Windows 10 education activation issues

[mw184]

I have received a new batch of laptops from the dfe which are HP AMD laptops with Windows 10 Education installed. They are filled with the usual bloatware and also with things like dropbox and amazon etc. Normally I would wipe them and install the same version of Windows onto the laptop (e.g. windows 10 education in this case) so it is just a fresh windows install which should activate off of the key in the BIOS. I have tried that with one of the laptops and now it is saying Windows is not activated. I have checked in the activation settings and it has a key but says it cannot activate windows and check internet etc (internet is all working and nothing should be stopping it etc). Has anyone else had this issue? I don't have volume licencing anymore so we run the licences that come with the laptops, always buying laptops with ether pro or education keys on them, hence why I thought this should be ok as it came with education built in.

 

If you have had this issue before, what did you do to fix it? Or am I doing something completely wrong here?

 

 

Thanks!

[Oaktech]

Humour me and change edition to w10 home. I bet the baked in device license is 10 home and the education version is the one that has been intuned onto it by the DFE.

[mw184]

Humour me and change edition to w10 home. I bet the baked in device license is 10 home and the education version is the one that has been intuned onto it by the DFE.

 

I will give that a go when I get a chance and let you know the result.

 

Cheers!

[mw184]

Humour me and change edition to w10 home. I bet the baked in device license is 10 home and the education version is the one that has been intuned onto it by the DFE.

 

So, the results are in. I wiped the laptop and installed w10 home on it. Did not activate but said it found a home key. Tried to do the inplace upgrade to pro just to test it and it couldn't do it. Wiped the device and installed w10 pro on it and it activated straight away. So its not education but pro is basically exactly the same so all happy here!

 

Cheers for the idea, would never have thought of testing that to be honest!

[3s-gtech]

Education is never activated by a BIOS key - it's not an OEM licence. When it's installed, it'll be via a Volume Licensing Agreement and activated via another process.

[mw184]

Education is never activated by a BIOS key - it's not an OEM licence. When it's installed, it'll be via a Volume Licensing Agreement and activated via another process.

 

I did not know that, thanks for that, good to know for future!