Windows licence recovery after reinstall

Hi, I bought a digital copy of Windows 11 from an authorized retailer and activated a copy of downloaded Windows 11 professional. After that, for various reasons I had to reinstall Windows on the same machine but unfortunately forgot to deactivate de licence before. It was neither linked to my Microsoft account. When I now try to activate Windows (after reinstall) with the same licence key there is an error message and activation doesn't work. Is there any help or do I need to purchase a new licence? Thanks for any ideas!

Hi Chris, and welcome to the ElevenForum.

If you bought a digital licence for Windows 11 Pro, you must have documentation that tells what your associated key is.
There is no need to 'deactivate' the digital licence on a re-install of Windows 11.

To find out your the status of DL, see this tutorial.

Use this tutorial to link your Microsoft Account to your Windows 11 Digital License

Hi IanMosley, thanks for your quick answer. I just got a license key from the retailer in an e-mail which looks like W7KCG-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX, but no other documentation. I'm afraid I won't be able to link it to my MS account (as explained in your tutorial) now since I did a reinstall of Windows. When I now type in the above license key it says it's not valid. I probably should have linked it to my MS account the first time, before erasing and reinstalling Windows...

Knowing the activation error would help us a lot.

If online activation fails, first try the activation troubleshooting in Activate Windows.


To activate Windows 11 by phone:

1. Select Start > Settings > System > Activation.
2. Under Activate Windows Now section, select Activate by Phone.

My laptop came with Windows 11 Home. I just bought a key for Windows 11 Pro. I tried to change the key to the new one but it failed. I was told to enter one of these generic upgrade keys for Windows 11 Pro:
JNB6J-DBPVV-GYTC6-YBX9D-FM49G, VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T, T76NF-V4RDW-JJ47H-4D7G7-CYT6T

I tried the the first key and received a digital license for Windows 11 Pro. I tried again with the key I received when I bought Windows 11 Pro. This time the new key worked so I received a digital license for Windows 11 Pro.

Maybe you can first try a generic key for Windows 11 Pro to see if that activates. If it does you can try to change the key to the one you bought.

My other laptop came with Windows 10 Home. I bought a key for Windows 10 Pro. The difference is that for this laptop in settings I was offered an anytime upgrade. Because of that the new key worked without problem and activated with a digital license for Windows 10 Pro.

BTW, I don't have Windows 10 or 11 on any of my computers linked to my Microsoft account.

chris_m said:

Hi, I bought a digital copy of Windows 11 from an authorized retailer

Click to expand...

Define your version of an "authorised retailer"? I suspect the "retailer" may not be as authorised as it could be, and MS is blocking the (re)activation.

MisterEd said:

Maybe you can first try a generic key for Windows 11 Pro to see if that activates. If it does you can try to change the key to the one you bought.

Click to expand...

As far as I know, you can not use a generic key to ACTIVATE Windows, only to INSTALL it.

chris_m said:

Hi, I bought a digital copy of Windows 11 from an authorized retailer and activated a copy of downloaded Windows 11 professional....
...When I now try to activate Windows (after reinstall) with the same licence key there is an error message and activation doesn't work. Is there any help or do I need to purchase a new licence?

Click to expand...

MisterEd said:

Maybe you can first try a generic key for Windows 11 Pro to see if that activates.

Click to expand...

Mark Phelps said:

As far as I know, you can not use a generic key to ACTIVATE Windows, only to INSTALL it.

Click to expand...

True, a generic key will not activate Windows 11 Pro. But @chris_m states that 11 Pro was previously installed and activated. This means it should have a digital licence stored on Microsoft's activation servers and linked to the hardware ID of the PC.

If a PC already has a digital licence, you can change the installed key to the generic Pro key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T and it should activate from the PC's existing digital licence.

chris_m said:

Hi IanMosley, thanks for your quick answer. I just got a license key from the retailer in an e-mail which looks like W7KCG-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX, but no other documentation. I'm afraid I won't be able to link it to my MS account (as explained in your tutorial) now since I did a reinstall of Windows. When I now type in the above license key it says it's not valid. I probably should have linked it to my MS account the first time, before erasing and reinstalling Windows...

Click to expand...

Change the product key to VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T.

NavyLCDR said:

Change the product key to VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T.

Click to expand...

To fill in the details, that's a generic Windows 11 Pro installation key.

It won't activate Windows, but will allow you to finish the installation.

You may be able to switch to your key after.

bobkn said:

To fill in the details, that's a generic Windows 11 Pro installation key.

It won't activate Windows, but will allow you to finish the installation.

You may be able to switch to your key after.

Click to expand...

More accurate details: in post #1 chris_m stated they installed and activated Windows 11 Pro with a purchased product key. At that point a digital license for Windows 10/12 was created and stored on Microsoft Activation Servers based upon the unique hardware ID for that computer. At that point, the product key that was used the first time becomes completely irrelevant. The generic product will work to retrieve the digital license stored at Microsoft for that computer and Windows 10/11 Pro will activate itself.

The original product key has obviously been resold by the seller it was purchased from and has been blocked by Microsoft for future online activations. But that has no effect on the digital license for chris_m's computer.

Thus my simple answer to just change the product key to the generic.

NavyLCDR said:

The original product key has obviously been resold by the seller it was purchased from and has been blocked by Microsoft for future online activations. But that has no effect on the digital license for chris_m's computer.

Click to expand...

Yep, this, which is why I asked (Post#7) the OP for more details about the so-called "authorised" seller ... wouldn't be the first user who believes that Amazon and/or eBay are "authorised" sellers

NavyLCDR said:

More accurate details: in post #1 chris_m stated they installed and activated Windows 11 Pro with a purchased product key. At that point a digital license for Windows 10/12 was created and stored on Microsoft Activation Servers based upon the unique hardware ID for that computer. At that point, the product key that was used the first time becomes completely irrelevant. The generic product will work to retrieve the digital license stored at Microsoft for that computer and Windows 10/11 Pro will activate itself.

The original product key has obviously been resold by the seller it was purchased from and has been blocked by Microsoft for future online activations. But that has no effect on the digital license for chris_m's computer.

Thus my simple answer to just change the product key to the generic.

Click to expand...

Point.

I'm quite hazy about digital keys and local accounts. Is a digital license created if Windows is installed without an MS account?

(Not a rhetorical question.)

bobkn said:

Is a digital license created if Windows is installed without an MS account?

Click to expand...

Plain and simple, YES. The digital license has nothing to do with the requirement of using an MS account. The digital license has more to do with the hardware structure of the device, rather than who/what use.

bobkn said:

Point.

I'm quite hazy about digital keys and local accounts. Is a digital license created if Windows is installed without an MS account?

(Not a rhetorical question.)

Click to expand...

Yes. The digital license is created based solely upon a unique hardware ID of the computer. When a person logs in with a Microsoft account, a link to the digital license is stored in their account, but it is only a link, not the actual digital license.

NavyLCDR said:

Yes. The digital license is created based solely upon a unique hardware ID of the computer. When a person logs in with a Microsoft account, a link to the digital license is stored in their account, but it is only a link, not the actual digital license.

Click to expand...

And if the machine isn't connected to the Net when Windows was installed? An Internet connection is required for activation?

To the OP, have you read the information on these pages from Microsoft? They give detailed explanations of the scenarios for activating Windows and how to diagnose and resolve issues.


and


The second URL gives a list of error codes and how to resolve them.
Is the activation key for the version of Windows you purchased for the Windows Edition you're trying to install?

if your machine came pre-installed with Windows 11 Home version and you upgraded to Pro with the key, perhaps, as a last resort, you could re-install Home version again and later try this key to upgrade it to Pro ?
Once I had an Acer netbook that wouldn't install the latest version of windows after formatting, I had to search an old version to re-install and update !

FreeBooter said:

Knowing the activation error would help us a lot.

Click to expand...

Hi FreeBooter, here it is. Which means: "We cannot activate Windows on this device because you do not have a valid product key or digital license. If you think you have a valid license or key, select Troubleshooting below (0x803f7001)". I'm gonna also try the workarounds suggested by the others.