Cannot activate Windows 10 Pro

[Mr Davo]

Hi Everyone,

I am having an issue with activating Windows 10 Pro.

When I first purchased my new laptop it came with Windows 8.1. However I needed to upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro (due to using the laptop in a business environment).

I suspect that changing to Windows 8.1 Pro changed my product key, which has now affected my ability to activate Windows 10 Pro.

Here is the screen that I see when I look at whether or not Windows is activated -

When I click on the 'Error details' link I see the following -

If I look at the current product key (or at least the last five digits) it does not match my old key (as obtained using Balarc Advisor).

Furthermore if I attempt to change the Product Key by substituting the key that I obtained from Balarc Advisor before performing the upgrade it is rejected.

If anybody has any suggestions on how to overcome this issue they will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo

 

[USAFRet]

You started with Win 8.1 Home.
If you want Win 10 Pro, you must change your 8.1 to 8.1 Pro, and Upgrade to Win 10 from that.
Changing from 8.1 Home to 8.1 Pro will be $$.

 

[thor220]

Hi Everyone,

I am having an issue with activating Windows 10 Pro.

When I first purchased my new laptop it came with Windows 8.1. However I needed to upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro (due to using the laptop in a business environment).

I suspect that changing to Windows 8.1 Pro changed my product key, which has now affected my ability to activate Windows 10 Pro.

Here is the screen that I see when I look at whether or not Windows is activated -

When I click on the 'Error details' link I see the following -

If I look at the current product key (or at least the last five digits) it does not match my old key (as obtained using Balarc Advisor).

Furthermore if I attempt to change the Product Key by substituting the key that I obtained from Balarc Advisor before performing the upgrade it is rejected.

If anybody has any suggestions on how to overcome this issue they will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo

Your going to have to go back and re-install windows 8.1 pro. Than, use the built in "get windows 10" to update the system to windows 10 pro. The key you see in windows 10 doesn't mean anything anymore. Windows 10 now works on entitlements. The second you upgrade to windows 10 pro from 8.1 pro, your key will be converted to something called a windows 10 entitlement. This is essentially a key that's tied to your motherboard.

Remember that if you every change your hardware significantly, you will lose your windows entitlement and have to buy the OS again.

 

[danny2000]

Hi Everyone,

I am having an issue with activating Windows 10 Pro.

When I first purchased my new laptop it came with Windows 8.1. However I needed to upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro (due to using the laptop in a business environment).

I suspect that changing to Windows 8.1 Pro changed my product key, which has now affected my ability to activate Windows 10 Pro.

Okay, so you did upgrade to Windows 8,1 Home to Windows 8.1 Pro, and it activated? Did you verify that?
Then you did the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and not a clean installation, right?

Also, are you currently connected to the Internet on that system because it says that you are not.

How long has been since you installed Windows 10 Pro on that laptop?



Here is the screen that I see when I look at whether or not Windows is activated -

When I click on the 'Error details' link I see the following -

If I look at the current product key (or at least the last five digits) it does not match my old key (as obtained using Balarc Advisor).

Furthermore if I attempt to change the Product Key by substituting the key that I obtained from Balarc Advisor before performing the upgrade it is rejected.

If anybody has any suggestions on how to overcome this issue they will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo

 

[danny2000]

BTW, everyone who has the Pro version installed, has the same product key. The Home version, everyone has the same key also.

 

[Mr Davo]

Hi All,

I appreciate the suggestions that have been put forward here; and I have followed much of the advice, however I am no closer to activation after another day of tinkering.

The plot thickens!​

When I first purchased my laptop it arrived with a 128 Gig SSD and Windows 8.1 installed. I soon realised that I needed Windows 8.1 Pro so I purchased a suitable license from Microsoft and upgraded. After upgrading the license I installed all Windows updates. I then installed Samsung Data Migration and connected a 500 Gig SSD. I cloned the 128G to the 500G and then physically swapped hard drives. Finally I updated to Windows 10 Pro using an ISO which I downloaded from Microsoft.

The most likely cause of the '0xC004F034' issue that I am facing seems to be that my original Windows 8.1 Pro installation was not activated.

However because I had the original hard drive I put this to the test by physically swapping drives again, and investigating the activation state of Windows 8.1 Pro...surprisingly it was activated (as can be seen below).

I decided to upgrade the Windows 8.1 Pro installation on the original 128 Gig drive to see if I could overcome this activation issue! Towards this end I used the 'Media Creation Tool' (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10), and chose to perform an upgrade. Once the upgrade completed I checked the activation state, and was not entirely surprised to see the screen below!

As can be seen the end result was exactly the same as before, even though I used a completely different physical disk, and a different upgrade method, e.g.: an ISO vs the 'in-place' upgrade!

What is going on here...I still think that Windows 10 Pro is not handling the fact that I originally upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 8.1 Pro!

Any further help will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo

 

[Darkbreeze]

IF you call the Microsoft activation hotline, and have your license key information, they can almost certainly reset the activation and allow your windows 10 installation to activate. It's probably going to be a similar process as a motherboard change.

 

[Mr Davo]

FALSE ALARM!!!

THIS WAS A PROXY SERVER ISSUE.

MY PROXY SERVER IS BLOCKING THE PORT USED BY WINDOWS TO ACTIVATE.

Out of curiosity does anyone know what port activation uses?

 

[Darkbreeze]

I was wondering about that since I was seeing "connect to the internet to activate" on all your screenshots, but I didn't get the chance to mention it.

This is for Windows 8 and 7, but might work in your case:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/921471



You can also activate via telephone.


Contact the Microsoft Activation Center for further assistance:

Try the appropriate phone number listed here: Microsoft Activation Centers Worldwide Telephone Numbers:
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/activation-centers.aspx