how to remove activate windows watermark windows 10

You can do this right from the Activation menu in Settings click Go to Store. If you don't have a valid Windows key, never connected a digital license to your Microsoft account, and your issue doesn't lie with enterprise activation, your only (legitimate) option left is to buy a new product key for Windows 10. If you have an activated Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 machine but don't know its product key, see how to recover your Windows product key. If you enter a valid key that hasn't already been used too many times, Windows 10 should activate and remove the watermark. If you still have the sticker on your old Windows 7 computer, it should work to activate Windows 10.Ĭlick Change product key and enter your 25-digit product key to activate Windows. Thankfully, Windows 10 accepts any valid Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 key.

The easy way to resolve this and remove the Windows 10 watermark is to enter a genuine product key, if you have one. A similar situation would happen if you installed a fresh copy of Windows 10 on a machine and didn't enter a product key upon installation. In this virtual machine, we upgraded an unlicensed copy of Windows 7 to Windows 10 and never entered a product key during the upgrade.īecause of this, Windows 10 is not activated and thus shows the watermark. You can see in the above screenshot that Windows 10 is not activated because the previous version of Windows wasn't activated either. What It's Like to Use Non-Activated Windows 10 Windows 10 allows you to link your digital license with your Microsoft account, which makes reactivating it in the future much easier (as we'll see). Conversely, those who upgraded to Windows 10 from a licensed copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 have a digital license and don't need a product key for activation. If you purchased your PC ready-built, it also likely came with a product key. You'll receive a product key if you buy a Windows 10 license from Microsoft or another retailer.

You have two main ways to activate Windows 10: with a product key, or through a digital license. Activation checks your copy of Windows with Microsoft's servers to make sure that it's genuine.

While you can download Windows 10 freely from Microsoft and install it on any computer at no cost, doing so does not activate the operating system. See our Windows 10 activation FAQ for more information. We explain what Windows activation means and how you can remove the 'activate Windows' watermark in Windows 10.īefore we proceed, let's first briefly explain what Windows activation is. And it can get in the way of what you're working on. Seeing the Activate Windows watermark in the corner of your Windows 10 desktop? While it's a minor annoyance, this can sometimes appear even if you've activated Windows properly.

How to remove activate windows watermark windows 10