[Chris Farley]

Hi.

I have three separate issues that I feel might be related, but appreciate someone’s help. I purchased and set up my own laptop, my wife’s laptop, and my mom’s desktop when they were new. All running Windows 10 that come preloaded. Within a couple week time here recently, My wife’s laptop somehow lost her windows 25 digit key, and my own laptop lost it but seemed to regain it again on a reboot, and my mom’s computer is now also giving the same error notice in the bottom right corner of the screen.

I have always had a licensed Malware and Kaspersky on all three since new.

All are different brands of box store variety (Lenovo, HP and Dell), so I didn’t think that is the issue. I did buy a Windows 10 key a couple weeks ago for my wife’s laptop, as hers was the 1st hit, but all three are having other software issue conflicts now with firewall and such. The computer I am using here is giving a constant windows update required on reboot indication.

I am suspicious of a corrupt activity, as I was one of those 1st 50,000 people that got their stuff hacked from Cambridge Analytica. But probably unrelated. I threw that in there for my reflection of my attitude about this crap. I know the three computers are related by my Microsoft account.

Also, on a side discussion, why don’t the computers come with the Key printed somewhere? So it is expected that as a customer we all must somehow dig into our registry to document our windows key when we purchase a preloaded system???

Stupid.

Thanks for helping stomp out this little conspiracy….

[Komando Community]

Most recent computers with Windows 10 pre-installed will have a digital license. This is tied to the physical hardware of the device as well as the Microsoft Account used to sign in, so the key is not provided to you directly.

You can run the following command using Command Prompt and view your key:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

This might have been a bug that came through in an update. Try using the Activation Troubleshooter:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20527/windows-10-activation-troubleshooter

Here are some more detailed steps for specific activation errors:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10738/windows-10-get-help-with-activation-errors

If this does not resolve the issue, you should reach out to Microsoft directly. They can walk you through resolving this type of issue:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/
1-(800) 642 7676

[Author]

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