Windows 10 users seeing their erroneous product-activation issues resolved

[nir]

Microsoft's back-end activation issues which caused a number of Windows users to get false product-activation-error messages seems to be nearly fixed.

 

A seeming problem with Microsoft's Windows activation servers today caused a number of Windows 10 users to see false messages informing them they were running non-activated software. At the end of the day (U.S. Eastern time) on November 8, some users were reporting these issues were resolved.

Credit: ZDNet

On November 8, a number of users who had activated and licensed copies of Windows 10 Pro began receiving messages saying they needed to install Windows 10 Home or go back and purchase a "genuine" copy of Windows. This included both Windows Insider testers and those builds released to mainstream users (including some users with the Windows 10 October 2018 update/1809).

 

Some users said they had contacted Microsoft support and were told incorrectly they needed to repurchase licenses or somehow obtain new product keys. (And some people said they did this.) Some users also said they followed the instructions they received in the erroneous messages and rolled back to Windows 10 Home.

 

Meanwhile, Microsoft officials said very little officially about what was happening. In the afternoon (ET) of November 8, after asking Microsoft for an update on the situation, I got the following message from a spokesperson:

"We're working to restore product activations for the limited number of affected Windows 10 Pro customers." (attributable to Jeff Jones, Senior Director, Microsoft)

I asked for comment on what caused the activation problems; when and how Microsoft expected them to be fixed; and whether users would have to take any steps to resolve the issue and was told the company had nothing more to share at that time.

 

I had also heard from from one user who said he received erroneous activation messages about his Windows Server 2016 licenses, as well as from users who said they were unable to buy an upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro today.

 

Around 5 p.m. ET, I started hearing reports from users on Twitter that their activation issues seemed to be resolved. Users were told to try going to Settings > Update & Security > Activation and then select Troubleshoot to run the Activation Troubleshooter to try to restore correct Activation status. (Thanks to Neowin for publishing the steps and Microsoft Senior Program Manager Brandon Leblanc for tweeting them.)

 

There are 31 pages of comments (and counting) on the Microsoft Answers forum about today's issue. Hopefully there will some kind of explanation coming from Microsoft officials about what happened and what those who took incorrect measures to try to fix this issue should can do to undo any damage (monetary or otherwise) that's been done.

 

Source

[shorty6100]

Wow. I personally have had virtually no issues with Windows 10. It's super fast and drivers load quickly.  I don't care for the crap preloaded with stuff I don't want (although that can be easily uninstalled). I'm also not a fan of the privacy issues (also somewhat controlled with 3rd part apps) Maybe Microsoft needs to adjust the bi annual updates. I've learned to clean install twice a year. For the most part, I like Windows 10. What OS DIDN'T have its share of issues? With all the latest issues that have been reported, it's no wonder many are unwilling to upgrade.

[steven36]

6 hours ago, shorty6100 said:

What OS DIDN'T have its share of issues? With all the latest issues that have been reported, it's no wonder many are unwilling to upgrade. 

This wasn't and issue with Windows itself it was a Issue  with Microsoft Activation  servers  and the digital license  Bugs happen before in 2015 when people try upgrading to Windows 10 the server  on some pcs activated right away some had to wait hours before they could reach the servers .

 

If you change motherboards  you have to put a fake key in that calls out to the digital license to reactivate ...   Most people on Windows 10 didn't even buy it so they have no key .

 

I used Windows 10 tell RS 4 came out the version most are still on  because they pulled the  Oct update , When I booted up RS 3   the 1st  time Windows defender didn't play nice with my firewall  software and caused it to go slow  so i had to go in and disable that for it to even be usable . I never did like that version and stayed  in my other OS  Ubuntu for like the whole 6 months , expect id boot into windows long enough to do updates about once a month  . 

 

When I bought my PC it came with Windows 8.1 with updates tell 2023  without having to reinstall  windows  and i got tired of reinstalling windows 10 and setting it back up and every time they mess up the tweaks.  So i switched back to Windows 8.1.. I stayed on Windows XP for 10 years before i switched to Windows 7 and i will stay on Windows 8.1 and Linux tell 2023 and then most likely ill ditch windows or just use Windows 8.1 without updates.  Your talking about people upgrading to RS 5  When there still millions of people on XP , Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 that's not even studying  Windows 10. That's right here it is 2018  almost 2019  and still XP  has a 4.23% market share ...

 

I been on the internet long enough that i don't need the latest version  of and OS , because we don't use and OS we use software on the OS when people start talking about the OS something  is wrong with it. And people have been complaining about Windows 10 since 2015.

[straycat19]

11 hours ago, nir said:

There are 31 pages of comments (and counting) on the Microsoft Answers forum about today's issue.

 

35 Years and the "most secure" (Microsoft's words, not mine) version of Windows is still like a sieve.  Windows 10 just proves that the latest is not the greatest.  Something has gone seriously wrong at Microsoft over the years since the have to keep releasing fixes and updates more frequently as time goes on.  Windows 1.0 had three followup releases ever, Windows 286 had two releases, Windows 3.1 had a few, but nothing serious, and Windows 3.11 was perfect out of the box.  Then things started going downhill, Windows 95, 95a, 95b, 95c, and 95d.  With NT4 they started releasing service packs, 1 thru 6, but the packs didn't create problems and the original install worked fine in most cases without the SPs.  We all know about 98, Me, Vista, 2000, XP, Win7, Win8, and Win 8.1...some skipped, some good releases.  Obviously there are many systems today running 98, XP, 7, and 8.1.  All of my systems run one or more of those OSes.  Windows 10 is so shoddy it doesn't even reach the level of Alpha release ware.  Two portable Windows 10 systems I bought have instructions with them on how to block all Windows 10 updates and are recommended to block them by the manufacturer. I never saw that with any prior release of Windows by any manufacturer.