Windows 10 July 29th... Back up your system

A fresh install of 10 Pro on my laptop that was running 8.1 Pro isn't so great. Windows won't activate. It's telling me "Error description: The activation server determined the specified product has been blocked"

Now here's the thing, I don't actually have a product key sticker on my laptop. It's embedded in the firmware -- I'm guessing since every time I've reinstalled 8.1 it activated without me having to enter any kind of product key.

Maybe it's blocked because I ran the Release Previews on here? I don't know but I'm off to do a fresh install of 8.1 then do an in place upgrade with a USB stick.

PS: Is talking to yourself against the rules here?

I have both USB Installation Key combination 32/64bit Pro made up with the MS Media Creation Tool and the combination 32/64bit iso downloaded. The initial attempts for the upgrade which apparently can't be done by flash drive resulted in seeing a black screen following the initial system restart and getting past the startup logo screen when all goes dark. A subsquent pop up appears aftet the reset button was pressed indicating a failed install with an error and the system being reverted back to the previous state.

The second attempt was to boot live from the flash drive which still ended up seeing the exact same problem stalling after the logo screen upon the first restart. I will try again with a flash drive key made up using a 3rd image to flash drive program previously used for 7 beta, RC, RTM and the 8 CP not having later gone with 8 or 8.1. 10 looked a lot more interesting having waited a couple of versions for them to get the dual platform bugs worked out as well as seeing the Star menu return and the new Virtual desktops feature.

Night Hawk said:

I have both USB Installation Key combination 32/64bit Pro made up with the MS Media Creation Tool and the combination 32/64bit iso downloaded. The initial attempts for the upgrade which apparently can't be done by flash drive resulted in seeing a black screen following the initial system restart and getting past the startup logo screen when all goes dark. A subsquent pop up appears aftet the reset button was pressed indicating a failed install with an error and the system being reverted back to the previous state.

The second attempt was to boot live from the flash drive which still ended up seeing the exact same problem stalling after the logo screen upon the first restart. I will try again with a flash drive key made up using a 3rd image to flash drive program previously used for 7 beta, RC, RTM and the 8 CP not having later gone with 8 or 8.1. 10 looked a lot more interesting having waited a couple of versions for them to get the dual platform bugs worked out as well as seeing the Star menu return and the new Virtual desktops feature.

Click to expand...

I was able to upgrade from the thumb drive on my laptop. I had to reinstall 8.1 after my activation issues with my first attempt.

After installing 8.1, I put the W10 thumb drive in and ran the setup.exe off it. I've been reading around that upgrading from within Windows has been working better than upgrading by booting from the disk/thumb drive.

FWIW, this was all done with a x64 Pro ISO. I haven't downloaded the dual architecture version yet as both my machines run x64.

Big Dan said:

I was able to upgrade from the thumb drive on my laptop. I had to reinstall 8.1 after my activation issues with my first attempt.

After installing 8.1, I put the W10 thumb drive in and ran the setup.exe off it. I've been reading around that upgrading from within Windows has been working better than upgrading by booting from the disk/thumb drive.

FWIW, this was all done with a x64 Pro ISO. I haven't downloaded the dual architecture version yet as both my machines run x64.

Click to expand...

Your laptop is an OEM machine there while I have a few custom builds to work with at this end. Upon nuking the clone along with a full wipe of the drive I put a fresh copy of 7 and downloaded SP1 along with all the updates and still ran smack into the installation hanging up in the same place.

Later once I replugged the 7 host back in(with June 2013 clean install needing to see a clean install again anyways) I ran the check for updates ending up seeing several more security updates go along with another one just a few hours ago. Since the second drive can now easily be made the new 7 drive if the update does go through I copied over a good number of files to get things gong there and will continue trying to work with the 7 host drive.

Now the interesting part was seen which could explain a lot when going to click the W10 app's icon and seeing the Windiows update showing the same as far as being notified when the download is available for my reserved copy. That seems to suggest that any other download will not see a complete installation go through since I haven't been notified.

This suggests it's possible that the MS site is also tracking IP addresses by keeping a record of that as well as the detection of the system configuration and when the time comes for this then a working upgrade can take place and only then. From what I have been hearing from others also in the Windows Insider program the activation server once the first upgrade is automatically activated without any need for a product key the server keeps a record of this and you can run clean installs later at any time. One person once he left the 10 upgrade complete simply performed a clean install to replace that and immediately found 10 was activated when leaving the prompt for product key empty.

Your advice is appreciable. But I want to mention that before taking backup the whole disk, should remove all unwanted or junk files. these files are very harmful and waste big space of our hard disk, we don't need to backup these files. Krojam Cleaner is the easy way to remove these files.

While this is now a rather old thread the reply was for Big Dan. If you are worried about junk files the easiest method with everything you want already backed up elsewhere is simply to wipe the drive clean in favor of a fresh clean install and call it a day rather then counting on some 3rd party app.

As for anyone now wondering where the Redstone 1 Anniversary update is as it might not have shown up at all you will need to download the iso itself either by the Media Creation Tool which is the "4 in 1" 32/64-Home/Pro complete iso or from another MS download page replacing the Tech Bench page where you find two choices(32bit or 64bit) of the dual Home/Pro iso being 2 in 1 instead.

Since the MC Tool won't always see the update by upgrade work out or see the usb media created mounting the iso from a flash drive or other drive if not other partition can accomplish seeing that take place. In case you are not able to mount the iso in Windows a good find has been the free Virtual Clonedrive app. RedFox Virtual CloneDrive | CD Backup

Was this a cumulative update? I don't think I got this

Cumulative updates are the small loose updates you previously would see a list of under both if not only one Important and Optional. With 10 instead of seeing a much larger service pack with a long list of small updates rolled up into a large file along with any new changes to be seen under a single installer you are upgrading the OS into a completely newer build where bugs have been fixed as well as any other progression such as seeing Bash support brought earlier during the Insider builds and some other changes made since the Threshold 2 update last November.

For the August 2nd release the build number was 14393.10 which had just previously seen the 393.0 and 393.05 Insider builds. With new updates coming out within a few days of the updated build the number then became 14393.67 indicating the same build but some cumulative updates followed later. The same was seen previously with the TH2 update. If you had run 7 in early days before the older version was to see the retail launch or any other beta version for a software you have an early bird version followed by the retail finished copy if not seeing other beta to Release Candidate or pre retail releases.

With 10 in between the updates which are themselves the newer build the Windows Insider Preview Program allows people to try each build out and supply feedback about any bugs found along with comments on things they would like to see changed. That usually won't happen while MS still collects the feedback. One piece of feedback provided here was in regards to having the option to assign a wav file of choice to the logon and log off functions previously seen in the older versions of Windows(XP, Vista, 7, didn't run 8 or 8.1 at all). You don't see that option in 10 any longer when first noticed last summer with the 10 launch as well as going through several Insider builds. Less options for user customization while packing in more Cortana and other Desktop to Mobile goodies it seems.

Kekej97 said:

Was this a cumulative update? I don't think I got this

Click to expand...

This may be of value to you:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12387/windows-10-update-history

Because these updates are "cumulative" you will only need to download the latest one from Windows Update. Usually this will take place automatically. As for those of us in the Insider Program (again, I made the unfortunate mistake of joining this thing), I know I don't only speak for myself when I say I hope the next build they release doesn't seriously corrupt my system. The latest fast ring build is bugalicious. Hoping they get to the Anniversary Update 2 milestone sooner rather than later so I can go back to NOT-TESTING-STUFF-FOR-FREE.

I just had to restart my second desktop used for testing here as the main will be keeping the Redstone 1 Anniversary for the time being. With another loose cumulative update going on the build number just changed again from 14393.67 to 14393.92. That will become 14393.xxx the next time around until I reapply the Get insider builds option there again since I ran a test on the Recovery from 14901 back to RS1 rather moving forward into the 905 build just seen out.

I had previously tried to keep the Threshold 2 update going which turned buggy after two months and had to be replaced by the 14251 Insider build back in February. That meant getting back in on the main build while the second desktop just keeps them coming as well as seeing them on VMs there too.

As for the Redstone 2 or whatever they decide that will be named you can expect a good few months either a repeat of the November timeline or later in December or even after the start of the year depending on how MS wants to play this. Since the RS1 was a year after launch date second anniversary is even more likely while an interim update may come during the next several months if MS plans to run a bi-yearly update deal.

I jumped through the hoops and did the hula hula during the first year 10 was out but doesn't mean I have to each and every new build that comes along every few days to every few weeks. "bow down to worship MS" "see ya for the time being at least!"

As for the Windows10Update9252 and 28084 tools I have both saved on a storage drive along with several older Insider builds to be dumped now past trial expiration as well as the three iso download options and even isos unpacked into separate folders for manual installs and the smoothest upgrade to update installs have been seen by simply mounting the iso images when available as many others had to come by way of WU only. Many report web cam and other problems when having seen the RS1 come through the updates and why I would suggest the mounted iso type install.

I upgraded but over time little issues arose. After downloading an ISO .WIM file of Win 10 I used the native software to create a bootable installation stick and there are no issues. I found Rufus no longer needed to do so and all DISM commands are operable.
I should have performed the clean installation at first, followed by a verified image.