14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 comes as a free upgrade for those running genuine Windows 7 or 8.1 on their computers, and Microsoft tells everyone to perform the upgrade directly to Windows 10 in order to activate the new operating system and then be able to reinstall as many times they wish with automatic re-activation.
But according to many users who attempted to do this, while Windows 10 activates fine after the upgrade, it fails to do so when performing a re-install, so many are stuck with a copy of the operating system that cannot be activated.
Previously, Microsoft said that these issues were caused by some servers problems, which were more or less expected, given the fact that so many people attempted to activate their copy of Windows 10 at the same time, but now everything should work normally.
What's more, even if you replace some hardware in your computer and attempt to re-activate, it should complete the process successfully, according to Microsoft's Gabe Aul.
Some still having problems
Despite Microsoft claiming that the issues have been fixed, some users are still having problems trying to activate Windows 10 after a re-install, and their messages speak for themselves.
“I have done the same procedure as mention above I upgrade from windows 8.1 OEM to windows 10 and then see the windows activated in the setting section. Only then I download the bootable windows 10 copy to have clean install. But after installing the windows 10 on my hard disk to have clean install it did not activate. I have install it may be 5 times now but it's not activating,” one user explains on the Microsoft Community forums.
Keep in mind, however, that activation won't work if you don't upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 directly to Windows 10 first. Windows 10 uses a generic key that's being used for activation only after the upgrade is performed, thus allowing you to re-install after that as many times you want.