M
MayukhDe
Hello! I'll do the best I can to keep this rant-free.
Here's the short summary: Bought my Acer laptop in Jul/Aug 2018, which smoothly activated itself with a Win 10 Home Single lang digital licence, then started getting those updates, until they became pesky. These updates included the last of the two feature updates (1809, I believe, and then 1903), both of which successfully managed to muck up the activation status, only to reinstate it after some indeterminate and entirely random amounts of time, but not before causing considerable distress, and hours unsuccessfully spent on reading through and attempting various troubleshooting methods, including running the standard DISM, SFC, and slmgr commands, activation troubleshooter, chatting with tech support, and seeking help from this forum.
Given that 1909 was optional update, I didn't want to touch it with a 20-feet pole, to lose the activation status once more. However, most of the KB updates coming my way since about Nov 2019, were failing (especially the dot net framework ones). Recently, I started paying a little closer attention to the event logs and was rather horrified to see the number of errors being logged by Windows systems and ran some of those DISM /restorehealth etc. commands, which seemed to indicate things were seriously cranky under the hood with the update service. I thought of reluctantly upgrade to 1909 hoping that would help rather than continuing with a broken build, which I must say helped. It's now up to date, but on the flipside, activation status is as I feared, is now broken.
Yes, I do have a valid OEM product key, my Windows was previously activated, and the status appears to be such as seen in my MS account, as well as, the activation troubleshooter. The whole experience has been frustrating, to say the least, and another weekend is now spent roleplaying an hapless IT administrator.
Screenshots for reference:
Earlier activation status:
Post yesterday's update:
I'm guessing, this too shall pass with patient resignation, but the question I have for the helpful, and knowledgeable community members here, is: what's the secret, best practices to a worry-free updated, permanently activated Windows 10 experience, if any? Will purchasing a retail licence help? Is it something to do with OEM licences? Should I just say thank you to Windows, and go elsewhere?
P.S. No hardware changes made. I notice something weird: Windows version in CMD is 10.0.18363.592, but the slmgr.vbs version is older (2nd screenshot; 1st one is from last year as indicated in the date, prior to the upgrade); it's like that component didn't update?
Continue reading...
Here's the short summary: Bought my Acer laptop in Jul/Aug 2018, which smoothly activated itself with a Win 10 Home Single lang digital licence, then started getting those updates, until they became pesky. These updates included the last of the two feature updates (1809, I believe, and then 1903), both of which successfully managed to muck up the activation status, only to reinstate it after some indeterminate and entirely random amounts of time, but not before causing considerable distress, and hours unsuccessfully spent on reading through and attempting various troubleshooting methods, including running the standard DISM, SFC, and slmgr commands, activation troubleshooter, chatting with tech support, and seeking help from this forum.
Given that 1909 was optional update, I didn't want to touch it with a 20-feet pole, to lose the activation status once more. However, most of the KB updates coming my way since about Nov 2019, were failing (especially the dot net framework ones). Recently, I started paying a little closer attention to the event logs and was rather horrified to see the number of errors being logged by Windows systems and ran some of those DISM /restorehealth etc. commands, which seemed to indicate things were seriously cranky under the hood with the update service. I thought of reluctantly upgrade to 1909 hoping that would help rather than continuing with a broken build, which I must say helped. It's now up to date, but on the flipside, activation status is as I feared, is now broken.
Yes, I do have a valid OEM product key, my Windows was previously activated, and the status appears to be such as seen in my MS account, as well as, the activation troubleshooter. The whole experience has been frustrating, to say the least, and another weekend is now spent roleplaying an hapless IT administrator.
Screenshots for reference:
Earlier activation status:
Post yesterday's update:
I'm guessing, this too shall pass with patient resignation, but the question I have for the helpful, and knowledgeable community members here, is: what's the secret, best practices to a worry-free updated, permanently activated Windows 10 experience, if any? Will purchasing a retail licence help? Is it something to do with OEM licences? Should I just say thank you to Windows, and go elsewhere?
P.S. No hardware changes made. I notice something weird: Windows version in CMD is 10.0.18363.592, but the slmgr.vbs version is older (2nd screenshot; 1st one is from last year as indicated in the date, prior to the upgrade); it's like that component didn't update?
Continue reading...