For the confused like me Microsoft Support were no help. Telling me to reinstall or spend £180 on a new key, ridiculous.
As it turns out the server side of the activation is under stress due to heavy load. In my case my installs were geniune, merely unable to activate due to activation servers not working correctly.
Wait it out or keep trying.
Thanks Kai.
just FYI folks
if you are using clean install and trying to get your activation code from windows 7 or 8 - it won't work like that. You have to upgrade your existing installation.
Do you know if you can you upgrade an existing Win 7 OS by using the ISO from the Microsoft Creation Tool (and creating a bootable USB)? Or do you have to upgrade using the tool from within the existing OS (i.e. the "upgrade this PC now" option).
Background Info:
I have a an old Win 7 Ultimate installation I am trying to upgrade (but I'm holding on to my main 8.1 installation for a while), but it hasn't received a Win 10 upgrade notification yet (i.e. the one in system tray to allow you to reserve).
Note: I installed Win 7 ages ago, but never used it or updated it when I originally installed it. So it has only been upgraded to SP1 today.
I have installed all important/optional updates, double checked that the required updates are indeed installed, double checked that windows is activated but still no sign of it.
My last option is to download the OS to a bootable device and try upgrade that way. I am hoping that the full Win 10 ISO provides an upgrade option as well as a clean install option. Do you know if this is the case?
If you run the ISO/Media Creation Tool from the desktop than you get the option of upgrading, yes.
You can upgrade using the Media Creation tool. Do not boot to the USB tool to do this, the upgrade must be initiated from within the OS you want to upgrade
It fails every time with an extremely helpful error message, "something happened".
This is exactly the question I am asking. You are telling me, 'no you cannot upgrade using a Win 10 ISO file and creating a bootable disc'.
If you want the free upgrade you must run the ISO from the desktop. If you run it from itself (ie: boot from it) than you do not get a free upgrade.
Well there goes me upgrading to Windows 10 so. Great!
Cheers for the info @Kai & @railstop.
Will have to wait and see if the upgrade notification appears in the next couple of days, and then see if that fixes the problem of why it won't let me upgrade with the tool now.
Hell I wonder who will get me to Windows 10 first, Microsoft or the pirates? My bet is probably the pirates.
Yes you can upgrade using this method. It works just fine. use the ISO you get from the media creation tool to make your USB, then just open the USB drive and click setup. it will go from there
