Slashdot Mirror
Some Windows 10 Pro Users Say Their PCs Are No Longer Activated And Are Been Prompted To Downgrade To Windows 10 Home (betanews.com)
If you're having trouble activating your Windows 10 Pro computer today, you're not alone. Forums and social media networks are getting flooded with complaints from users who say their machines have automatically become deactivated. Users say they are having trouble connecting with Microsoft's activation servers, with some saying they are being prompted to downgrade to Windows 10 Home. According to Microsoft Answers, the company is working to resolve the issue. Only users who had upgraded their computers to Windows 10 by using product keys of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 appear to be impacted.
Windows 10 Pro.... being prompted to downgrade to Windows 10 Home
It gets even worse... just the other day, my Debian box prompted me to downgrade it to Windows 10 Pro.
On Monday I was at their office fixing an unrelated issue when I noticed the desktop graffiti/banner saying they weren't activated. Weird. I plugged in the Win10 product key on the case sticker and it activated again. I just summed it up to another M$ fuck-up, didn't know it was as widespread as it is.
I'm so glad I use Linux at home =D
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
https://answers.microsoft.com/...
but it's causing chaos in some places -
watermarks all over ... damn you
who where what when now?
I see stories like this and I have to ask myself, "Is Windows still viable as a development platform? Will it continue to be viable as a development platform in the future?"
I develop exclusively on Linux (some libraries in C/C++, some Python applications, Java server and desktop stuff, occasionally dabble in mobile, etc.). I have some colleagues who use Mac OS X as their platform and are happy with that. I do know a small number of developers working on Windows, but as far as I can tell they don't particularly like Windows as a development platform, especially those who have had to move to Windows 10 (precisely because they no longer control the updates and stuff can just randomly break).
I guess, all I can say is, "wow."
There was an XBox Live outage a few days ago where all digital purchases couldn't be verified. If you had the disc you could play online fine - but if you had purchased the game or even the DLC of a disc game then it was non playable as the service couldn't determine if you owned it or not.
I wonder if these issues are related.
(Also interesting that even if you've successfully downloaded and installed the game on their closed system they're constantly re-validating you)
It took several attempts for me to activate 10 Pro for Workstations last night, first attempt accepted the key then promptly reverted back to before I entered it. Next attempt accepted the key and stored it, but refused to activate "Server refused the connection attempt." Called in, the new call-in process is the stupidest thing ever - hand holding through putting in the product key (never mind that you would have already been staring at the screen with a activation challenge just to get the product activation phone number...) Gave up after having to confirm every. bloody. step. of. the. way that I knew what I was doing and had a product key and entered it correctly... Tried online activation again, NXDOMAIN response for the activation servers. Waited 10 minutes, server refused connection attempt. 10 more minutes and it auto-activated, followed by an error saying the server couldn't be resolved (?)
It doesn't help that they discontinued the awesome self-help "mobile" website for activation earlier this year - where you could copy and paste the challenge and response between your web browser and the phone-in activation window.
Nice to know that the OS has a dependency on other people over the interwebs not f*cking up, and still existing so you can simply turn your computer on and use it.
I for one, am glad I don't use an OS with such a f*cked up dependency.
Linux, internet or no internet, it still works. kernel.org goes away? Still works. Botched kernel upgrade? Roll back to previous version (in the time it takes to press reset and press an arrow key to select the older kernel), still works.
Microsoft - Activate or die. Looks like you don't even stay activated if things don't work out at their end. Good to know.
I bought a Win 10 Pro non-upgrade key. Was activated. Today I am not activated. Worth reporting to MS?
I've been buying my WIN 10 Pro licences from UK eBay vendors, and they've been working fine for a year or so. Less than $5 CAD. I believe our UK friends have different rules about transferring keys from decommissioned PCs-- they can actually resell otherwise unused used licences.
Mine was 3.0 -> 3.1 -> 95 -> 98 -> XP - Win7 Pro - > Win10 Pro - Linux Mint.
Problem solved.
I am having that same problem on a new PC which came with Windows 10 Pro installed. Just opened the box last night. -Mike
It's truly amazing how much abuse some users are willing to take just to use Windows. The only explanation that makes any sense at this point is that they like the abuse.
I am pretty sure that I have said this before, but for home users the issue is not that they like the abuse. At least, that seems to be the case with the family and other folks who I know who come to me for tech support. Rather, the situation exhibits the classic signs of co-dependency: the person remains in the abusive relationship because they fear that things will actually be worse if they leave the abusive the relationship.
In fact, I recall one friend, who had a history of tech support problems, who was considering getting a new system and who came to me for advice. About the only thing this person used the computer for was web, email, Facbook, and photos. I recommended a Mac for them instead of a Windows machine and the look on their face was practically terrified. As bad as the problems were they had experienced with Windows, they were yet more afraid of something different.
Of course, for businesses the situation is really all about institutional inertia.
Get out of the MS mindframe. In Linux, if you don't like the UI, choose another one.
Agreed about Gnome 3, that's why I don't use it.
Sadly Gnome 3 sucks more than Windows Vista
Sounds like a good reason to use KDE. :)
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
If more people volunteered for ReactOS we could have a viable Windows Compatible OS.
Play several thousand Steam games.
Actually be productive.
Reboot when YOU want...
o MSDOS
| Win 3.0
| Win 3.11
| WinNT 4.0
| Win 2000
| WinXP
v---+-> Win 7 Pro
+-> Linux
+-> OSX
+-> FreeBSD
I see no need to run MS's latest spyware that constantly breaks.
They don't realise that alternatives exist, or are only aware of Apple but don't have the budget for it...
Indeed the common perception is that computers are inherently unreliable and insecure and that's just the way it is. This perception is entirely down to microsoft being both ubiquitous and such poor quality for all these years.
Look at all the tv shows with characters which can trivially hack into any system, or computers which are constantly failing to work correctly - this is the perception that microsoft has generated.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Things I have done and/or still do with Linux:
- Embedded software development (MP-LAB for Microchip's PIC microcontrollers)
- Schematic capture and PCB layout
- Monitor / maintain my finances
- Wrote and published a book
- Developed cover art for said book
- Have started writing / editing a second book
- Download & manage photos from my camera
- Play games
- Ran an emulator to relive my Tandy CoCo days
- Development of my web sites
Things I do when I'm at work and my employer forces me to use Windows 10:
- Wonder why people put up with this crap
- Curse a hell of a lot more than I normally like to do during peacetime.
Sounds like I'm gonna have to ditch Red Hat / CentOS. Love KDE Plasma.
Yes, but it wasn't the entire bloody user base. Those people were choosing to do be beta testers, the people affected by this most certainly did not.
MS is now literally deciding that everyone is a beta tester whether they like it or not, and seem to be consistently putting out stuff that is nowhere near tested enough.
Microsoft is releasing lower quality stuff, relying on their telemetry to tell them what went wrong, and then if users are lucky Microsoft will fix something they should have found before release.
Essentially Microsoft doesn't give a damn if they break your machine, your busted machine costs less to them than doing proper QA.
If this is the quality of Microsoft's QA, they're going downhill very quickly.
And, you know, more or less run the Internet.
Not only 96.5% of web servers and 85% of cloud services, but also > 85% of all phones.
But not desktop computers though. Which account for what, 45% of web browsing activity, wher Linux has approx 1.5% of the market.
I wasted a few hours on this insanity this morning.
My final solution (tried many options) was to use some tools from Ratborus.
KMS Clean to remove my existing key, and then W10 Digital Activation with KMS38 option.
It now says:
Windows(R), Professional edition:
Volume activation will expire 1/18/2038
Now where do I send an Invoice to Microsoft for wasting my morning on this BS?
If you need a copy of KMS Tools Portable, it's here
https://www.solidfiles.com/fol...
The password is part of the filename, so for the latest version:
KMS_Tools_Portable_01.11.2018_password_1234567890987654321.7z
The password is 1234567890987654321
Professional operating systems do not deactivate themselves for specious reasons. Therefore, Win 10 Pro is not worthy of the "Pro" nomenclature, and customers of Win 10 Pro are not getting what they paid for.
Those "cry babies" you refer to? They are more accurately known as irate customers who paid for a professional-grade product, and damn sure have the right to be mad when shit like this happens.