Activate Windows 11 With Digital License

[Billi Mayhue]

Realcase from the forum: "How to activate Windows 10? I installed a free version of Windows 10 pro from a tutorial I found on YouTube. Everything worked and I now want to activate windows seeing all of the benefits..."

Sick of the watermark sticking on the bottom right corner of the screen? If you want to activate Windows 10 as in the previous example, we will show you how to activate Windows 10 in 2022 with product key/digital license/CMD.

Step 1. Find Product Key when you are installing Windows 10. (If you have not found your product key, you can go to the fifth part of this page. Start installation first and then locate your key.)

Compared with the activated Windows 10, your monitor will get a watermark in the bottom right corner of the screen. And the personalization settings, critical updates, optional updates, and optional software - include Microsoft apps, downloads, services - will be disabled.

Hi Don,

Activating Windows on the reference VM has no bearing on whether it will activate on the target PC. The Sysprep\Generalize process which runs on every image at deployment time strips out any existing license info from the image. SmartDeploy provides two opportunities to enter a Windows product key - either in Capture Wizard (in which case it is hashed and written into the metadata of the image to be used at deployment time), or in Deploy Wizard (in which case it is written into the Sysprep Unattend.xml to be used at deployment time). If you do not provide a Windows product key at one of these times, then we cannot guarantee that the target device will activate.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at support (at) smartdeploy.com

Hi Don,

OEM licenses do not include reimaging rights from Microsoft. We have had some customers report success with such licenses, but it is inconsistent and unreliable (by design), as the license is only intended to be used to revert the device back to its original factory image. SmartDeploy has no interaction with this process, so we have no control over whether or not Microsoft allows the device to activate if you do not provide a license key for us to pass through at deployment time. Our recommendation is to look into getting a volume license. We are not a volume license reseller, but we can put you in touch with one - go ahead and email us and we can send you their info.

Regards,

Glenn

As Support mentioned, volume licensing is the correct way to go about this. But we've had luck pulling the OEM key from BIOS using something like ShowKeyPlus, then activating with that key. There are ways to automate this with a PS script.

I ran into this issue as well. If you have a digital license key which you most likely do then you need to get an ISO for windows 10 and reinstall the OS, this will reactivate windows. Fully complete the initial "out-of-box" set up while connected to the internet (so it can connect to the Microsoft servers and activate the digital license). When you get to the desktop for the first time is when your digital key will be activated, you don't need to worry about preforming all of the windows updates before you image. From there you can go ahead and image it. I would recommend setting your answer file to shutdown rather than restart after the image is complete. Make sure when you power the PC back on it is connected to the internet via ethernet cable or the digital key will not activate.

I have deployed 50 OEM Windows 10 machines without a VL. What I noticed is that a few machines were activated immediately, whereas others had to be online for anywhere from 24-72 hours before they would activate. But everyone of them did eventually activate with the OEM license.

My apologies, I have been on other projects and never returned to this topic. I know this is a very late reply, but the answer is no. I did not put the product key in the deploy wizard. That said, I have had the best success when the newly imaged computer is started for the first time with an active LAN connection (ethernet) rather than WiFi. My total deployments now are around 64, including re-imaging a few machines after employee turnover. I still have not had a single one fail to activate.

If you ever entered a Microsoft account, your digital license may have been associated with that account automatically. If this is the case, then you might be able to use the Activation Troubleshooter to reactivate (assuming you have Windows 10 Anniversary or above). Otherwise, you may need to call Microsoft Customer Support.

Starting with Windows 10 Version 1511, it's apparently (potentially) possible to use a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 key to activate Windows 10 in upgrades (though this excludes Volume, Multiple Activation or Enterprise Licenses).

I upgraded my motherboard recently and was prompted to upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10 and when I did I was told my Windows was no longer activated. I went through the troubleshooter and I was prompted with:

I have an activated copy of Windows 10 and I know other computers I've dealt with were automatically activated after the update. I did not fresh install Windows onto my motherboard because it did not need it, so it's not like the license was lost in translation. I am unsure why an automatic upgrade to Windows 11 would cause this. What do I need to do to fix it?

What type of license you've? If that was an OEM license, it is usually tied to first motherboard it is activated on. So when you change motherboard, you need a new license.

While if you've retail license, you can try activating it again using the 25-character product key and see if it helps.

I recently had a motherboard and processor replacement performed by an HP service technician. Everything was fine at the completion of his work and the problem I was having was resolved.

The complication appeared later that evening when Windows 10 did its background tasks and began urging me to Activate windows. I followed the instructions of going to Settings > Update & Security > Activation where I have the error shown here

I used Troubleshooting and I went as far as logging in using both my skype and live.ca logins, but since I do not (refuse to) login to windows with those credentials, there is no record or recorded devices stored there. I was able to use restore to reverse the affects of that move, thank expletive lord, and did a little more research. I discovered from process of elimination where to find the OEM Key for my current OS and the new motherboard, as shown below.

If your system originally came with Windows 7, then the OEM license mechanism requires a SLIC table to be active within BIOS. This SLIC table is added and enabled at manufacture time using proprietary HP tools. Then an associated xrm license file and OEM product key, which are included in the HP reinstall disk along with the install scripts, are processed and this results in the OS becoming "activatated" the install without needing internet or user action.

However, to use the HP reinstall disks, the firmware needs some HP special sauce which the technician that replaced the mobo should have added. This special sauce is the featurebyte, BuildID and other data that the HP reinstall disks uses to work out what should be installed on your PC.

Jumping into BIOS and hitting "CTRL" and "A" key at the same time, before jumping to "System Information", will expose some of these special sauce data fields that the tech should have filled in. If they are not filled in, you should be able to find that data on the labels of your system and do it yourself - just don't put the wrong data in the wrong field

If at a later date you upgraded from Windows 7 to the free Windows 10 install, MS license servers would have taken note of this fact so a reinstall should occur without issue. However, if some major components are changed after the free update was made, then the system may not longer be seen as 'the same' comupter you installed the free Win10 on. As such you will need to call MS and explain what has happened and as @DGroves stated, MS is usually OK with such issues and so should provide you with a new Win10 license (write it down).

However, if your system came with Windows 10 from HP, which uses a different OEM activation mechanism to Windows 7, then likely the technician didn't enter the appropriate Windows10 5x5 license key into the firmware (which is where i believe it should be stored and tools can read it)...

In either case, and especially if the special sause data fields are not populated in BIOS, i'd call HP tech support and get them to come out and fix the system they failed to fix the first time around

I am, thus far, not happy with the solution provided by HP Elite support(David), who is sending me the 8.1 Pro restore media. He claims there is a path to the free Windows 10 upgrade still out there somewhere!? That is an elusive answer, and I want to find a conclusive statement to back that up, from someone of authority.

Being that the reason I had to have a new board and processor installed because of the latest (since pulled) BIOS update for my system, rushed to release by Intel and provided by HP, I think they both are responsible for the costs, even my inconvenience, for this. I am not done with this by any means.

Some expensive programs are allowed to work only if the MAC address of the communicating workstation matches a centrally stored authorized MAC, and an even higher level of security is based on matching of the UUID of the workstation instead, or one we use requires match of both the UUID and the MAC. Reportedly the central Microsoft W10 activation servers store the UUID of a W10-activated workstation and thus you can reinstall W10 of the same type without having to have access to your W10 license code ever again (your purchased code or your MS gift code). Since that is based on the UUID if you get a new motherboard and try to reinstall W10 the central MS servers won't recognize the new motherboard unless it was programmed with the original motherboard's UUID.

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