3 Ways To Check If

Windows 10 Is
Activated Properly
iTechtics Staff • April 17, 2019

Windows Activation is Microsoftʼs

method of verifying that Windows is
genuine and has been bought by the
customer. While it is effective, it comes
with its own problems. Generally
speaking, Windows 10 can be activated
using two ways:

H. Using a product key

J. Using a digital license

A digital license can be attached to your

Microsoft ID or it can be specific to a
device. In either case, you donʼt need to
enter a product key in order to activate
Windows 10 license. It will be
automatically activated.

There are times when users need to

verify if their installation of Windows 10
is activated or not. In this article, we will
go through three easy ways to verify
that your Windows 10 license is
activated properly.

So letʼs begin!

Using Windows Settings

(Windows 10 only)

Go to Start Menu → Settings (Windows

key + X + N)

Now go to Update & Security →

Activation

The right-hand pane will show you if

Windows is activated. It will also tell you
whether it has been activated with a
product key or a digital license.

In case it is not activated, it will show up

like this:

Using Control Panel (All

Windows Versions)

This method can be useful if you are

using older versions of Windows like
Windows 8.1 or Windows 7. Since
Windows 10 does not prefer the Control
Panel, I will show you the shortcut steps
to open the system properties instead
of going through the Control Panel.

Go to Run → control system

This will open the system properties

window. At the end of the window, you
will see the Windows activation
information. But it does not give any
information about which license is
activated.

Using command prompt (All

Windows Versions)

H. Open command prompt (Run →

cmd)
J. Run the following command: slmgr
/xpr

This will open another dialog with

Windows activation information. If
Windows 10 is activated, it will show as
“This machine is permanently
activated".

If it is not activated, it will show as

“Windows is in notification mode"

Activating Windows 10

If your Windows 10 is not activated, this

could be because of several reasons.
Some of the reasons could be:

H. You bought a new computer which

comes pre-installed with Windows
10. Windows will need to be
activated after a few days of trial.
J. You reinstalled Windows 10 on the
same device. If you have a digital
Windows 10 license, it should get
activated automatically without
requiring a product key. Just
connect to the Internet.
a. Your hardware configuration
changed (like a change of
motherboard, CPU, etc.). In this
case, you will need to reactivate
Windows license.

Whatever the case, you can activate

Windows 10 using the following steps:

H. Go to Start Menu → Settings

(Windows key + X + N)
J. Now go to Update & Security →
Activation
a. On the right hand pane, click on
“Change product key" under
“Activate Windows now"
b. Enter the 25-character product key
which you purchased from
Microsoft and click on Next to
proceed with the activation
process.

These simple check can make sure that

we are using an activated version of
Windows and keep us safe from issues
like Windows automatically restarting,
signing out or the system locking itself
again and again, etc. Do comment
below about your thoughts about
Windows activation and how you use it.

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