Bought it to upgrade from Win 11 Home to Pro. Windows saying product key invalid. Woot basically telling me to get f**ked. Buyer beware.
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I see that CS ordered a replacement for you yesterday. How is that telling you to get f**ked?
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KEYS
If youâre key doesnât working and youâre copy/pasting it, please try typing it in manually.
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I bought one of these previously for Windows 11 Pro. It came as a valid Windows 10 Pro key, which was fine however it was blacklisted from Microsoft for activationâŚ
Woot did refund me, even after the 90 day period after I explained the issue. Iâll get grey market keys on occasion, but I havenât had luck with these. Iâd make sure youâre ready to use/redeem before you buy in case thereâs a problem. I ended up installing Linux on the machine it was intended for.
Iâve spent way too long trying to figure this out. I bought 3 Windows 11 Pro keys. I followed the link and downloaded Windows 11, but none of the keys worked. I tried typing them carefully as well as copy/pasting. Then I read that you may have to install Windows 10 first, and then upgrade to 11 from there, but I got the same result with all 3 keys. None of them worked. I have reached out to Woot, but have gotten no help. Please be warned: DO NOT BUY!!!
Please allow 24-48h for them to respond.
It has been way longer than 24-48 hr since I reached out to Woot and Iâve gotten no help.
It works! Fresh install only!
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It worked for me. Fresh install only!
I bought a W11 Pro key in May for a new build, and it worked fine. However, the other day, I had to do a reinstall, and my key came up as invalid. I called Microsoft, and they told me the key was a W8 key.
When Woot finally got back to me, they informed me that I was out of luck because it was past the 90-day warranty. I didnât know keys, even the OEM ones had a time limit and could only be used once, but apparently, this one did because it is now recognized as a W8 key.
I just want a new key without an expiration date. However, since Woot told me to go pound sand and has given the same response to many others about these keys, Iâve reached out to the NH Attorney Generalâs office, the FTC, and the Better Business Bureau to weigh in on this apparent scam. Before the day is out, Iâll also share my experience on social media and with news outlets, shedding light on how Woot deceives its customers and engages in deceptive sales practices.
On the same CPU and motherboard? Microsoft has a digital license recorded already. Donât enter a key during installation; just select âI donât have a product key.â
Once booted up, itâll ping Microsoftâs servers, and when it runs across the prior activation, itâll issue a new digital license.
Source:
(Note that I am not staff. I just volunteer to help out on the forums.)
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Yes, same MB and CPU, just an OS reinstall. I did everything correctly. Numerous times. The key I was originally given is now a W8 key.
Since it was previously installed, Microsoft has a digital license recorded already. Again, donât enter a key during installation ; just select âI donât have a product key.â
From W10âs inception until September this year, W7 and W8 licenses were entitled to free upgrades to W10 and W11 licenses. Microsoft has since closed that. Since your computer was digitally licensed already, you DONâT re-enter the product key. Let their servers pull up the old activation.
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That was the first thing that I did. IT. DIDNâT. WORK. Now, I donât have that option anymore unless I reinstall again, and thatâs not happening.
The bottom line is the key I received in the first place isnât supposed to be just a one-use key. An OEM key should work as many times as I want it to. The method you describe is just for people who canât find their key. Manually putting in the key should work as well.
FTFY. The user doesnât control the rules; Microsoft does.
I can vouch for the âI donât have a product keyâ with the computers I deal with at work, though, with multiple units that were previously activated with OEM W7 and W8 keys. Just did a reinstall last week on an in-house R5 5600 workstation build which was originally activated with a W7P OEM key.
The only computer that ever threw me in a loop was a prebuilt with a native W10 Home installation; that needed to go through the slmgr /upk process. Ultimately decided to retire that computer as it was a Celeron and I wasnât going to inflict that onto another user when there are extra 3rd gen computers here.
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I am having the same issue as other folks have with activation having bought 11 Pro licenses in the June sale (Microsoft Windows 10 or 11 Pro (Your Choice))
I tried all five keys - shocker - none of them work.
âTroubleshooting has completedâ
âWe werenât able to activate Windows on this device.â
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Did you try typing them in manually as suggested above?
Microsoft Windows 11 Home or Pro
Go to this link and follow the directions and use the product key sent as the tracking number for your Woot! order.
it shores back out to the download site. Which is where I retrieved the installation media. There is no place in option 3 where it prompts for the Woot issued key - it just began downloading the ISO - for which I used in a VM setup to test.
I tried without specifying a key during install which showed up as Home edition and failed to activate with the keys, though it does know to switch to Pro from Home.
I also tried with specifying the key during install, which installed as Pro but failed to activate with any of the keys.
I have also tried manually installing the keys with slmgr.vbs /ipk and /dli shows 0xc004f034 - the same error I got a week ago when I tried.
All three scenarios with fresh installs of the ISO media downloaded from the woot supplied link.
Sounds like you know what youâre doing but hereâs this anyway.
Its a scam. Purchased win 11 pro and failed to activate with the activation key they provided via email. Contacted Microsoft Support and they checked the activation key and told me it was a Win 8 pro activation key not a Win 11 pro. Beware. Canât even upgrade even if I installed Win 8 because support ended on Win 8.