Windows 10 your experience.

[MikeB]

4 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I'm still using the laptop with Windows 10.  I just have a stupid little "Activate Windows" sign in the bottom right corner at all times.

 

What happens when you click the "activate" prompt? 

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, MikeB said:

What happens when you click the "activate" prompt? 

At this moment in time I tried it (for the first time in months) and it said "we can't reach our activation servers right now, try later".

But in the past it was coming up as invalid product code, and yet its the product code that comes with the pre-installed Windows 10 and when I got into a "chat" with microsoft to try to get it validated, the person at the other end would only tell me the product code is not valid and I had to take it up with the company that sold me the computer, who then told me they would take it up with Acer, who said nothing.  Circle jerk.

[Dave Hounddriver]

3 hours ago, jpbago said:

I think that we have the same laptop: Acer Aspire E15, 8GB DDR3  L Memory ,1000 GB HDD. Model E5-571-53 HX. Intel Core i 5.

Same, same until I get to the Model number.  Mine is E5-532T-P7KN

[MikeB]

13 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

At this moment in time I tried it (for the first time in months) and it said "we can't reach our activation servers right now, try later".

But in the past it was coming up as invalid product code, and yet its the product code that comes with the pre-installed Windows 10 and when I got into a "chat" with microsoft to try to get it validated, the person at the other end would only tell me the product code is not valid and I had to take it up with the company that sold me the computer, who then told me they would take it up with Acer, who said nothing.  Circle jerk.

If it had prompted you to call an 888 number it is adware. You call the # and they try to sell you a "support package". If you click the link in the message they can remote into your computer. This is a licensing problem.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

6 minutes ago, MikeB said:

This is a licensing problem

Here is my guess, let me know if you think there may be some validity to it.  The computer I bought was the last one available and it was a demo model.  It had been on the shelf for some time and people were allowed to play with it.  When the sales techie sold it to me he did a complete reset to factory specs so it was "clean" when I got it.  I suspect that someone with a pirated version of Windows 10 "stole" the product code while the laptop was on display so now that code is in use by someone else.  Is that a possibility?

I bought the display model as the current model (at the time) would have cost me an additional $250 so I saved some money and got a headache.

[MikeB]

2 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I suspect that someone with a pirated version of Windows 10 "stole" the product code while the laptop was on display so now that code is in use by someone else.  Is that a possibility?

As others have stated, since Windows 8 the product key has been encrypted and embedded in BIOS so, in theory, I don't think it could be reused. But anything is possible. You said MS had you retrieve the key. Try opening a command prompt and entering:

"wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey" without the quotes. I don't think the upper/lowercase matters. If you have to call MS again tell them this is the first time you have used the key and it doesn't exist on any other computer. 

Edited September 2, 2017 by MikeB
corrected

[robert k]

9 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Unfortunately, I did.  I reported on it a year ago here.  The store in Canada (Visions Electronics) promised me they would do something about it but they never did.  I prodded and pushed and threatened for 6 months and then gave up.  They could not give a shit once they have the consumers money.  What it means is I can never "Activate Windows" and thus cannot adjust settings that require Windows 10 to be activated.  Microsoft and Aspire companies all gave me the run-around and pushed me back onto Visions who just dropped the ball.

I'm still using the laptop with Windows 10.  I just have a stupid little "Activate Windows" sign in the bottom right corner at all times.

 

Dave, have you tried to buy one of the activation keys off of ebay UK? I saw a guy on youtube who says he bought one for 4 GBP and it worked fine.

[Dave Hounddriver]

6 hours ago, robert k said:

Dave, have you tried to buy one of the activation keys

I tried that in the past, for Windows 7.  It did work for a couple of months and then I did an update and it caught the phony key.  I have not tried for windows 10.

 

8 hours ago, MikeB said:

Try opening a command prompt and entering:

Thanks Mike.  I will try that one day soon. No time to get into it today.

[jpbago]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I tried that in the past, for Windows 7.  It did work for a couple of months and then I did an update and it caught the phony key.  I have not tried for windows 10.

 

Thanks Mike.  I will try that one day soon. No time to get into it today.

Do you get updates to W10 without it being activated?

[Dave Hounddriver]

5 hours ago, jpbago said:

Do you get updates to W10 without it being activated?

Yes.  It actually works quite well in all functions, except if I want to personalize the settings.  That seems to be the only thing that not activating hinders.  That and the stupid little note in the bottom right hand corner telling me to Activate Windows.