Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations Mike Lewis on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Why Activate?

Status
Not open for further replies.

guiado

IS-IT--Management
Sep 27, 2008
15
GB
Three times I have tried to go from my legit win7 to win10 but it fails C1900101-20017 - so I cannot get win10. I can do a clean install via the downloaded iSO but obviously cannot get it activated becuase I do not have a win10 key. From what I have read there are two relatively weak issues by it not being activated, otherwise it is fully functional (update wise). So ... why activate win10 - just do a clean install?
 
>otherwise it is fully functional

Only until the free upgrade period is up.
 
Because if you don't activate, like with all other Windows versions, eventually it will not let you do much of anything. And will continually pester you for activation.

this-copy-of-windows-is-not-genuine.jpg


c01923787.jpg



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech
 
Nope, W10 pretty much keeps on working without any problem without activation - except for Personalisation. That doesn't work. Unless by 'eventually' you mean in approx 1 yrs time ...
 
See 0xC1900101-0x20017, and 0xc000021a, in this post.

How to: Troubleshoot common Setup and Stop Errors during Windows 10 Installation






"Advanced Troubleshooting




If for some reason your installation of Windows 10 locks up on you and will not proceed (or you're facing a black screen problem)—this could have something to do with an inherent corruption in your previous version of Windows. The only way to properly fix this issue is to re-install your previous version of Windows fresh. Once you have it installed—activate it—and from there you should be able to jump straight into Windows 10 by using the method provided".


Windows 10 Manual Upgrade & Installation




Most new machines come with a recovery partition allowing you to go back to the time of purchase, you will have to check your user guides (or the manufacturer's Web Site) for instructions. Choosing that path requires you to save all valuable data first.
 
I know it sounds painful, but if you go back to your Win7 install, and try the upgrade again, make sure you select "keep my files" so that it does an upgrade not a flush and install, THEN maybe it will work. Could be a glitch, and could be you selected wrong option somewhere. And if all else fails, why not call Microsoft? I'm sure right now they want to keep everyone as happy as possible anyway with the big Win10 push.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top