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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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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
    2018-11-09T15:25:04+00:00

    Right, nothing is fixed - at least for me! Same thing like Nope99.

    The problem persists, "dear" Microsoft!

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T15:23:07+00:00

    I didn't do anyting in particular. i just decided to re-run the activation troubleshooter. It said it detected my license and it activated my windows.

    Before this, yesterday: i added a new video card and a power source and formated my ssd to have a clean slate, via the reset this pcoption, today it activated.

    Finally i can add a blank color to the wallpaper. :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T15:20:20+00:00

    To all those that report this as fixed, lucky you.

    However, the fix seems to have broken mine .. so thanks for that!

    I am now getting "We found a Windows 10 Pro digital licence for this device running Windows 10 Pro. To activate using this digital licence, select upgrade your edition of Windows".

    I assume the 'digital' is the downloaded version? That would make sense as I did download the free Win 10 Pro version when upgrading from Win 7 Pro (I still have the original Win 7 Pro packaging, USB, and licence key).

    I don't recall seeing anything about it being free for 3.364384 years, after which MS will brand you a thief unlicensed, unless you pay full price ...

    So to get this straight .. MS gave away Win 10, then roughly 3 years later, via a critical update, they brand my OS as pirated unlicensed - BUT - If I now pay full price, MS will remove the aforementioned branding. Is that it? So MS softWARE is demanding a RANSOM? You know what that sounds like, right?

    When will this version of the bug be resolved?

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T14:49:22+00:00

    Regarding the sense of exasperation you express in your post - for hundreds of thousands of years we stumbled and suffered in the darkness of ignorance and brutality. In the blink of an eye, we are bathed in the shining lights of science and technology. Try to remember the big picture.

    Win 10 is part of the awesome.

    It's all good :)

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