Windows suddenly deactivated after 5 years due to a hardware change, but none occurred

Hi,

Windows suddenly says my PC is not activated and cites a recent hardware change as the reason. However, I have been using the same PC for at least 5 years (Windows 11 on a local account), and all of my drives have remained the same since then (one secondary internal drive, one external USB drive, and a CD drive).

I re-entered the product key from the backup location in the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform "BackupProductKeyDefault"="..... "), knowing that it is very likely useless since it is a digital license. As expected, the problem persisted. I then reverted to the last restore point, but the issue remains.

Does anyone have an idea what this could be? The problem appeared completely out of the blue, and I have not changed any hardware, despite what Microsoft claims. I bought my license together with the PC. Is it possible that Microsoft "found out" after more than 5 years that my license is not valid (which can never be completely ruled out, even though I bought my PC from a reputable reseller), after validating it for 5 years?

Try Windows activation troubleshooter.