...
I was burned by this a couple of weeks ago. Got a laptop that had Win7 on it, and the hard disk had died. The Win7 key would not work (laptop also doesn't have the key in ROM). We had to buy a new Win10 license. Luckily not expensive.
 
Hero4663 said:
I have Windows 8.1 and I received an error when trying to upgrade to Windows 10 from a USB.

Error code: 0xC1900101 - 0×30018
The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with the error during
SYSPREP operation.

I have tried:

1. Navigate to the following registry key:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade
Look for AllowOSUpgrade and set value to 1

2. SFC /scannow. Received an error, “Found corrupt files but was unable to fix them in Windows.”

3. Ran “Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth” and received an error “File source could not be found.” DISM error message.

Not sure what to do next.
Click to expand...

Have that problem start of the year, I used a Windows 10 CD from 2015 to upgrade it to Windows 10 version 1507, and then updated it to Windows 10 version 22H2.
 
supersunbird said:
Have that problem start of the year, I used a Windows 10 CD from 2015 to upgrade it to Windows 10 version 1507, and then updated it to Windows 10 version 22H2.
Click to expand...

Yeah not sure where I will get that from. I think I would have to clone the drive and do a clean install.
 
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