Problem: Your company recently bought a few laptops to assign new employees but Windows 10 isn’t activating itself after reimaging.
Sometimes, Troubleshoot button under Settings > Update & Securtiy > Activation can fix this problem but not in every case. Therefore, in some cases, this should be fixed manually by finding the product key and giving it to Windows as if it’s a new product key.
It only takes a few simple steps.
Firstly, let’s find the product key with the following command (run cmd as admin):
wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey
An output example:
After find out the key, go to Settings > Update & Securtiy > Activation then underUpdate Product Key click Change Product Key.
Type/paste the key you just found there. Click Next.
Then click on Activate
Now, you’re done.
As an alternative method or if you type a script to automate certain tasks, you can use this command to change the product key (again, run cmd as admin):
changepk.exe /ProductKey <your product key here>
— Note: If you see a message similar to the following:
This means you cannot use the key you found by using the command above, you’ll need a Windows 10 Pro key (or a Windows 7/8 Pro key from an old computer).