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I noticed today that the "Activate Windows" watermark is now showing in the corner. I thought perhaps is was a problem with recent updates, and this KB5068861 was most recent. I did see online where people had this issue with this KB, and I uninstalled it and the first reboot looked to have made the watermark go away. Now starting the laptop again this afternoon and I see the watermark is back.
This system was purchased from New Egg and has been working fine for over 2 years until today, as far as I know this is a digital product key as I can find anything in email or delivery items that might show otherwise.
How do I get my system activated properly?
Thanks that helped, so now I can save that to my records. Re doing the latest Windows updates apears to have cleared the problem. Maybe the first install attempt was corrupted somehow.
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Open a Command prompt (Admin) and enter slmgr /dlv [press return] and post a screenshot of the result. This will check the current licence.
Is it a branded device, HP, Dell etc.
Sorry I see a ROG is an Asus. The licence should be embedded in the bios. To see the product key provided by Asus using the same Command prompt as before enter
wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey [press return] it should show the 25 character key provided by Asus.
After reboot when I Applied the windows updates again, the message went away. It is back now after I had shut down and rebooted again. Running that command doesnt return the 25 character key though.
Instead I get this
C:\Windows\System32>wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey
Node - FIREFLY-2023
ERROR:
Description =
That suggests there is no licence embedded in the bios. Which is surprising for a Asus device.
Can you run the command slmgr /dlv in the same Command prompt to check the current licence. Post a screenshot of the result.
Also get ShowKeyPlus from the Store and post a screenshot of the current licence. To hide any keys shown just click on the visible key. It will leave just the last 5 characters visible.
Was the device brand new?
To resolve the "Activate Windows" watermark issue on your ROG Zephyrus laptop running Windows 11 Pro, you can follow these steps:
If the watermark appeared after a recent update, and uninstalling the update temporarily resolved the issue, it may be worth monitoring for any future updates that could address this problem.
References:
I cannot do #2 above, as I dont know where my product key would have been. This laptop installed everything on first powerup 2 years ago. All I see is in the control panel pages the product key showing XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-K766P
running the active troubleshooter comes back with an error oxooooo22 indicating I am not connected to the internet. But I am as I am on this website now from the laptop writing this query.
Checking for updates, can be run again but my suspicion is that is where I got into this in the first place right after an update was applied. I will try that and see if it corrects the issue.
Have you read my post for getting the full embedded licence product key?
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Hi,
Please show Activation page of Settings and the result of slmgr /dlv command.
Does WMIC command (see Neil D comment) show product key?
I added the response to WMIC command above, the SLMGR command gives this
Error: 0xC0000022 On a Computer running Windows non-core edition, run slui.exe 0x2a 0xC0000022
Running that command just gives a dialog of "An error has occurred" you can also contact Microsoft by phone to help resolve this problem.
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huh- unsure why that post was flagged and deleted - I had tried a powershell command I found that said it would show my key - it did not. That post was the response I got from the command.
I'm getting worried that the key itself got wiped out somehow.
Sorry I didn't see this response when I just posted to your previous reply.
It could be the windows installation has corrupt activation components.
As it is Windows 11 go to Settings > System > Recovery > Fix problems using windows update and select Reinstall now.
I am trying that now, as it seems the watermark goes away on alternate reboots but in the settings pages I still see the request to activate. Hopefully the fix problems works.
Neil, It took a while to run the installer, and I have only rebooted once so far. But the watermark is gone, and when I go into settings > System I am no longer seeing the Activation message.
The reinstallation appears to have worked, fingers crossed its not a false positive and it holds.
Thank you for all the help here.
