Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Learn how to activate Windows using a product key or digital license, check your activation status, and link your Microsoft account.
Activate Windows 10. As Windows 10 will automatically activate if you are connected to the internet, you can confirm your activation status by selecting. If you're not able to complete activation successfully, you will be connected to Microsoft support for your region and country.
If you're having trouble activating Windows 10, follow these steps to fix activation errors: Confirm that your device is up to date and running Windows 10, version 1607 or later. In the search box on the taskbar, type winver, and then select Winver from the list of results. You'll see the version and build of Windows.
If you're unable to activate Windows 10, the Activation troubleshooter could help. To use the troubleshooter, select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Activation , and then select Troubleshoot .
Make sure that the edition, Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro, is the same before and after your hardware change. Your digital license and product key will reactivate only if the edition remains the same. You can see your edition on the same Activation page where you checked your activation status.
Locate your product key for Windows 10 or Windows 11. Depending on how you got your copy of Windows 10 or Windows 11, you'll need either a 25-character product key or a digital license to activate it.
Activation helps verify that your copy of Windows is genuine and hasn’t been used on more devices than the Microsoft Software License Terms allow. When you get a message that says Windows can't be activated, there are several possible reasons why.
Customers who are already running Windows 10 Education can upgrade to Windows 10, version 1607 through Windows Update or from the Volume Licensing Service Center. We recommend Windows 10 Education to all K-12 customers as it provides the most complete and secure edition for education environments.
After you upgrade to Windows 10, you can reinstall or do a clean installation on the same device. You won't need a product key to reactivate Windows 10 on the same hardware. For more info on how to create your own Windows 10 installation media, see the Microsoft software download website.
Windows 10, version 2004 and 20H2 devices that have the January 2021 nonsecurity preview release, or a later version, installed might experience Windows activation failures containing error code 0xC004C003.