Windows 11 Pro 24H2 activation drama

Topic

Dear all, you may have read my recent post, where it looked like -apart from some minor annoyances- the upgrade from Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11 24H2 went fine.
And to my surprise, after installing old/Win10 versions of notepad, snipping tool, task manager and Start11, combined with Susan’s Disableshowmoreoptions.reg, Windows 11 isn’t so appaling. It looks and works like Windows 10 for the most part now.
But then pop-ups came up saying I need to activate Windows.

Although I changed the original, slow 500GB Samsung SSD in my Fujitsu Esprimo desktop pc to a bigger and much faster 2TB WD Black SN850X SSD, the motherboard itself never changed. It is said that Microsoft checks the activation key from the motherboard on its servers, but then I shouldn’t have to enter an activation key.
To make things more complex, I installed Windows 10 Pro 22H2 on the new SSD with a new/different activation key. No pop-ups came after that.
Now I upgraded to Windows 11 these activation pop-ups show up every 24 hours or so.

I have several Win10 and Win11 activation codes. I tried them all but the activation is severed every time about 24 hours later. Each time when the alert shows up and I go to Settings>System and run the activation troubleshooter, it reactivates the present key. And it does so with any key.
I also noticed there’s a different key in Registry’s Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\BackupProductKeyDefault string than the one which is shown by ShowKeyPlus, or by cmd’s wmic, but I understand that is not uncommon according to Greg Carmack in his July 2022 reply on https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/window-product-key-confusion-please-advise-me-why/bbeefcaa-30ef-4254-bc69-98098cb5771a.
I even got a new/different key from Fujitsu Support, but that doesn’t solve the problem either. I’ve tried all of them with and without vpn.
I also reverted to Windows 10 and again upgraded to Windows 11 to see if that would solve it. It didn’t.

I also read -let me call them- opinions online on how to force a certain key to stick, or to rebuild the Tokens.dat file, but those ‘solutions’ don’t give me the confidence to go ahead.

Another way is to login to my admin account, change the local account into a Microsoft account and activate then. But that forces me deactivate my vpn and to reveal my admin account password to Microsoft, which I’m not keen about. And what happens when I change the admin account back to local? Will that deactivate the key again?

I also ran slmgr to see if I could see what’s wrong, but the vbs file got very extensive due to my many key inputs and I also don’t understand it. It’s all gibberish to me.
I hope there’s someone here that can clearify it for me? I attached the vbs file.

So I hope that you guys know a way to help me activate my Windows 11 Pro 24H2 once and for all. All help greatly appreciated.

 

LMDE is my daily driver now. Old friend Win10 keeps spinning in the background

Replies

Don’t use slmgr, this is a one off activation.

Is the machine a brand or home built?
If it’s a brand the license will be written into the BIOS.
If it’s built, you should have a retail / OEM license for W10. Use that.

Leave it for a few days. If it’s still a problem then run the Activation Troubleshooter.

cheers, Paul

Do what Paul suggests
else
see if you can pick up a cheap retail key for win 10 on ebay. (of course assure excellent ratings)

“Another way is to login to my admin account, change the local account into a Microsoft account and activate then. But that forces me deactivate my vpn and to reveal my admin account password to Microsoft, which I’m not keen about.”
Passwords are not revealed to Microsoft. They are hash values and no one can read them.
You might also want to do this activation off of the VPN.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Sorry for the late reaction, guys. I’m in Europe and just woke up.

@Paul T It is a Fujitsu brand pc, Paul. But I did not find any key in the BIOS. All I can find in the BIOS is a UUID.
And I said already that I’ve ran the Activation Troubleshooter many times, and every time it solves the problem until 24 hours later…..

@krism It’s a Windows 11 rig, but I also have a Windows 10 key, that doesn’t stick either.

@s Thanks, Susan. I did try to activate without vpn but that didn’t help either.
Will the admin + password without vpn stick when I revert the admin account back to a local account?

LMDE is my daily driver now. Old friend Win10 keeps spinning in the background

TJ wrote:

It is a Fujitsu brand pc, Paul. But I did not find any key in the BIOS. All I can find in the BIOS is a UUID

Hi TJ:

Run the Belarc Advisor utility, and if the product key it displays in the section of the report titled “Software Licenses” is different from the other product keys you’ve already tried see if that product key is able to correctly activate your OS . I have a Win 10 OS that was installed at the factory by Dell and the product key is a 25-character code with the format xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx.

If that doesn’t help see the TechRepublic article How to Find Windows 10 Product Key in 3 Ways.
———–
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.5247 * Firefox v134.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24090.11-1.1.24090.11 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.2.4.157-1.0.5116 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Belarc Advisor v12.1.0

Thanks, but I already found the key with ShowKeyPlus which does the same as Belarc Advisor.
The problem is that all the genuine Win10 and Win11 keys I have are rejected 24 hours later.

LMDE is my daily driver now. Old friend Win10 keeps spinning in the background

Maybe it’s the multiple key attempts that has upset the apple cart.

I’d restore the Fujitsu Windows installation (via recovery, don’t enter any keys) and see what happens.
If it’s still not happy, try requesting help from MS.

cheers, Paul

2 users thanked author for this post.

satrow, TJ

Thank again, Paul. The activation troubles began after I put in the first genuine key, not because I later used multiple keys. That first one stayed good for days, but then all over sudden….

Yes, I’m torn now between a repair and MS. Last choice means creating a MS admin account. MS says that’s the way to solve the problem.
I only wonder whether I need to keep the MS account to keep te activation alive, because I’d rather ditch it once the activation is done.

LMDE is my daily driver now. Old friend Win10 keeps spinning in the background

I created an MS account to change a W11S (what were they thinking?) into a real W11 Home. Account since deleted without issue.

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

TJ

RE the Windows S mode (what were they thinking?) – the “S” mode was exactly like the Apple store/iphone model where applications would be vetted and secured.  If it had taken off it would have solved a lot of problems with Windows malware.

Alas it clearly did not take off.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

For me the issue was they didn’t line up the software before launching S. I wanted to install existing software (my password manager stands out), so I was stymied on day 1.

cheers, Paul

No it can be removed.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

TJ

I’m fed up with the whole thing and decided to do a big new year clean up and start from scratch, so I will wipe the lot and do a clean sheet install of Windows 11.

Thanks for all the help, people.

LMDE is my daily driver now. Old friend Win10 keeps spinning in the background