Roll Back

when i ugraded to Windows 11 i used the upgrade assistant. The upgrade was a success but the new system was not actvated, a valid key could not be detected. After long talks[1 hour] with Microsoft technical i still could not activate Windows 11. They said they would talk to ???? and get back to me.
Meanwhile, i remebered that i had a spare windows 8 key, and this worked and my system is now activated.
My question is, if i decide to roll back to Windows 10 will its old key still be on the system to actvate the Window 10 roll back. If so how long is roll back valid for.

Did you keep a note of your win 10 key? or did you make an image first? if so you can use that or use DISM to increase the number of rollback days until you are sure you want to keep it
Run Command prompt as Administrator
Type:

DISM /Online /Get-OSUninstallWindow

Increase number of days to 40 Type:

DISM /Online /Set-OSUninstallWindow /Value:40

Check it's accepted with:

DISM /Online /Get-OSUninstallWindow

I have batch script for extending the time to roll back a Windows 10 and Windows 11 feature update.

I am sorry i don't have either a copy of the key or a backup image.
If i do roll back it will be within the next few day.

The original OS that i upgraded from is an OEM copy that was preloaded.

What i really need to know is, if i do roll back will the original license still be in the machine to activate the rollback.

If You updated from Windows 10 then that is the image that was saved during the upgrade then you should roll back to 10. What you change afterwards is not saved. I am sure that is correct and if not someone on here will correct me.

FWIW.. there are ways to find the key

Will that still work Jeff if the OP has changed his key from 10 to an old win 8 one, not sure how that works

The-Hive said:

Will that still work Jeff if the OP has changed his key from 10 to an old win 8 one, not sure how that works

Click to expand...

I would think he could use that to find the current key.,, the 8 key would be the key that's found.

But I wonder how he lost his key to begin with. He had to enter it and now he lost it?

If you see his original post, when he upgraded from 10 it wouldn't activate on 11 so he used a spare win 8 key. the rest is beyond me

The-Hive said:

If you see his original post, when he upgraded from 10 it wouldn't activate on 11 so he used a spare win 8 key. the rest is beyond me

Click to expand...

Same here...

The device that i upgraded from is a 14month old HP 255 laptop, which came with Windows 10 PRO preinstalled with digital license.

I have a Belarc adviser print out, dated 20-October-2021, which says that the key for Window 10 Profeional ends with (QPFDB)f. This is prefixed by the number 00331-20094-36889-AA885.

I can see no reason the upgrade didn't activate automatically and as it didn;t from the above you can see i had no key to enter for actvation.

I contacted Microsoft support who spent over an hour trying to solve the problem, but then had to give up and said that they would contact me soon to discscuss further. Mean while i had managed to activate by using a spare Windows 8 key


EDIT A BeLarc printout of few day ago is still showing ths OS as Windows 10 PRO but a readout from Speccy hows the OS as Windows 11 PRO with a serial number TY4CG-JDJH7-XXXXX XXXXX-HCFC6 . I am guessing that this is the license key.

franka said:

The device that i upgraded from is a 14month old HP 255 laptop, which came with Windows 10 PRO preinstalled with digital license.

I have a Belarc adviser print out, dated 20-October-2021, which says that the key for Window 10 Profeional ends with (QPFDB)f. This is prefixed by the number 00331-20094-36889-AA885.

I can see no reason the upgrade didn't activate automatically and as it didn;t from the above you can see i had no key to enter for actvation.

I contacted Microsoft support who spent over an hour trying to solve the problem, but then had to give up and said that they would contact me soon to discscuss further. Mean while i had managed to activate by using a spare Windows 8 key

Click to expand...

You might be able to retrieve the original Win 10 Pro OEM key using ShowKeyPlus.

@franka, I just check my laptop that came with Win 10 Home and was upgraded to Win 10 Pro and finally to Win 11 Pro. ShowKeyPlus shows the new installed Pro key and the old OEM Home key.

As @Winuser said, use ShowKeyPlus or there are several similar if you surf the net or try softkey revealed ( no install needed )
What message do you get from Settings > System > Activation

ShowKeyPlus - Windows Product Information

Product Name: Windows 11 Pro

Product ID: 00330-80000-00000-AA169

Build Version: 22000.376 (64-bit OS)

Installed Key: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T *

Original Key: MAK key not available

Original Edition: Windows 10 Professional Volume:MAK

OEM Key: OEM key not present in firmware


* Default key - requires a Digital License for activation



This is the information from "Showkeyplus" As it says the OEM i not present in firmware.

See my last post try softkey revealed and what does your Settings > System > Activation show

save/settings/activation result of "Showkeyplus" in post above

I suspect that in the end your device will stay activated if you roll back but worst case just use your Win8 key

As @BunnyJ said you should stay activated now

The-Hive said:

As @BunnyJ said you should stay activated now

Click to expand...

In theory.... I can't test that out so.. I think that's how it should work.