Microsoft confirms Windows 10 and 11 activation issues, says it is investigating

[DragonSlayer101]

Facepalm: Microsoft is investigating a new activation issue that is affecting many Windows 10 and 11 PCs. The problem seems to have cropped up last month after the company pushed out an update to plug a loophole that allowed Windows 7,8, and 8.1 users to upgrade to Windows 10 and 11 for free. However, the update is reportedly causing issues for some people who say they used the method to legitimately move to Windows 10 or 11 from an older version of the OS.

According to aggrieved users, the problem affects Windows 10/11 installations that were legally activated using Windows 7/8 product keys as part of a free upgrade offer from Microsoft. However, following last month's update some of those installations are reportedly getting deactivated if any hardware component in the PC is changed or the BIOS is updated.

The issue has been confirmed by The Verge's senior editor Tom Warren, who says one of his test PCs also got deactivated after swapping out a motherboard, requiring him to buy a new Windows 11 license to keep using the device. At least one Windows user also filed a complaint with the FTC after his Windows 10 installation was deactivated after a hardware change.

With so many people facing problems with activation, Microsoft has finally taken note of the problem and is looking into resolving the issue. In a statement to The Verge, the principal product manager of Windows, Bill Bobonas, said "Microsoft is aware of these customers' reports and is investigating." He also advised affected users to contact customer support.

However, customer support has apparently been refusing to help affected users. Daniel Mittelman, who filed the FTC complaint, says Microsoft support refused to do anything about his activation concerns as his Windows 10 license had been upgraded from Windows 7. This is despite the support personnel acknowledging that changing hardware components is not a violation of the Windows licensing terms.

Until Microsoft rolled out the controversial update last month, folks running Windows 7,8, and 8.1 could update to Windows 11 for free by simply using the activation key of the older OS. However, the update plugged that loophole, with the company pointing out that the official free upgrade offer ended back in July 2016. While Microsoft promised that devices upgraded under this program would remain activated, recent hardware changes have been causing issues with this activation. It will be interesting to see how quickly Microsoft will sort out this problem to pacify the enraged users.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/100863-microsoft-confirms-windows-10-11-activation-issues-investigating.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

MS cant fix its own activation locks. Thats why they dont want to help. Remember that script someone wrote to activate without a key that MS support staff were caught using?

It's just another reason why MS should just make windows free to use, or users should move away from MS. They can barely keep this decrepit codebase functional.

 

[yRaz]

MS cant fix its own activation locks. Thats why they dont want to help. Remember that script someone wrote to activate without a key that MS support staff were caught using?

It's just another reason why MS should just make windows free to use, or users should move away from MS. They can barely keep this decrepit codebase functional.

I have legal keys but I also crack windows anyway. You can get them for $20 online, often less. Windows already isn't basically free, but if it was completely free then they'd be allowed to collect your DATA to pay for it.....wait, they already are collecting your data.....

 

[trents]

This article is somewhat confusing. As far as I know and according to my years of experience in doing hardware and OS upgrades, swapping out a motherboard has always required a new activation key. Other hardware changes normally don't deactivate the existing key but the OS activation is tied to the motherboard. I know this is so when dealing with OEM OS installations of Windows. I think with retail versions of Windows there is more laxity and you can reinstall the OS a certain number of times (like 3 times?) using the original activation key. Am I missing something here?

 

[McRuff]

This article is somewhat confusing. As far as I know and according to my years of experience in doing hardware and OS upgrades, swapping out a motherboard has always required a new activation key. Other hardware changes normally don't deactivate the existing key but the OS activation is tied to the motherboard. I know this is so when dealing with OEM OS installations of Windows. I think with retail versions of Windows there is more laxity and you can reinstall the OS a certain number of times (like 3 times?) using the original activation key. Am I missing something here?

You are right about OEM. But retail has no restrictions on the number of times you change components including motherboards. If this is retail windows installs failing to activate, they have a problem.

 

[trents]

You are right about OEM. But retail has no restrictions on the number of times you change components including motherboards. If this is retail windows installs failing to activate, they have a problem.

Retail actually allows an unlimited number of hardware changes? Wouldn't that amount to being able to install one purchased retail version on an unlimited number of computers? Or is Windows deactivated on all computers but the one with the most recent OS install? How does that work? Honestly, I haven't bought a retail copy of Windows in years. I always just use the OEM versions.

 

[Hotlynx16]

This article is somewhat confusing. As far as I know and according to my years of experience in doing hardware and OS upgrades, swapping out a motherboard has always required a new activation key. Other hardware changes normally don't deactivate the existing key but the OS activation is tied to the motherboard. I know this is so when dealing with OEM OS installations of Windows. I think with retail versions of Windows there is more laxity and you can reinstall the OS a certain number of times (like 3 times?) using the original activation key. Am I missing something here?

I upgraded my computer a few years back from windows 7 ultimate to 10 pro. Then last year I upgraded the motherboard from a B450 to a B550, cloned my M2 SSD X3 to a M2 X4 SSD and put on the new board. They said it wouldn't work But it did with no issues except it said it wasn't activated. I probably could have called and got it activated but it was easier to just buy a cheap key and use that. Windows 10 was able to update to the new board without reinstalling the OS!

 

[trents]

I upgraded my computer a few years back from windows 7 ultimate to 10 pro. Then last year I upgraded the motherboard from a B450 to a B550, cloned my M2 SSD X3 to a M2 X4 SSD and put on the new board. They said it wouldn't work But it did with no issues except it said it wasn't activated. I probably could have called and got it activated but it was easier to just buy a cheap key and use that. Windows 10 was able to update to the new board without reinstalling the OS!

Having the Windows OS remain functional has after a major hardware change like a motherboard is not uncommon because Windows has so many built-in hardware drivers. As long as the NIC finds a driver such that it can connect the computer to the Internet, Windows will download all the drivers it needs that it didn't already have. Same with cloning. The real issue is not functionality after doing these hardware changes but losing the activation. Like you, I always have solved these issues by buying a cheap activation key as long as you are trying to reactivate an OEM version of Windows. I don't think the cheap activation keys will work with retail versions of Windows.

 

[Hotlynx16]

Having the Windows OS remain functional has after a major hardware change like a motherboard is not uncommon because Windows has so many built-in hardware drivers. As long as the NIC finds a driver such that it can connect the computer to the Internet, Windows will download all the drivers it needs that it didn't already have. Same with cloning. The real issue is not functionality after doing these hardware changes but losing the activation. Like you, I always have solved these issues by buying a cheap activation key as long as you are trying to reactivate an OEM version of Windows. I don't think the cheap activation keys will work with retail versions of Windows.

I actually built my B450 computer in 2020 when I was off for knee surgery, before that I had been running a Socket 775 with 16GB memory and a RX580 since 2011. I still had my windows 7 ultimate disk and installed it when I built the B450 board then upgraded it to Windows 10 for free! I had the itching for a new build and upgraded to the B550 board and a 2TB M2 4X4 nvme drive so I didn't mind paying for an activation key!

 

[McRuff]

Retail actually allows an unlimited number of hardware changes? Wouldn't that amount to being able to install one purchased retail version on an unlimited number of computers? Or is Windows deactivated on all computers but the one with the most recent OS install? How does that work? Honestly, I haven't bought a retail copy of Windows in years. I always just use the OEM versions.

Only one machine at a time is allowed. Hardware testing sites use retail as they are always changing hardware on the test machines.
This is what their License terms say about retail. There is no mention of only being able to do it so many times.

"Stand-alone software. If you acquired the software as stand-alone software (and also if you upgraded from software you acquired as stand-alone software), you may transfer the software to another device that belongs to you. You may also transfer the software to a device owned by some one else if (I) you are the first licensed user of the software and (ii) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement. You may use the backup copy we allow you to make or the media that the software came on to transfer the software. Every time you transfer the software to a new device, you must remove the software from the prior device. You may not transfer the software to share licenses between devices.

 

[Gezzer]

This article is somewhat confusing. As far as I know and according to my years of experience in doing hardware and OS upgrades, swapping out a motherboard has always required a new activation key. Other hardware changes normally don't deactivate the existing key but the OS activation is tied to the motherboard. I know this is so when dealing with OEM OS installations of Windows. I think with retail versions of Windows there is more laxity and you can reinstall the OS a certain number of times (like 3 times?) using the original activation key. Am I missing something here?

Actually MS is no longer really using a hardware hash to identify if the install of Win10 is valid or not. They want you to digitally link your key to your MS account instead. The one you use for One Drive, Outlook.com and the MS store. So you can pretty much install it to as many different systems as you want as long as it's a single one in use at any given time. This means you can swap anything you want including the MB, I've done this a number of times. I think what the problem might be is the fact that Win7 and Win8 did in fact use a hardware hash and there might be left over hash related activation code in systems that did the free upgrade.

 

[bondflavor]

It's just another reason why MS should just make windows free to use

If they do this, they'll have just the excuse they need to cram the OS full to bursting with ads that can't be disabled. That's not a future Windows I want to experience.

 

[Hotlynx16]

If they do this, they'll have just the excuse they need to cram the OS full to bursting with ads that can't be disabled. That's not a future Windows I want to experience.

Yes, they are already data mining you!

 

[bondflavor]

Yes, they are already data mining you!

Indeed, I'm sure all the big tech companies are doing that, and I'd like it if they didn't. But I'm much more annoyed by ads, which directly affect my experience, than companies harvesting data from my use of their services, which doesn't.

 

[captaincranky]

OK boyz & gurls, listen up. Part of the problem here, (IMHO & experience), is that M$ has shut down the Windows 7 activation servers, and didn't bother to tell anyone, and doesn't really openly admit it.

You can no longer install and reactivate Win 7 with the original product key. You have to go through a laborious process of phoning M$, opening up an activation process, (slui 3.exe), then reading them 9 fields of 7 numbers each. If they "approve" of this "installation validation", then they will issue 9 fields of 7 numbers to type in, thereby, (hopefully), causing the install to activate.,

SO, obviously if the Win 7, (or 8?) original product key can't be verified, an installation of Win 10 based on a Win 7 key will deactivate.

Two points. You can't use an original Win 7 product key even if you are putting it back into the same machine in which no components have been changed...!

M$ closed the "loophole" of people still being able to get a "free upgrade" to Windows 10. by doctoring the "media creation tool" so that it will no longer run on Win 7..! You can download it all you want, but it won't run on 7. When you query its "compatibility mode", you will be informed that it is set for "Windows XP service pack 3. There is no option to change it either.

 

[imdarkbreeze]

That is not the reason whatsoever. And it's definitely not related to the closing of the Windows 7 activation servers, which happened long before this problem began.

I was one of the first people this happened to way back in the beginning of October shortly after they released the cumulative update that seems to have initiated this problem, and my system immediately became deactived. No hardware change occurred, at all. In fact, from one day to the next, NO changes had occurred. Not hardware, not software (Other than the Windows update), nothing. It simply deactivated.

It should have nothing at all to do with any Windows 7 or 8 activation servers because systems that have already been upgraded to 10 or 11 don't need to do a key verification because they will already have a digital entitlement. Now, if somebody never attached that entitlement to their own MS account, then perhaps that could come into play, but for myself, on three different systems, all of which were originally activated using purchased full retail boxed Windows 8.1 media and then updated to 10 when the free upgrade was first offered, and then to 11 once that became a thing, via digital entitlements AND attached to my Microsoft account, it could not be related to the activation servers.

My products became deactivated AND my digital entitlements were removed from my MS account "devices" page. I have screenshots for before and after this happened AND I've been reporting/updating my problems with Microsoft refusing to listen to me to editor Avram Pilch over at TH since early October although until now there has been little I could find beyond my own accounts to back me up. And let me tell you, as somebody who has vehemently defended the idea that users need to do things the right way and purchase valid Windows licenses to avoid supporting the kinds of criminal operations where most of these "cheap" and "gray" keys come from, it really pisses me off to have this happen and then get told by Microshaft via level II tech support that I need to just buy another license because they are not going to fix it for me.

Of course, that was before it became a widespread problem. First time, level II tech support told me they knew about it and it would be fixed within a few weeks. Few weeks later, they basically told me to pound sand. So, going to be watching this very closely and trying again with Microshaft to get it straight but IMO there is little chance this has anything to do with activation servers for older products, except in cases where somebody is trying to upgrade one of those older OS versions NOW that had not been already given a digital entitlement prior to them retracting the free upgrade offer.

 

[captaincranky]

@imdarkbreeze Yet you freely admit that you never actually bought a Windows 10 or 11 license..

Just because the Win 7 & 8 servers are shutdown, doesn't mean that no connection still exists between your current OS and the product codes used to activate your current versions, which are likely tucked away in the bowels of one of M$' servers, somewhere, somehow. To me this looks like an attempt on M$' part, to rescind their "free upgrade" offer(s), via subterfuge. After all, they did tell you to, "just buy new licenses"

I just built a Windows 10 machine, using a key I purchased directly from the Techspot Store. Surely, nothing could go wrong there, ay?

However, I'm terrified to put it online ever, since it's activated. All the drives, memory, and VGA were installed afterwards and it remains activated, (last time I checked)

It still needs to be hooked to the web a couple of times, to activate Photoshop Elements and Affinity imaging programs. Assuming that (tentatively), goes well, I vow to keep it air gapped, and use Windows 7 for the rest of my life online, as long as I can get browsers that work with it.

The di*kheads at M$ were unsuccessful at driving me into histrionics with "security concerns", or tempt me with DX-12. (Not a gamer), at the release of "the last version of Windows ever, Windows 10".

I did however have to trash a perfectly good copy of Win 7, due to the fact that M$ no longer offers "SP-1" downloads, but rather a "final security update" package, which incidentally bricks the machine for online use with any Chromium based browser.

I mean really, should you get "security warnings", when navigating to Walmart?

M$ today has absolutely no corporate ethics whatsoever. It surrendered them when it hired Satya Nadella, who BTW, just received a billion dollar bonus.

 

[imdarkbreeze]

Oh, I totally, 1000% agree that it's Microshaft attempting to rescind their "free upgrade" offers that so many people took advantage of. And I'll share why. Because the WHOLE POINT of the free upgrade to Windows 10, and 11, was so that Microshaft could use their phone home telemetry to gather as much information about users and their habits as possible. Now that they've done that, they want to take what they gave for free, back, so that they can rape all those users all over again.

Don't get me wrong, I think 100 dollars for Windows is pretty fair, for the most part, considering the price of it hasn't really changed in like 22 years. Nobody can name ANYTHING else, pretty much in the world, that hasn't substantially changed price in the last five years much less the last 22 years as the upgrade price of Windows XP was about 100 bucks, yet the full version was like 200 but you could find it for like 100 dollars at times. But after this crap they are pulling, I am no longer trying to steer users away from the cheap keys even though I fully recognize the risk of many of them being blacklisted.

Microsoft can pound sand if they are going to again start pulling these kinds of shenanigans, which clearly they are.

However, aside from for the original product, once you took advantage of the free upgrade your legitimacy for Windows 10 was based NOT on that original product key, but on a digital entitlement that was supposed to either be tied to the BIOS ID string or your Microsoft account. Clearly the fact that what has happened to me has happened to MANY others, and that what happened to me is that Microsoft just decided "screw these people" we are going to revoke those entitlements and make them pay anyhow, shows that this is not just some "bug" but an intentional attempt to commit what amounts to fraud on all these users otherwise those digital entitlements would not be removed from Microsoft account "devices" pages that used to show them attached to the account. I absolutely refuse to believe that a bug would cause those devices to disappear from the list of previously activated devices as listed on that page. No. Damn. Way.

 

[captaincranky]

@imdarkbreeze If I were you, I'd put my money where my mouth is", (so to speak), and take advantage of Techspot Store's "Black Friday Sale", and grab a copy of Windows 11 Pro. from there:

Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Deal — Lifetime License

<p>Is your computer's OS up to date? Enhance productivity and security with this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro deal, courtesy of a Microsoft-verified partner.</p>

store.techspot.com

Surely you have a spare, empty, drive laying around. Slap it in, install 11, and see how it goes. After all, at the present time, all you have to lose is about 20 bucks, as opposed to 200. (Which is what M$ is asking online for an 11 license ATM).

FWIW, and of course IMHO, M$ offshore support is an inept, incompetent, pack of jackals and imbeciles. I had one try to sell me a copy of Windows 11, for a 16 year old Intel G-31 platform.