How come my Win 10 is not activated anymore?


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I have been with the insider program since it started, signed up and everything. When the public ISO was released I decided to do a clean install . Now it's telling me it can't activate right now.

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You still need to install Windows 8 or 8.1 using a legit key, upgrade that to Windows 10 (use your iso) then you can fresh install and activate it. 
Its a pain in the butt process. You probably should of done like what I did and just do a fresh reset, that would of been the same as a fresh install and would of kept your current activation.

 

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I upgraded my Win 7 machine with a  Win 8 key I got when I was in school and was in the Microsoft Dreamspark program, thats been a few years now. 

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I upgraded my Win 7 machine with a  Win 8 key I got when I was in school and was in the Microsoft Dreamspark program, thats been a few years now. 

the key will still work ;)

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the key will still work ;)

Sweet, now i just have to find it again:/

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I entered that key and i got an error. So no matter what I still have to reload Win 8.1 and try to use that Dreamspark key from Win 8 to upgrade to Win 10? Damn thats a lot of work.

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The easiest way to do it is to install a barebones OS, then do the upgrade and select "keep nothing". It will be as good as doing a clean install. Then you can just use disk cleanup to get rid of the remains of 8.1

And once you've upgraded once, you can do a clean install which will permanently activate the moment you go online.

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I'm also a windows insider and upgraded my previous Windows 8.1 Pro install to various Windows 10 beta builds until the latest 10240 build.

Yesterday I decided to do a clean Windows 10 Pro install. I made a Win10 bootable USB using the Microsoft 'MediaCreationToolx64' tool. I booted from it, wiped my SSD, skipped the licence key entry setup and booted into Win10 unactivated. I signed into my Microsoft Account and Windows 10 is now activated.

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I'm also a windows insider and upgraded my previous Windows 8.1 Pro install to various Windows 10 beta builds until the latest 10240 build.

Yesterday I decided to do a clean Windows 10 Pro install. I made a Win10 bootable USB using the Microsoft 'MediaCreationToolx64' tool. I booted from it, wiped my SSD, skipped the licence key entry setup and booted into Win10 unactivated. I signed into my Microsoft Account and Windows 10 is now activated.

That's what I'm talking about, That is what I did, except mine hasn't activated .

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That's what I'm talking about, That is what I did, except mine hasn't activated .

it may take a while, im sure the activation servers are getting a battering.

 

@op apologies i meant use your 8.1 key to do a basic install of 8.1, it will then convert and validate, once thats done your good for future clean installs. I did same but with win 7 keys.

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