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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.
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."
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.
Once again, legitimate users are impacted more by DRM than the "pirates."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
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.
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.
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.
"Rights management" software is intrinsically bad software.
Good software is designed in such a way that it runs if at all possible. If a file is missing and it can still do something useful, it still runs. If a permission is wrong, gives the user a chance to change it or save the file somewhere else. If a non-fatal error comes up, keep going. Where possible, re-try. If something isn't ready, sleep for a bit and try again.
Rights management is the opposite of that. It has failure on a hair trigger. It looks for the slightest excuse to fail if anything at all isn't exactly right. It checks for things that aren't necessary to run. It is by it's very nature BAD software.
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