So my friend wanted to upgrade his PC, it was running an OEM copy of Windows 7 and the upgrade feature wasn't working. Every time we entered the product key, it would just return and say not valide
So we booted up with a USB, formatted and installed Windows 10, skipped all activation and now activation will not work.
Please help.
Yeah because that isn't how you do it....
You install Windows 10 via Windows Update. You'll get a notification through Windows Update when it is ready to install. You clcik begin and it does it. You don't put in a key or anything. It reads it from the PC.
You also can't install it on a wiped drive either. You need to have a functional licensed copy of Windows 7 or 8 on the computer when you do the USB boot. It reads the key and upgrades. That skips the download and install through Windows Update.
After the update you can do a clean install but before no. You need to do it as an upgrade. Reinstall Windows 7 or 8 and try again.
Krieger is 100% right.
if you've updated your win 7 and the option to upgrade still has not popped up, you can use the Windows 10 media creation tool..
Just as fyi even if you do use the upgrade tool on a valid copy of windows you still need to manually activate the install in settings if you don't wait for the notification in Windows update, well I did anyway so I'd imagine that everyone else who didn't bother to wait would probably have to do the same.
After some research we found the key provided from ASUS was fraudulent.
That's why it was prompting us for a product key.
The method described above may be working for some or most, but in fact is not working for everyone, problems is posted all over the internet and I have 3 friends with the same issue, upgraded first from a legit copy, got it activated, then did a clean install and their keys are blocked now.
taken directly from the MS FAQ page.
Yes.
Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you
will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same
device. You won’t need a product key for re-activations on the same
hardware. If you make a meaningful change to your hardware, you may need
to contact customer support to help with activation. You’ll also be
able to create your own installation media like a USB drive or DVD, and
use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded.
Yes, you can reinstall windows. Here is a issue that i have discovered. While making a usb for install, my antivirus tripped on it and stripped a file out of the iso. So you may need the to suspend your antivirus while making the usb . You might check your microsoft account and delete the old device.
Yeah, we contacted ASUSTek support and Microsoft support and the OEM key used on the laptop was blocked.
So we have to wait for ASUS to communicate with Microsoft or for the to reimburse a new Windows 7 key.
So in the mean time we have patched it.
/solved