Win 10 activation

[PlzDontTakeMyMemes]

Just used an usb to update my windows 7 pc to windows 10. I skipped putting in the product key because it didn't work and I heard it activates by itself if you have a product key. Installation went smooth. Logged on to my pc for the first time, and I couldn't stand the brightness of the taskbar. Went into settings to switch to darkmode and realised that it says my windows 10 wasn't activated. I don't have a water mark at the bottom right of my screen and I used the cmd and notepad method to get my product key. Entered it in, didn't work. I rebooted but still didn't work. My product key is an OEM and its currently running on windows 10 home. Any help?

[SansVarnic]

35 minutes ago, PlzDontTakeMyMemes said:

Just used an usb to update my windows 7 pc to windows 10. I skipped putting in the product key because it didn't work and I heard it activates by itself if you have a product key. Installation went smooth. Logged on to my pc for the first time, and I couldn't stand the brightness of the taskbar. Went into settings to switch to darkmode and realised that it says my windows 10 wasn't activated. I don't have a water mark at the bottom right of my screen and I used the cmd and notepad method to get my product key. Entered it in, didn't work. I rebooted but still didn't work. My product key is an OEM and its currently running on windows 10 home. Any help?

The period of upgrading WIn7 to Win10 has already officially expired.

You will need to purchase yourself a new key. I wont suggest or promote buying a grey market purchase but that is up to you. I will only suggest you buy a key from Microsoft or Amazon as I can say with 100% that the key will be legitimate.

[PeachGr]

True that official will always work. For my self I payed 5€ on a web site and it works fine. 

[LuckyKray13]

I had a similar problem with using an OEM Windows key.
Very strange solution that worked for me was the following. Make sure your logged into your windows account which was used on the OEM machine where windows worked

- Keep note of existing windows key

 

 

Enter this in CMD

wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

or

create a text doc with the following text

 

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

and save as .vbs file format
 

- Disable your existing key in CMD (run as admin) With the following command:

slmgr /upk

can always reactivate old key if doesnt work using:

slmgr -ipk your-new-product-key

- Go to activate windows and purchase key, it will redirect you to the windows store. When you get the option to purchse it will give you a new key for free and automatically activate.

 

Cant garuntee this will work for you, and I have no idea why it does work. However it worked for me so its all I can recommend.

Either that or join the windows insider program, you'll get windows for free however you will be using unreleased versions so of course are prone to any issues in the patch that they havent yet patched

 

EDIT: Also I am using Windows 10 Pro so Home may act differently