Forum Discussion

Brass Contributor

Jul 17, 2021

Solved

Windows 11 keeps asking me to activate windows

Greetings Everyone. I using a MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and running Windows 11 ARM in a Parallels Desktop VM. I really like the new look of Windows 11. Since this version is an Insiders versio...

Reza_Ameri
Jul 21, 2021
Hi,

That's great, as you may know Windows 11 is still under testing and development and when you share a feedback, the Windows team would be able to investigate and check what causing the problem.

tallinn1964

Copper Contributor

Aug 02, 2021

Probably not. The given command only works on PCs where the windows activation key is stored in BIOS by the OEM. If you get a blank response on an activated Windows installation that means you have what is called a "digital license" bound to your MS account. There is no way to retrieve an activation code for that kind of license - tools that do retrieve one will give you a well-known standard activation code that does not work with a new Windows install. However, if you install W11 with that MS account on the same machine you had W10 running with this license it should be activated right from the start.

Emad_Leiman

Brass Contributor

Aug 02, 2021

Hi tallinn1964

When I had my older MacBook I was running the Intel version of Windows 10 on a Parallels Desktop VM. My license key came from that install of Windows 10 which is many years old. When I purchased my current MacBook which is ARM based, I installed the ARM version of Windows 10 which I got from Microsoft Insiders onto the VM. That version never asked me to activate the install twice regardless of how many times the automatic updates for Windows 10 for ARM where installed. My problems only started when the automatic updates were for Windows 11 for ARM. Each of the Windows 11 updates worked for around 2 hours just like the previous Windows 10 for ARM did. While I was using each update, I got nagging reminders to activate Windows even though the software was activated. Some bug in one of the updates caused all new builds to keep nagging me to Activate windows, so I gave in and contacted Microsoft to purchase another license key. I tried to enter that key into the activate screen and it refused to accept that newly purchased product key so I got a refund. This is clearly some kink of bug if it doesn't accept any valid license key. I even called them and also sent feedback to Microsoft through the feedback process of Windows 11 but they won't get back to me which is very frustrating. They really need to fix that bug or do something that will stop those nagging reminders.

Anonymous
Aug 04, 2021
https://kb.parallels.com/en/114051

I am not sure if this still works
Anonymous
Aug 04, 2021
HI Emad,

I understand your frustration, not sure what caused it though Parrell's doesn't officially support Windows 11 yet.

I see, it won't accept the license, probably due to that it is a beta build. Did you get a support agent to fix?

Best to just wait or get back to Windwos 10. Are you able to go back to 10 and make sure the license is there than do it again?

Thanks,

Shawn

PS: This is probably just a bug normal for insider preview builds