Windows Upgrade Help and more

Has anyone else had activation issues after upgrading to Windows 11? My Windows 10 was properly activated, but now I'm getting a watermark and an error 0xC004C003 in Settings. The activation troubleshooter just says Windows can't be activated. I did the upgrade through the official Installation Assistant. Do I need to buy a new license, or is there a fix for this?

Yeah this is common. I had this issue after using the Installation Assistant too. From what I have seen, it's often just a server delay. I ran the activation troubleshooter again a day later and it sorted itself out.

You could also try the slmgr method - open command prompt as admin and type "slmgr /ato" to force a reactivation attempt.

Another option is to check if your Microsoft account is properly linked, since sometimes the digital license doesn't transfer automatically. Good luck!

Did you check if your Microsoft account is linked to your digital license in Settings?

Following these steps fixed my issue as well.

Just to check, are you signed in with the same Microsoft account you used to activate Windows 10? Let me know if that works.

Great tip, problem solved!

You could also try reactivating manually with your Windows 10 product key in the activation settings. Another option is to run the Activation Troubleshooter again, but this time choose the "I changed hardware on this device recently" option.

Yeah, that's solid advice. One extra tip: if the key doesn't take right away, a quick restart sometimes forces the activation servers to sync up.