How To Activate Windows 11 Pro Activation Key 2022

[Keith Cogswell]

Noteto all voters to close: This is not a LEGAL advice - the poster asks about a technical implementation issue which is ok according to the board. Technically he does not ask about LICENSING (terms etc. - legal issue and VERY complicated) but how to activate his key (technical issue), and we do handle those here. Heck, for some parts of windows there are hugh guidelines for the technical side...

My laptop hard drive has died and I am replacing it with a new SSD. I am downloading a tool from Microsoft's website to install Windows 10 on the new drive, but how do I activate it? Windows 10 came with the laptop so I don't have a key stored anywhere except on the completely toast hard drive. And I don't think I had the foresight to link the system to a Microsoft account. Any other way to get the system activated using the original key? The laptop is out of warranty btw.

If the license key came with your laptop, it means it is a OEM key, which is bound to motherboard. Windows 10 should be activated by default on new SSD. However, OEM key is not transferable and can be only used on one device.

With these instructions, I managed to reinstall an old legitimate WinXP again on an old PC that is going to be used as an off-line machine for some old programms. Some software just do not work correctly, or at all, with modern hardware and systems.

In my call to Microsoft I chose the text to smart phone option and was instructed to tell how many digits were displayed one the screen, but there were no digits displayed. After 3 tries with the same results, I tried the voice option and was supposed to be transferred to a person but got a message stating Windows XP is no longer supported and was disconnected from the call. I guess this means Windows XP can no longer be activated by any means.

Hello everyone. I have some issues with my PC HP Compaq dc7800 CMT. When I type the Product Key to activate Windows 7 Professional, it blows a dialog with the error: "Licensing service detected, that the rating of the license failed." What can be the issue?

There are 2 types of product keys out there. The first type is often on a sticker on the back or bottom of the PC. This is an OEM product key. It will say what version of Windows that the key is good for. Windows 7 Professional, Windows Vista, Windows 8, etc.

Microsoft USED to allow OEM Product keys for 8 to be used to activate windows 7 because for a while after machines were first sold with 8 on them, MS allowed for "downgrade rights" because many people were not willing to run 8 on the machines. They would be offered a choice of 8 or 7 on initial boot. The same thing was done for Vista and XP - many machines that have OEM Product keys for Vista will activate XP on them.

But then MS stopped having manufacturers put product key numbers and stickers on PCs and they locked out downgrade rights for OEM keys. Then later on, they locked out activation for OEM keys for ANY version of windows other than windows 10. OEM Product keys on machines today are useless for anything other than activating 10 on that machine, so if your machine lacks adequate ram or CPU for 10, then that key is useless.

OEM machines ALSO come with a BIOS SLIC code for 7, 8, 10 or 11. Machines with 7 or 8 SLIC codes generally auto-activate if you load 10 on them. (with one exception I'll cover later) Machines with SLIC codes for 10 will (obviously) activate with 10 but will also (currently) activate with 11. I haven't tried loading 11 on a machine with a SLIC code for 7 or 8 but since all of those machines were pre-Nehalem CPU's they wouldn't be officially supported by 11 anyway. I would assume a machine with a SLIC code for 11 will NOT activate 10.

In addition, with OEM keys or SLIC codes for 7 and 8, you MUST normally use the "recovery load" from the manufacturer. That is, the 7 or 8 install CD _MUST_ have on it the manufacturer's name. You cannot use a Lenovo 7 install CD to load 7 on an HP, or a Dell. That is because those CDs only contain SLIC License approvals for the versions from that manufacturer. There IS a way to create what is known as an "AnyOEM" 7 install CD that contains SLIC license matches for ALL major manufacturers but once more, it is only going to allow you to activate 7 on a machine that has a BIOS SLIC code for 7.

Now, if you bought your Windows 7 over the counter from Microsoft, you will have gotten a box with a Product Key in it, and these keys are Retail product keys that are NOT tied to the BIOS SLIC code. Same goes if you bought your Windows online, you will have got a Product Key via email. Those can be loaded and activated on ANY machine (that has hardware with compatible drivers) as long as they are only loaded on ONE machine at a time.

In general, Microsoft has made it impossible to activate windows 7 on anything unless you are very very VERY cognizant on licensing technology and know EXACTLY what you are doing. And this is as it should be because windows 7 systems are terribly insecure now and SHOULD NOT be used on the Internet for web surfing, etc. Professionally I never load 7 on anything nowadays (with one exception) even specialty stuff that never touches the Internet. For custom stuff like older specialty cash register software and such that never touches the Internet, it either gets win XP or win 10. XP if the software won't run on 10, and 10 otherwise.

The one exception I've mentioned twice is there were a number of machines that were on the market in win 7 days that had BIOS SLIC codes for 7, but WILL NOT activate 10 if you do a clean 10 load on them. This is a very random thing I have had machines that were exactly the same model number next to each other on the bench and one would activate 10 the other would not. In those cases, I can load and activate 7 then once 7 is activated, do an "upgrade load" of 10 on those, and 10 will activate. I don't know why those won't activate on a 10 clean load, and will activate on a 10 upgrade load, but whatever. Probably Microsoft made a couple mistakes in locking out activation number series.

The final word I will say on this is that there is a grey area in licensing. When 10 was released, Microsoft said everyone would get a "free upgrade" to 10 from 7 and 8 but it would only be good for a year so upgrade right away. Then close to the end of the year they extended the "free upgrade" another year. Then when that ended, they withdrew the "upgrade wizard" from the website. But after that, people noted repeatedly on the Internet over and over that even though the "deadline" had been passed for the "free upgrade" that amazingly Microsoft's activation servers were still permitting activations from 7 to 10 on both upgrades and clean 10 loads. Microsoft has been asked repeatedly and publicly why this is still the case if the so-called "free upgrade to 10" period is over - and they have ignored the question and not responded. So we don't have a clear statement from MS that a 10 upgrade on a 7 system today is "legal" even if their activation servers approve an activation, which they appear to still be doing. So you can draw whatever conclusion you want from that.

Any older machine with a new hard disk, boot off 11 and if it will allow an install - install 11. If it will not, boot off 10 and install 10. If it shows up as not activated, AND if there's a product key on a sticker on the machine, change product key on the machine to that key and see if it activates. Most times, it will. If it does not, discard the machine. That is the only safe and responsible thing to do these days. Good luck.

I using a MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and running Windows 11 ARM in a Parallels Desktop VM. I really like the new look of Windows 11. Since this version is an Insiders version why is it always asking me to activate it? How do I stop this version of Windows from doing that? I thought since it was an Insiders version it will not ask me to activate it because Windows 11 is not yet released to the public.

The interesting thing is that W11 installed on a machine with an activated W10 will be activated. I witnessed that on my Surface Pro and my Intel Desktop PC I got updated to W11 insider preview by joining the Windows insider program and obtaining the upgrade through Windows Update.

My assumption is that Windows on Arm in general does not work with any Windows product key obtained through public available means, as Windows on Arm is only delivered to OEMs for production and meant to be sold with the device they produce. The keys you may obtain through MS Store ore other valid channels are meant for Windows on Intel.

Because there are many software apps that only are available in Windows, I hope they will change that in one of the updates because there are a lot of people who are using the new MacBooks with the M1 ARM chip in them. I also hope the next update of Windows 11 for ARM will allow users to enter a product key that will be accepted.

Well, never mind. I knew I had an unused W8.1 pro license lying around somewhere - and found it in my e-mail (luckily I keep those as an archive of already historic proportions) :) And that key, once obtained through the W8 promotion program, activated W11 pro in my Parallels M1 installation. Another W7 home premium key did not do the trick, an edition mismatch probably (wasn't it that W7 home premium could be upgraded to W10 pro?).

Before I signed up to the programme, I had an older MacBook and had Windows 10 intel version running under Parallels. When I purchased a newer MacBook with the M1 chip, I transferred my Parallels license to the new computer but found my Windows 10 would not run on that computer so the Parallels support rep gave me a link to get Windows 10 for ARM from the insiders programme. The Windows 10 beta version they gave me had a product key to use which was different than my Intel version of Windows 10. It looks like one of the updates had a problem with product keys because that's when it kept on asking me to activate windows even though I had a product key that Parallels support gave me and it work working perfectly. It was a long time ago. I think it was an ISO file they sent me. That's how I entered the product key they gave me. Maybe that key had a limited amount of time to preview the software.

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