Windows 11 Activation

[benjamin1997]

Hi all,

 

I recently finished building my first custom PC. First I would like to say thank you to LTT. The 2024 build guide and setup guide videos on Youtube were extremely helpful. Thanks also to the community in the comments - lots of valuable info in there too.

 

I now need some help with licensing, so I am hoping you guys can provide some insight.

 

I installed Windows 11 Pro using the media creation tool offered by Microsoft and ran it with an autounattend.xml file to bypass Microsoft account requirement as well as a some other customizations.

 

I now need to activate this installation. Here are the options I am considering and questions I have about each:

 

1. Transfer Windows 10 license: I have an old Macbook with Windows 10 running on Bootcamp. When I run slmgr/dli in Command Prompt, it indicates that I have a retail key. In system settings it says it is a digital license, but the computer is not signed into any Microsoft account. This is a Windows 10 Home key. Before Installing Windows 11 Pro on my new system, I had installed Home so I could use this key. I deactivated it successfully on the Macbook, but it would not accept on my new Windows 11 machine. So first of all, is it possible to now transfer this license to my Windows 11 Pro installation by paying an upgrade fee? I can’t seem to find a straight answer on this. And second, is it even possible to transfer a key like this without a Microsoft account? Based on my research it should be, at least for my initial attempt of Home to Home.

 

2. Third Party OEM Key: I have done a bunch of research on this, but it is another situation I can’t seem to get a straight answer on. It seems like a lot of people go this route successfully, but do I need to use a Microsoft Account? Can I just buy one of these keys and type it into the activation field in Windows 11? Are these sites legit? There seems to be a lot of opinions on both sides of the argument for this one. I was surprised to see this method endorsed on Tom’s Hardware in this article:

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-11-free-or-cheap

Anyone have experience using this method?

 

3. Buy key from Microsoft: I would prefer to not pay this much for the license, particularly since I have a Windows 10 license I am not using. But if this is what I have to do, so be it. My main question here is again regarding Microsoft Account. If I buy a key straight from Microsoft, can I use it on the local account I have created on my new machine, or do I need to log into a Microsoft Account? I can’t find an answer to this anywhere and I don’t want to blow the money on a full price license only to find out I am required to use a Microsoft Account.

 

Sorry for the long-winded inquiry. I wanted to make sure I was clear on what I am trying to achieve here. Obviously my main objective is to forgo a Microsoft Account. I would also like to minimize the cost.

 

Any ideas or experience on this matter would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

Ben.

[TheLANguy]

Check out this video, it breaks down the options well.

 

[Donut417]

41 minutes ago, benjamin1997 said:

Transfer Windows 10 license: I have an old Macbook with Windows 10 running on Bootcamp. When I run slmgr/dli in Command Prompt, it indicates that I have a retail key. In system settings it says it is a digital license, but the computer is not signed into any Microsoft account. This is a Windows 10 Home key. Before Installing Windows 11 Pro on my new system, I had installed Home so I could use this key. I deactivated it successfully on the Macbook, but it would not accept on my new Windows 11 machine. So first of all, is it possible to now transfer this license to my Windows 11 Pro installation by paying an upgrade fee? I can’t seem to find a straight answer on this. And second, is it even possible to transfer a key like this without a Microsoft account? Based on my research it should be, at least for my initial attempt of Home to Home.

 

You may need to install Windows 10 home and do the in place upgrade to 11. As far as paying for an upgrade to Pro, you can but I think you need to use the Windows store to do it, which means you need to sign in to the MS account. Im not sure why people have issues with Microsoft accounts, regardless Microsoft is going to suck the data they need out of your machine. The benefits of the MS account is you dont need a Windows key to reinstall because the key is associated with your MS account. 

[Lurking]

Your home key won't work on a Pro license.

 

But why activate? I have a few PCs with W11 and I haven't found out the downside of not activating. I just installed W11 to try it out on pre-TMP hardware and just never got around activating. Everything works 

[benjamin1997]

thank you for the responses. 

 

i ended up purchasing an OEM key from pc world. i guess i misunderstood the difference between the 3rd party volume keys and OEM keys. in case anyone is wondering, i was able to enter the OEM key in settings and it activated right away - no ms account.

 

this seems like it was the cheapest legitimate option. fingers crossed my motherboard dont shit the bed any time soon.

 

thanks again.

[Lurking]

5 minutes ago, benjamin1997 said:

thank you for the responses. 

 

i ended up purchasing an OEM key from pc world. i guess i misunderstood the difference between the 3rd party volume keys and OEM keys. in case anyone is wondering, i was able to enter the OEM key in settings and it activated right away - no ms account.

 

this seems like it was the cheapest legitimate option. fingers crossed my motherboard dont shit the bed any time soon.

 

thanks again.

Technically it isn't legitimate since you are not an OEM. MS just doesn't really enforce it nor Cares. It gives them more market share, and at least the tiny OEM rate.

[benjamin1997]

Hi again.

 

So I have run into an odd situation that I can't figure out. I am hoping you guys might have some insight on this.

 

As mentioned above, I purchased an OEM key from PC World and entered it in the field at Settings > System > Activation. This seemed to work fine and I hadn't noticed any issues.

 

I am still fine-tuning this system, so I had to reinstall Windows 11 for reasons unrelated to activation. I expected that it would install like it had before, unactivated, and I would enter the same key I bought on this new installation. But to my surprise, when I checked Activation in Settings, it was already activated. At this point I assumed that somehow this OEM key was immediately linked to my motherboard on the first installation. So I opened Command Prompt as administrator and ran slmgr /dli. The results indicate that my system is licensed with a RETAIL key and the partial key it provides does not match the key I bought.

 

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on here? I hadn't run the slmgr /dli command on the first installation, so I don't know for sure if the original key I purchased might have been a RETAIL key for some reason. What is most mysterious to me is that the key indicated is not the one I purchased and entered into my system. For the record, previous to buying and entering this key, I had installed Windows 11 a few times and it was always shown as unactivated in Settings, watermark, etc.

 

I have explained this to a representative at PC World via email twice now. Both times he has dodged my questions and accused me of "messing with my system" and that I shouldn't be using Command Prompt if I am not an "Admin" (It is my machine that I built and own). I assumed that PC World is a reputable business, but the way this guy is communicating with me is very troubling; something seems fishy.

 

Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts about this? Can an activation key be malicious? I would assume not - I didn't download anything. I just entered the key. Is there any action I should take?

 

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[C2dan88]

10 hours ago, benjamin1997 said:

I am still fine-tuning this system, so I had to reinstall Windows 11 for reasons unrelated to activation. I expected that it would install like it had before, unactivated, and I would enter the same key I bought on this new installation. But to my surprise, when I checked Activation in Settings, it was already activated. At this point I assumed that somehow this OEM key was immediately linked to my motherboard on the first installation. So I opened Command Prompt as administrator and ran slmgr /dli. The results indicate that my system is licensed with a RETAIL key and the partial key it provides does not match the key I bought.

If you previously activated windows when you reinstalled Win11, it has ability to automatically re-activate without providing a key during installation, regardless weather you use a MS account or not.

I believe activation servers will take "digital fingerprint" of you system, if your systems "fingerprint" matches a previous activation then it will automatically activate.

 

Sometimes reinstalling windows you can get a trial period, so it may appear activated with a generic key.  After 30days may need you to enter license key to activate.

 

10 hours ago, benjamin1997 said:

I have explained this to a representative at PC World via email twice now.

UK PC world? Yea, they are not going to provide extensive support on how Microsoft activation services work.

 

[benjamin1997]

3 hours ago, C2dan88 said:

If you previously activated windows when you reinstalled Win11, it has ability to automatically re-activate without providing a key during installation, regardless weather you use a MS account or not.

I believe activation servers will take "digital fingerprint" of you system, if your systems "fingerprint" matches a previous activation then it will automatically activate.

 

Sometimes reinstalling windows you can get a trial period, so it may appear activated with a generic key.  After 30days may need you to enter license key to activate.

 

UK PC world? Yea, they are not going to provide extensive support on how Microsoft activation services work.

 

Thank you for the response. So if this automatic activation I experienced is the result of a "digital fingerprint", should I expect that the key would be OEM and match the one I originally entered?

 

Since it is showing a RETAIL key that does not match what I entered, might this indicate it is your second suggestion - a generic trial key?

 

Should I try re-entering the key I purchased? I would like to be running the key I actually bought, but I also don't want to lose my activation if the key has somehow been changed for a reason i don't understand.

 

The PC World I bought the key from is https://software.pcworld.com/  . They are US based I believe.