Windows 11 suddenly deactivated

Elgato54 · Dec 19, 2023

Windows 11 was successfully activated with a Windows 8 Pro license in July 2022. It has worked fine until
Nov 2023 when Microsoft made changes where you could no longer use 7 or 8 licenses to activate 11.
Opened a support call and was told to just wait a week and they would fix their problem. It still has not activated.
Opened another call today. For an hour the agent just kept saying that you can no longer activate with an 8 license. I kept telling
him that it was activated in 2022 which was legitimate. We probably repeated that exchange 25 times. His final solution was to buy a new license.
When I told him that was unacceptable he said a supervisor would call me in 24 to 48 hours.
Amazing.

antspants · Dec 19, 2023

Hi Elgato, Welcome to the Eleven Forums

It can be frustrating, hey! At least you will be getting a call from a higher tier. It’s often the case that the entry level tiers only know what is written on their reply scripts. This happened to many people, or so I’ve read.

Getting a call-back sounds like a decent outcome? Hopefully it will get sorted at that point.

Bree · Dec 19, 2023

Elgato54 said:
Windows 11 was successfully activated with a Windows 8 Pro license in July 2022. It has worked fine until Nov 2023 when Microsoft made changes where you could no longer use 7 or 8 licenses to activate 11....

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

When you used the Win8 Pro key to activate Windows your PC should have obtained a digital licence for Window 10/11 stored on the Microsoft activation servers. What MS turned off was the ability to get a new digital licence with a Win7/8 key on any PC that does not already have one. It should have had no effect on existing digital licences. It certainly hasn't on any of mine.

I have various laptops running Windows 10 or 11 which got their digital licences through upgrading from Windows 7 or 8. All of them are still fully activated.

Check what the installed key is on your machine, if it is the generic product key for Pro VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T then it should activate from the existing digital licence, as all mine mine do. Open a Command Prompt and type slmgr /dlv to see the partial product key (and below that whether the PC is licenced).

If it is anything other than 3V66T then you have a different key installed, Find out what it is with ShowKeyPlus. Then try changing the installed key to the generic Windows 10/11 Pro key.

https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/2577-showkeyplus.html

Here is one of my (originally) Windows 8.1 Pro laptops that got its digital licence for Windows 10/11 before MS turned that off, and is still activated today from its generic 10/11 Pro installed key and its digital licence.

idgat · Dec 19, 2023

From where did you get the original Win8.x key? Any chance this was a $1 key bought off a market place site, and MS has finally caught up that it was a fake/invalid key.

Many such keys work on first install simply because the key character sequence matches the MS algorithm, but can still be an invalid key, tracked down at a later stage.

Elgato54 · Dec 19, 2023

Showkey shows that it is a 3v66T.
It was an unused retail 8 Pro box

It was odd at the time because it would not accept my existing 10 pro license from my old machine.
Instead of arguing with Microsoft I just used the 8 license.

idgat · Dec 19, 2023

Elgato54 said:
Showkey shows that it is a 3v66T.
It was an unused retail 8 Pro box

Still not stated from where it was bought ... forging packaging is an easy task.

Elgato54 · Dec 19, 2023

It was Amazon or Newegg back when Microsoft was promoting a big sale on Windows 8. Bought two. Pretty sure they were legit.
Another question.
When you upgraded from 7 to 10, could you then upgrade from 10 to 11 if it was not oem?

NavyLCDR · Dec 19, 2023

Elgato54 said:
When you upgraded from 7 to 10, could you then upgrade from 10 to 11 if it was not oem?

OEM or Retail has nothing to do with upgrading from 10 to 11. As long as all hardware is compatible (or you do a workaround), you can always upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11. The resulting Windows 11 should take on the activation properties of the Windows 10 it came from.

idgat · Dec 20, 2023

Elgato54 said:
It was Amazon or Newegg back when Microsoft was promoting a big sale on Windows 8

Don't know about Newegg but buying through Amazon is no guarantee of authenticity, Amazon is simply a "medium" through which sellers can operate. Co-incidental with any sort of MS promotion is simply that, a co-incidence.

Interested to know how much it was, usually the clincher?

Elgato54 · Dec 20, 2023

It was Newegg, 2012, $69.95. I bought two of them and then because of the bad reviews, never installed. They were the full cardboard box with the Microsoft holos. Why would it activate and run for a year and a half but suddenly fail when Microsoft decides to kill 7 and 8 activations for 11? On the first support call the tech immediately asked if it was activated with an 8 key. When I said yes he said it was a known problem and should be fixed in a week.

Elgato54 · Dec 20, 2023

NavyLCDR said:
OEM or Retail has nothing to do with upgrading from 10 to 11. As long as all hardware is compatible (or you do a workaround), you can always upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11. The resulting Windows 11 should take on the activation properties of the Windows 10 it came from.

This was a new 11 install on a new computer so OEM should not let you use it on a different computer. I had several retail copies of 7 that were upgraded to 10 on various computers. When you upgraded you could no longer see the new 10 key so I could not use those to activate 10 or 11 on new computers. Am I missing something?

SIW2 · Dec 20, 2023

Elgato54 said:
tech immediately asked if it was activated with an 8 key. When I said yes he said it was a known problem and should be fixed in a week.

I heard similar elsewhere. It seems to be taking longer than a week. I have a few win8 pro retail keys. If I come across a mobo that hasnt already been done with win10/11 might try and see if they work.

zebal · Dec 20, 2023

Elgato54 said:
When I told him that was unacceptable he said a supervisor would call me in 24 to 48 hours.

Wait until a supervisor tells you Bill himself will call you lol

glasskuter · Dec 20, 2023

I have a question. Is the computer in question the I7-12700? Was that key ever used on any other system prior and then you used it on this system?
If so, it may well explain the de-activation. I agree if this machine was activated at any time, it should carry a perpetual digital license. I've not known of any case where a machine was once licensed that MS took it away, but MS may be quietly clamping down on such cases more than we think, especially if that same key was ever used on another machine..

If anyone is in the know with MS it's Paul Thurrott. His article was pretty specific about activation with old Windows 7 or 8 keys.
You Can No Longer Use Windows 7/8 Keys to Activate Windows 11

cereberus · Dec 20, 2023

glasskuter said:
I have a question. Is the computer in question the I7-12700? Was that key ever used on any other system prior and then you used it on this system?
If so, it may well explain the de-activation. I agree if this machine was activated at any time, it should carry a perpetual digital license. I've not known of any case where a machine was once licensed that MS took it away, but MS may be quietly clamping down on such cases more than we think, especially if that same key was ever used on another machine..

If anyone is in the know with MS it's Paul Thurrott. His article was pretty specific about activation with old Windows 7 or 8 keys.
You Can No Longer Use Windows 7/8 Keys to Activate Windows 11

I think Thurrot talks a lot of garbage these days. He used to be really on the ball at one time but now publishes "headline stuff" to get ratings rather than caring about accuracy.

Our own @Bree and @NavyLCDR know more about digital licensing these days that the media hacks.

Bree · Dec 20, 2023

cereberus said:
Our own @Bree and @NavyLCDR know more about digital licensing these days that the media hacks.

...and our @Kari. Has @Elgato54 made any hardware changes that could have lost the link to the digital licence? This post explains what changes to the hardware ID of a PC would do that, and which have no effect.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 Digital Licencing explained

Windows 10 / 11 Digital License explained The number of Windows 10 licensing and activation questions around the tech forums started to grow exponentially when Windows 7 hit its End of Life date. Users keep asking about how to find their Windows 10 or 11 product key after upgrading from...

www.elevenforum.com

Winuser · Dec 20, 2023

antspants said:
Getting a call-back sounds like a decent outcome? Hopefully it will get sorted at that point.

I hate waiting for a company to call me back. I hope MS is more dependable then some of the companies I've delt with. Their we will have someone call you back became don't hold your breath waiting.

kiwiaz · Dec 20, 2023

I am going through the same agro. I upgraded from a (valid) Win7 licence to 10 and then to 11 a few months ago and it was all fine until a few days ago. Now I'm about to do a major Christmas upgrade (new mobo, cpu and GPU) and wondering how that is going to go. Waiting for MS to sort out their issue (if ever) won't be an option if I get stuck in mid-install.

Capitulating to the slow-fix shakedown, I see low cost 11-Pro keys for sale currently on Stack Social. Is there a catch?

glasskuter · Dec 21, 2023

kiwiaz said:
Is there a catch?

I saw that. I can't attest to that particular offer, but I bought licenses for 2 MS Office for cheap on SS and never had a lick of problem activating it. Unless its expired, I think I saw an offer on SS for BOTH Windows Pro and MS Office for $50 and just Windows Pro for $30. If I had any machine not already running PRO I would be all over that offer.

kiwiaz · Dec 21, 2023

Thanks @glasskuter for your reply. I actually have two computers here to update over Christmas, and one is still a W7 machine, so I'm just going to buy 2 licenses and try to be happy about it.
I have a W10 disc for the 7 upgrade and then will bounce to 11 with the new license.

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