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Alright, so I apologize if this is overly complicated. I'm not an incredibly computer savvy person, so I don't entirely know what I'm doing, and I have no idea how to get into actual contact with anyone, since my issue doesn't seem to be available in any of the "pick from" troubleshooting problems on the help site.
I bought a gaming PC off of NewEgg that came with Windows 10 Home edition already on it. Recently, a few months ago maybe, I was suddenly unable to do anything with my background or other stuff that you're only able to tinker with if you have an activated, genuine version of Windows.
It now asks for a product key, which I cannot find anywhere.
A friend of mine who knows more about this stuff than me, helped me use some little prompt thing to bring up the product key, but entering it doesn't work. So he helped me do a little MORE digging, and apparently, even though this PC was listed as coming with Windows 10 Home, and HAD WIndows 10 Home in the beginning, it NOW says it has Windows 10 Enterprise? When I looked that up, it says Enterprise doesn't have product keys, but something different.
I mostly just want to know what exactly I should do in order to have an actual, genuine, activated version of Windows 10 on my PC.
It already says in the settings that this one is not compatible with Windows 11.
Do I need to purchase/download a new Windows 10 Home? Or does it need to be this Enterprise thing instead, or do I need to get rid of that somehow? Is there anything I would need to do with everything on my PC before doing any of that?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
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Yes, Enterprise is a business edition but Windows 10 can switch to that when there is an activation issue. Your Windows license should be associated with your Microsoft account. Try activating with the generic Windows 10 Pro key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T, then run the Windows activation troubleshooter. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/usi...
Hello Brian! I appreciate the help very much, thank you!
Also I apologize, I was mistaken. I was able to go back to my invoice for the PC, and it says Windows 10 Pro is what was originally on it when I bought it. I got the PC in April of 2020. But I did at least very distinctly remember it not saying enterprise anywhere.
I didn't use ShowKeyPlus when my friend was helping me, so I got it just a bit ago to try it, and it says both "MAK key not available" and "OEM key not present in firmware". The little Home section of ShowKeyPlus also says Windows 10 Enterprise for product name, and under "upgrades" it says there's one upgrade, Windows 10 Pro. Up until the problem started, I didn't even actually know what Enterprise was. My friend told me, at the time he was helping me, that Enterprise is something usually used for businesses and not for a home computer, like multiple computers on a shared network or something? When I tried to use the tool to retrieve the key, it wasn't able to do so. The generic key also didn't work or seem to give any sort of different result than what I got before, when my friend initially helped me locate the key, that was through some little command prompt things that I unfortunately don't remember. I was being guided through it via screen share at that time. In my settings under Activation, it says "Windows reported that no product key was found on your device. Error code: 0xC004F213" and gives me recommendations for getting "genuine" Windows by entering a different product key.
Hi. I'm Brian and I will do my best to help you.
You say that Windows 10 Home came preinstalled and that you also used a tool (was it ShowKeyPlus found at https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/showkey... ?) to find the product key but that entering it didn't work.
Try entering the Windows 10 Home generic key YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7 to see if it makes any difference. If it does, then try entering the key you determined using the tool. If the tool you used wasn't ShowKeyPlus, try using that tool. Wven if Windows won't activate, you should be able to log in and use ShowKeyPlus to get the product key that's likely in the firmware of the computer.
