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Check if Windows 10 is activated

This guide walks you through the steps of verifying that a computer running Windows 10 is activated.

Microsoft released Windows 10 a couple of days ago and while things went smoother than expected for the most part, some users experienced issues during or after the upgrade.

One common issue concerned the activation of the system, and this seems to have affected mostly users who ran a clean install of Windows 10 after the upgrade.

But even if things went down smoothly and without issues, you may want to know if Windows 10 is indeed activated.

Windows 10 users have several options to display the activation status of the operating system. This guide provides you with several options. If you want the fastest option, check the second method as it describes a single shortcut to display the activation status of the operating system.

1. Using Settings

windows 10 settings activation

While it may not be the quickest option, it requires only a handful of clicks to display the operating system's activation status.

  1. Tap on the Windows-key or click on the Start butt, and select Settings from the menu that opens up. If you don't see settings, type Settings and hit enter. Alternatively use Windows-i to open Settings directly.
  2. Navigate to Update & Security.
  3. Select Activation on the left.
  4. There you find listed the activation status of the operating system as well as the edition.
  5. "Windows is activated" indicates that everything went well.

2. Using the System Control Panel applet

windows 10 control panel system activation

This one is a lot quicker and delivers the same result.

  1. Use the keyboard shortcut Windows-Pause to open the System Control Panel applet. It lists the activation status of the operating system under "Windows activation" at the bottom of the screen.
  2. There you find an option to change the product key should it become necessary.
  3. If you see "Windows is activated", you know that the activation was successful.

3. Using the Command Prompt

windows 10 command prompt activation

If you prefer to use the Windows command prompt, you may use it to display the activation status as well.

  1. Tap on the Windows-key, type cmd.exe and hit enter.
  2. Type slmgr /xpr and hit enter.
  3. A small window appears on the screen that highlights the activation status of the operating system.
  4. If the prompt states "the machine is permanently activated", it activated successfully.

Now You: Did you upgrade a system to Windows 10? Did you run into issues during or after the process?

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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