How do I fix illegal activation

Do slmgr /ckms and then also slmgr /upk, slmgr /cpky, and slmgr /rilc.

Hello, I’m Virginia an independent advisor with 20 years of expertise in fixing my own & friends’ PC problems.

You would require a genuine key for the same version -Home or Pro - as the KMS version.

If you do not have one or the KMS is Pro or Enterprise & you have a genuine Home license then you’ll have to clean install Windows Home.

Run this cmd within powershell with admin powershell “(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey”

Or wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey if using cmd prompt.

Or: Check this program to reveal if there’s a key embedded in the BIOS:

https://neosmart.net/OemKey/

Or: Download and run this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/showkeyplus/9... to find all keys used on the PC.

If you have a Home key/digital license then there may be an extremely slim chance you can activate without clean installing:

1. Open an elevated command prompt

Type slmgr /ipk <ProductKey> (Replace <ProductKey> with one of these below)

• The key you found when running oemkey program.

-YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7 – Use if you had Home. Even if you upgraded to Pro through Windows Store

-VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T – Use if you had Pro. Purchased as Pro not upgraded from Home

-BT79Q-G7N6G-PGBYW-4YWX6-6F4BT – Use only if you have a Single Language edition

Reboot the PC. (Critical step. This will cause an activation event at next startup and will do many ‘background’ tasks necessary for successful activation)

Once in the OEM/Retail ‘channel’ activation will complete successfully using 1 of these methods

1. Automatic - No user interaction required. If the hardware has not changed and they had Windows 10 successfully installed and activated on this hardware, the Digital Entitlement will be found and brought back down to the PC.
2. Activation Troubleshooter – Automatic after customer presses button.
3. Manually changing to a OEM/Retail product key using Settings > Update & security > Activation > Change Product Key.

This is not the VLK you obtained from Amazon, eBay, Kinguin, etc.

This will require a OEM/Retail key. Comes from the OEM within the BIOS, from the packaging you bought in a Retail Store, or from the email you received from Microsoft Store.

It worked! But will i be able to activate with another key now?