Instead, the activation for the free offer of Windows 10 is registered on the Microsoft activation servers as a digital license for the PC when you upgrade from an activated Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. If you make a meaningful change to your PC's hardware (ex: motherboard), you may need to contact customer support to activate by phone.
Starting with Windows 10 Anniversary Update and Windows 10 build 14371, Microsoft is introducing the Activation troubleshooter that will help you address most commonly encountered activation issues on Genuine Windows devices including those caused by hardware changes. For example – if your device has a digital license (formerly called “digital entitlement”) for Windows 10 Pro from a ...
How to Check if Windows 10 is Activated Activation helps verify that Windows on your PC is genuine. If you upgraded to the free offer of Windows 10 on a PC, then you will be able to do a clean install of the free Windows 10 on the same PC anytime you like if it is currently activated. Starting with Windows 10 build 14371, you can link your Microsoft account to the Windows 10 digital license ...
If you do not see Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account for your activation status like below, then run the slmgr /ato command in an elevated command prompt to activate with the current key to refresh the activation status. 10 You can now close Settings if you like.
Starting in Windows 10 Insider Preview build 10565: Device activation improvements: Microsoft has received a lot of feedback from Insiders on making it easier to activate Windows 10 on devices that take advantage of the free upgrade offer to genuine Windows by using existing Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product keys.