Windows 10 Pro Has Amnesia and Wants You Buy a New Copy from the Windows Store

cageymaru

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My personal copy of Windows 10 Pro decided that it is no longer valid as the key stored on the Microsoft servers is only good for Windows 10 Home. I even ran the Windows troubleshooter where it listed all of the valid Windows 10 Professional licenses stored on my Microsoft account, but still told me that I only own a Windows Home license. It then pointed me to the Windows Store to purchase a new license after revoking my old license by placing the Windows Activation watermark on my desktop. After researching this annoying message the entire night, I discovered lots of other valid Windows license owners with the same issue. It seems that Microsoft knows about the issue and a fix is coming. At least my data didn't disappear into thin air. That would suck if it did it twice.

User: Having had a legitimate copy of Win10x64 Pro since release, today I have been presented with an activation error (0xC004C003). Running the trouble shooter tells me that I I have a Win10 HOME licence (which is a false statement). Looking at my MS account online it clearly states I have a pro licence. There has been no hardware changes.

Support: Microsoft has just released an Emerging issue announcement about current activation issue related to Pro edition recently. This happens in Japan, Korea, American and many other countries.I am very sorry to inform you that there is a temporary issue with Microsoft's activation server at the moment and some customers might experience this issue where Windows is displayed as not activated. Our engineers are working tirelessly to resolve this issue and it is expected to be corrected within one to two business days. This is the response from Microsoft support. I would advise you to wait for a day or two.
 
My personal copy of Windows 10 Pro decided that it is no longer valid as the key stored on the Microsoft servers is only good for Windows 10 Home. I even ran the Windows troubleshooter where it listed all of the valid Windows 10 Professional licenses stored on my Microsoft account, but still told me that I only own a Windows Home license. It then pointed me to the Windows Store to purchase a new license after revoking my old license by placing the Windows Activation watermark on my desktop. After researching this annoying message the entire night, I discovered lots of other valid Windows license owners with the same issue. It seems that Microsoft knows about the issue and a fix is coming. At least my data didn't disappear into thin air. That would suck if it did it twice.

User: Having had a legitimate copy of Win10x64 Pro since release, today I have been presented with an activation error (0xC004C003). Running the trouble shooter tells me that I I have a Win10 HOME licence (which is a false statement). Looking at my MS account online it clearly states I have a pro licence. There has been no hardware changes.

Support: Microsoft has just released an Emerging issue announcement about current activation issue related to Pro edition recently. This happens in Japan, Korea, American and many other countries.I am very sorry to inform you that there is a temporary issue with Microsoft's activation server at the moment and some customers might experience this issue where Windows is displayed as not activated. Our engineers are working tirelessly to resolve this issue and it is expected to be corrected within one to two business days. This is the response from Microsoft support. I would advise you to wait for a day or two.
What kind of license is it (retail, OEM, upgrade)?
 
I think this is just a temporary fluke. All my system that I had running with my MSDN licenses keys all reported needing to be activated. Once I rebooted problem solved
 
Perhaps this is a new licensing methodology similar to how Windows Update may depricate certain standard windows applications that have been around forever and may not provide replacement functionality, or similar to how windows may deprecate certain functionality in Group Policy so that the user can no longer take full control over certain Operating System functions or behaviors, perhaps Windows is now deprecating upgrade win10 pro licenses because they need to sell a few more units and users just are not upgrading enough in the current market.

You seem to have a computer from Win 7 pro days which you upgraded to win10... you still have that system... see the problem here? You may not have bought a new Win Pro License recently enough and Microsoft isn't making enough ad revenue selling advertisements to your desktop / start screen / lock screen. So they deprecate your license and you get to give them another entrance fee to have the full Win 10 pro experience again on your PC. Brilliant!!!

What a revenue stream. Someone give the VP who had this License deprecation idea a big bonus this year.
 
Uh Oh, here we go rorge. :D Well, thank you for giving us a heads up anyways. :)

Support: Microsoft has just released an Emerging issue announcement about current activation issue related to Pro edition recently. This happens in Japan, Korea, American and many other countries.I am very sorry to inform you that there is a temporary issue with Microsoft's activation server at the moment and some customers might experience this issue where Windows is displayed as not activated. Our engineers are working tirelessly to resolve this issue and it is expected to be corrected within one to two business days. This is the response from Microsoft support. I would advise you to wait for a day or two.

Based upon this quote, it sounds like human error, as in someone on their end screwed something up.
 
Upgrade from Windows 7 Pro that was done the same week it was originally offered by Microsoft.
I have a retail license so hopefully this won't happen to me.
I don't remember Windows 7 ever deactivating itself once it was activated. Ever.
My W7 Pro OEM license deactivated itself after I installed SP1.
 
My W7 Pro OEM license deactivated itself after I installed SP1.
Man bites dog.

I'm talking about W7 Pro that hasn't otherwise been messed with never just spontaneously decided to deactivate itself. Not in my experience with thousands of PCs at several companies. Maybe I was lucky.
 
Thanks for the heads up Cagey.

At my job I bought pro enterprise licenses a few years ago and I did all the installs/images myself. It's been a while, but every now and then I came across one or two that didn't retain or activate properly. Back then I was able to paste the keys in and all was fine. Hopefully this new thing won't become another time waster I'll have to deal with.
 
Windows 10 did this to me when I swapped out a bad motherboard around 6 months ago. Insisted for three weeks my key was no longer good and I should buy a new one.

While I procrastinated the activation server one day changed it's mind and everything was OK...
 
Windows 10 did this to me when I swapped out a bad motherboard around 6 months ago. Insisted for three weeks my key was no longer good and I should buy a new one.

While I procrastinated the activation server one day changed it's mind and everything was OK...

Yeah I've been thru the same stuff with my 4930k rig. Upgraded ram awhile back and had the same problem and then again when upgrading to SSD's from raid platters. W10 can be a finicky b**ch and then all of a sudden it's happy.
 
Read the writing on the wall. m$ is gonna hose some folks over on activation. read it here first.
 
Seems Microsoft nailed my main desktop machine, but left my server and HTPC alone. Notebooks seems OK too. Weird how random it is.
 
Here's what I don't understand: if a machine is ACTIVATED legitimately that's a ONE-TIME PROCESS and it should not be required again.

So why the fuck would Windows 10 need - for any reason at all - to constantly maintain some kind of connection with Microsoft's activation servers and keep checking at whatever intervals it's checking them at on a repeating ongoing basis?

Microsoft, seriously, what the fuck are you people doing? ::rolleyes:o_O:cautious::banghead:
 
Interesting, my 70 year old father called me a couple of days ago to ask why his (legit) Windows 7 system is suddenly is telling him his copy of Windows is not authentic. He's three hours away so I can't get hands on to see what's up. But I'm curious if this is an authentication server issue or what? Why after years of using this system is it suddenly doing this? As far as I know we have him set to accept Windows updates automatically.
 
You got to love the people at Microsoft they make more work for themselves when they get in to too complicated areas for them.

I mean someone must have said some time ago : Hey were doing activation thing and what if things go wrong?

Microsoft solutions for problems bring along more problems :) Less Microsoft programs less problems ;) hint :)
 
I bite my thumb at you Microsoft! I reinstalled my entire PC trying to fix it yesterday evening and all last night. :) Wiped entire drives.

WTF Microsoft? YOU HAVE ONE FUCKING JOB- DON'T BREAK MY SHIT.

Amazing how win10 was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread and its only proving to have more bugs than anything since winME.

queue old joke #136
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day they start making Vaccum Cleaners.
/queue old joke #136
 
Happened to me on my Ryzen upgrade. New Mobo/CPU. Booted up just fine. Installed some other updates went for the restart and it could no longer find boot media.

Did the system restore clean thingy (whatever it’s called now.) where it goes back to just the basic files and uninstalls other apps annnnd now it needs activation.

Near as I can tell activation is just to make the notification go away because it hasn’t stopped me from doing anything at all.
 
My windows 10,ran activation troubleshooting and it is saying to install windows 10 N for digital key

What the HECK, I updated from windows 7 pro ….
ugh
 
In the majority of cases, I prefer Linux over Windows, this is simply one reason (don't have to worry about "licensing" or "owning" it).

But if I wanted to use Windows, I sure as fuck wouldn't pirate it if I can help it. I've been bitten by shitty piracy methods in the past which left my computer exposed to infection.

If you want an actual reliable, secure, operating system. Try Ubuntu.

If you have questions, just ask, I can help you game and more on it ;)
 
Haven't you heard? You can game on Linux! And it's not hard...

Seems I need to keep making videos showing it :$

What do you like to play?

It's still not "there" yet...especially for VR. Like it or not, the target platform for game devs is Windows 10. You MIGHT get your favorite game to run under Linux (hope you have an AMD card!), but it's a lot more effort just to get the game running at all, let alone running at similar performance to the same game at the same settings running under windows. We all want a real alternative to Windows, but, for as much progress as Linux has made lately, it's still not ready for the average user.
 
cageymaru did yours say anything about "your windows credentials have changed" mine constantly say that but I cant do anything about it. It has no possible methods of fixing lol
 
Windows 10 routinely checks for a valid activation and there is not really a clean built in way to stop it (just like updates). The really bad thing is that when it is not activated, I don't think you are allowed to make personalization changes such as changing the background image, etc. It certainly is this way if it has never been activated, but I'm not sure if it defaults to this behavior when the activation disappears. That may not be a big deal to some people, but for the people who develop software and need to routinely touch these settings to do their job might be SOL.
 
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