I recently built myself a semi-decent computer, ive been using it for a while now too. Ive been wanting to activate windows to get all the features but im not to sure about something. Ive been using my computer for a few months now, its accumulated the usual things like games and other media and is in full use with no issues to report. When i finally come around to activating windows, will i have to do a clean install for the activation to work or can i just activate it from within the settings. I was told by a good friend of mine who works with computers that i may have to "start again" as he put it and reinstall windows for everything to go well. I will also be getting my activation key off of kinguin, is there anyone who has had issues with keys off of kinguin, short or long term. If anyone has a better site to get keys from let me know (UK by the way). I understand that i dont HAVE to activate windows and i have been using it without activating for a while, i just want to rid my desktop of the watermark and unlock all of the features and settings.