Windows 10 suddenly deactivated

Sumit 44,306 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2018-11-08T11:09:46+00:00

Hi,

There is an ongoing issue about Windows 10 suddenly shown as deactivated. The affected users need not to do anything as it is a known issue. Here is what was told by Microsoft Chat support:

Microsoft has just released an Emerging issue announcement about current activation issue related to Pro edition recently. This happens in Japan, Korea, American and many other countries.I am very sorry to inform you that there is a temporary issue with Microsoft's activation server at the moment and some customers might experience this issue where Windows is displayed as not activated.

Our engineers are working tirelessly to resolve this issue and it is expected to be corrected within one to two business days

Thanks to Vijay_Verma and Danielfor the information.

Thanks to PaulSey..., a Microsoft employee in this thread which has explanation about this in more detail:

We are aware of reports that some customers’ Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise machines are not recognizing their licenses as activated. Users may receive the following notification: “Error: you are running Windows 10 Pro, but you have valid digital license for Windows 10 Home," or one of the following error codes 0X803F8001, 0xC004C003.

We are actively working to resolve this within 24 hours. You can still use your PC; however, the watermark will appear until activation is restored. Thank you for your patience.

We will update this post with additional information as needed and once activations are restored.

Edit 1: Users report that Windows activation troubleshooter might say You have a Windows 10 Home license but you are running Windows 10 Pro. You are advised to ignore that message and wait for the fix.


Edit 2: Update as of morning 11/9/2018 Morning EST.

Any affected customer can continue to use Windows 10 Pro as usual, and the watermark will disappear within 24 hours as activation is automatically restored.

To manually resolve the issue:  Select the Start button, select Settings > Update & security > Activation, and then select Troubleshoot to run the Activation Troubleshooter.  (If the device is already activated, the Troubleshoot option will not appear.)

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Licensing and activation

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Anonymous
2018-11-08T21:50:17+00:00

We are aware of reports that some customers’ Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise machines are not recognizing their licenses as activated. Users may receive the following notification: “Error: you are running Windows 10 Pro, but you have valid digital license for Windows 10 Home," or one of the following error codes 0X803F8001, 0xC004C003.

We are actively working to resolve this within 24 hours. You can still use your PC; however, the watermark will appear until activation is restored. Thank you for your patience.

We will update this post with additional information as needed and once activations are restored.

Paul...

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T02:47:00+00:00

    yeah happened to me lost alot of stuff went from win 10 pro  to win 10 enterprise had keys backed up everything still said i wasnt running the right version of windows. which is real funny since i had been running on 2 machines 2 versions of win 10 pr for over almost 2 years now both done on upgrade so my laptop i started to reload and well.  back up to win 7 pro but scared to try win 10 pro again since it was an upgrade i might not get it or have to start all over again..

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T02:06:37+00:00

    Not quite. An unactivated Windows has limited function and stops working fairly quickly, and runs with a prominent watermark on the screen. The "fix" so far seems to be activation of a new key that (appears to) break the connection with the Win7 key that allowed upgrade - so if retail 7 was used is 10 no longer retail?

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T01:52:44+00:00

    So, I had used a previously unused license early this morning after seeing the activation get deactivated around 3am... Now I'm down 1 license and my previous license path was an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, so I don't have an "original key..."

    What do I do now?

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-11-08T23:20:25+00:00

    I got deactivated on a box that was not upgraded from Win 8.1. It was upgraded from Win 10 Home months ago. All I got this morning was the “not activated” message. Irritating because I figured it was my mistake (I have a lot of conputers so i thought maybe i missed one). So I went and purchased another key. Three hours later (and after getting disconnected multiple times), I think i got a refund, but my laptop remains “deactivated”. If you did the same, make sure you get documentation of this problem (Microsoft didn’t just immediately say “Ya, it’s our problem. Stand by.”). ! have a digital license and I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it just starts working again. Don’t try to fix it like I did. Also, it did not say “home version”, it said “Windows not activated”. It looks like they blocked the Microsoft Store now so that people won’t do this.

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